The career rise of fashion ‘it girl’ Gigi Hadid ahead of Dubai Mall appearance

Gigi Hadid is the daughter of Palestinian-American real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid and Dutch-American reality-television personality Yolanda Hadid.

Gigi Hadid is in Dubai to promote the TommyXGigi collection. Courtesy of Tommy Hilfiger

Gigi Hadid is one of the fashion world’s most talked about ­models, and she will be in the UAE on Monday, October 10, promoting her collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger.

Fans of the young model will get the chance to meet fashion’s “it girl” at The Dubai Mall on Monday afternoon at the Fashion Catwalk at about 4pm. Thirty lucky people will be chosen from the crowd and given the opportunity to get up close and personal with the fashionista.

In addition, six local fashion influencers – including Tala Samman of My Fash Diary, Mariyah Gaspacho of Mahryska, and Alanoud Badr of Lady Fozaza – have been invited to join Hadid on board a private yacht for a tour around the city. The lucky bloggers and Instagram personalities will also get the chance to offer their personal styling flair to the TommyXGigi ­collection.

Los Angeles-based Hadid is the daughter of Palestinian-American real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid and Dutch-American reality-television personality Yolanda. The 21-year-old is dating British-Pakistani singer Zayn Malik, the former One Direction band member who recently cancelled his solo Dubai show due to anxiety.

Tommy Hilfiger, not typically thought of as the most fashion-forward clothing brand, aims to reinvigorate its name in the industry with the much-publicised Hadid partnership. At the first public #TommyNow catwalk exhibition, during New York Fashion Week last month, Hadid closed the show in an oversized hoodie with the signature Hilfiger emblem. But, as noted by Tyler McCall of Fashionista.com: “The clothes were the least important thing on the TommyXGigi runway”.

Unlike other seasonal catwalk collections, however, the pieces shown were all available to buy right after they were sent down the catwalk. It’s part of “see now, buy now” shift that some fashion houses are adopting.

The TommyXGigi capsule collection for autumn/winter 2016, which is in stores now, features flared jeans, striped tops, bomber jackets, floaty dresses, knits, coats totes and bucket bags with nautical influences. Footwear and a new fragrance are also included in the collaboration.

Hadid has rapidly risen through the fashion ranks, much to the disdain of more traditional industry enthusiasts, who reminisce about the supermodel era that favoured strong female talents – such as Kate Moss, Giselle Bundchen and Naomi Campbell – over ­women made famous through social-media, such as Hadid and her friends, including Kendall Jenner and Justin Bieber’s on-again-off-again flame, Hailey Baldwin. Her girl squad’s photos are all over Instagram feeds and are constantly reposted by fans and followers, particularly during high-end international fashion-week events.

At the spring/summer 2017 fashion weeks that just wrapped, Hadid walked the catwalk for labels including Miu Miu, Balmain, Isabel Marant, Bottega Veneta, Fendi and Versace. She has had a rather eventful past few months, even for a world-famous model, or supermodel, if that’s what you like to call her. In April, she and Malik were featured in an adorably picturesque Naples-shot fashion editorial for Vogue, captured by Mario Testino. For the August issue of the magazine, Hadid was shown on the cover with Olympian Ashton Eaton. She’s the face of Max Mara’s autumn/winter 2016 advertising campaign and, just last week, her campaign with Reebok was released, in which she was pictured boxing. She will also be collaborating with footwear designer Stuart Weitzman to create a new shoe, the “Gigi boot” for the upcoming season.

Hadid is no stranger to the headlines. A few weeks ago she was manhandled by a prankster at Milan Fashion Week – her natural ­reaction was to elbow him in the face, which some news publications described to be ­unseemly behaviour for a model. She quickly responded to defend her actions on social media and many publications amended their headlines.

Hadid also took a tumble on the catwalk for Mugler at Paris Fashion Week, and wrapped up the Marc Jacobs show at New York Fashion Week with her hair in dreadlocks – a style she kept partly intact for an additional day after the show, despite criticism from some who labelled it cultural appropriation.

It was not the first time Hadid has faced these accusations. While she doesn’t often parade her part-Palestinian heritage, last year she posted an image of her hand decorated in henna. She captioned the photo: “Before you go all cultural appropriation in my comments, check out the last name. Hadid. Half Palestinian & proud of it”.

Whether or not Hadid will partake in any cultural experiences while in the UAE remains to be seen, though we are betting she will hit all the usual celebrity photo opportunities – a pose on the beach at the Burj Al Arab, and at the bottom of the Burj Khalifa, as well as an image in front of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, for example.

• To see Hadid in the flesh, head to the Fashion Catwalk at The Dubai Mall on Monday, October 10, from 4pm. The TommyXGigi collection is available now at Tommy Hilfiger boutiques across the UAE