The first edition of the magazine is due to appear online in October under Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz, 41, who is married to a member of the Saudi royal family, and has been appointed founding editor-in-chief. Print editions are to follow in the spring.
“The Arab world consists of 350m people, and they never had a Vogue,” Abdulaziz tells the Financial Times. “The time has come, and it has been a long time coming.”
Condé Nast International is teaming with Nervora, the publisher of affiliate Style.com/Arabia. Nervora will pay a royalty to produce the bilingual digital version of Vogue from October, followed next spring by 11 print editions a year.
While the magazine is to be based in the expat haven of Dubai, where foreigners outnumber locals by nine to one, a prized target of Vogue Arabia is Saudi Arabia, where of the 20m nationals, more than half are under 25.
