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Sheikh Majed J. Hamoud Al-SabahChairman, Villa Moda
Being the nephew to his Highness the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber al-Sabah, is perhaps not the most conventional background for a luxury fashion retailer.
The Al-Sabah family has reined Kuwait for over 40 years. It was as a teenager that Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah first became interested in fashion. The first flames of interest in what superb design can do ignited what was to become a lifelong passion.
London had been his adopted home for seven months in 1991, and it seems expatriation stoked the creative flame, encouraging the 20-year-old entrepreneur to fulfil a few dreams. Cue the first Villa Moda. He spent countless weeks drumming up business around the world, tirelessly knocking on fashion house doors and swinging through the receptions of fashion magazines. It was no easy task. He remembers, “My task was to seduce the fashion industry and encourage acceptance of something alien to them – Kuwait.” He began by introducing American labels to Kuwait in the early nineties. They were the first to do business with him, and his reputation as an innovator began, introducing New York minimalism to an audience brought up on old-school European brands. But it was persuading Domenico de Sole, then Gucci’s chief executive, to open the first Gucci store in partnership with him in 1997 that put Sheikh Al-Sabah on the map.
It was only a matter of time until the 2002 re-launch of Villa Moda, this time housed in a glittering glass box in Kuwait’s industrial port district, which has set the fashion world alight with the sheer audacity of his vision. The next incarnation was the opening of the Dubai store within the Emirates Towers in November 2003, Qatar in November 2004, Mumbai to open Summer 2005 and mutterings of a London incarnation on the horizon, the Villa Moda brand has blossomed into an international phenomenon, its success owing to the efforts of its creator and his unflagging drive.
Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah has dedicated his life to fashion and challenging preconceptions in general. As Villa Moda prepares itself for its global adventure, Sheikh Al-Sabah is all ready to take up the challenge.
