SHOES FIRST: The Middle East’s First All-Day Shoes Event

A day long celebration of shoes, the SHOES FIRST event by Marie Claire Arabia, was held recently, at Level Shoes, The Dubai Mall, the leading destination for footwear in the Middle East.

Shoe aficionados got the opportunity to lose themselves and indulge in the season’s most enticing shoes and experience a full day of fun and entertaining activities. Shoppers were able to explore selections from a number of renowned GCC fashion influencers, such as Diala Makki, Lana El Sahely and Hanna Rasekh.

Visitors also had the chance to book a session with a team of fashion experts from Marie Claire Arabia to get personalised advice on the perfect dream shoe. For the more artistically inclined, talented illustrator Melis Malatani was on hand to customise shoes with colourful paint.

A fun and interactive 360° video booth and a ‘shoe selfie station’ offered visitors the opportunity to show everyone on their social media platforms what’s on their glamorous feet. Exciting prizes were on offer for those who got the biggest number of likes.

Most importantly, a one-of-a-kind pair of crystal-encrusted sandals, exclusively designed by Giuseppe Zanotti for Marie Claire Arabia’s SHOES FIRST event, was bought by Diala Makki. Proceeds of the sale went to Al Jalila foundation.

The SHOES FIRST programme was first introduced by Marie Claire in October 2013, inspired by Marie Claire US’ Creative Director Nina Garcia’s philosophy of dressing from the shoes up. Since then, the event has expanded internationally to 12 editions, reaching 22 million women worldwide across print and digital channels.