In a new Winter 2025 collection, the designer blends heritage, femininity, and quiet strength
By its nature, fashion often reflects the tension between tradition and change. In her latest collection, The Garden She Built, Laila Al Awadhi resolves that tension with assurance, offering a vision of Eastern beauty that is at once rooted and forward-looking.
Unveiled for Winter 2025, the collection distills two defining qualities—grace and confidence—into garments that feel less like seasonal statements and more like personal narratives. After a 17-year career marked by experimentation and refinement, Al Awadhi presents what may be her most considered work to date: designs that speak softly, yet with conviction. 
At the heart of The Garden She Built is the idea of growth—creative, emotional, and cultural. The collection unfolds like a cultivated landscape, where hand-embroidered florals appear in varying scales and tones, evoking both fragility and resilience. Executed on light, flowing, multi-layered fabrics, the pieces favor calm, nuanced palettes that invite closer attention rather than demand it. Each look stands on its own, yet together they form a cohesive whole, bound by an underlying sense of optimism and quiet joy.
Al Awadhi’s approach is notable for its balance. While the collection embraces modern silhouettes and contemporary craftsmanship, it does not abandon the cultural foundations from which it draws. The abaya, long a symbol of elegance and strength, is reimagined with subtle sophistication—reshaped for versatility and modern life without losing its symbolic weight. Alongside it appear tailored blazers with cinched waists, asymmetrical lines, and fluid extensions, designed to move seamlessly between formal and everyday settings.
The result is a wardrobe that acknowledges the realities of the contemporary woman: multifaceted, confident, and unwilling to choose between tradition and self-expression.
The collection’s visual narrative was further reinforced by its presentation at the Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club. Set against expansive natural landscapes and the refined discipline of equestrian sport, the setting echoed the collection’s themes of strength, poise, and harmony. The dialogue between environment and design underscored Al Awadhi’s vision of femininity—one shaped by grace, anchored in heritage, and defined by autonomy.
With The Garden She Built, Laila Al Awadhi does not merely present clothing; she offers a statement of intent. It is a reflection on what Eastern elegance can become when viewed through a contemporary lens—measured, expressive, and quietly assured.
