Who could forget when Sharon Stone turned up at the Academy Awards in 1998 in a white Gap dress shirt and a blue satin Vera Wang skirt?
Mona Alshebil certainly hasn’t, and sent out her own version at Riyadh Fashion Week on Saturday night, making the shirt collar even jauntier, zhushing up the sleeves and fully beading the skirt so it glistened.
“It’s a classic,” Alshebel said of that landmark red carpet look. “I wanted the collection to look very elegant, yet chic and casual at the same time.”
She opened her display at the foot of the imposing Kingdom Tower with a sporty, low-slung peplum jacket teamed with another beaded pencil skirt, setting a dressy, sculptural tone.
Alshebil is gaining renown for her striking sleeves, shoulder volumes and full skirts, which she often applies to shirtdresses and even coatdresses, garments rarely seen on European runways.
She’s measured with flourishes: scatterings of broderie anglaise on ballooning sleeves, or a long middy collar that trails off one shoulder of a narrow shirtdress.
Her sleek dark denim tailoring was terrific — think of a Bar suit on Ozempic — which is why she’s becoming a go-to resource for executive women who seek clothes with modest, yet empowering femininity.
