Marie Claire Arabia directs its passion for shoes towards a good cause at SHOES FIRST event

Following the sale of a one-of-a-kind pair of crystal-encrusted shoes at Marie Claire Arabia’s SHOES FIRST event in October 2016, all proceeds have been donated to Al Jalila Foundation on June 8, 2017.

The shoes were exclusively designed by Giuseppe Zanotti for the SHOES FIRST event – the Middle East’s first day-long celebration of shoes – and were purchased by top regional influencer Diala Makki.

The cheque was presented to Al Jalila Foundation in the presence of Dr Abdulkareem Sultan Al Olama, CEO of Al Jalila Foundation, and Alexandre Hawari, Co-CEO of Mediaquest, who commented: “The first edition of our SHOES FIRST event drew impressive numbers of attendees and we are delighted to be supporting the Al Jalila Foundation by putting a passion for shoes towards a good cause. We are committed to supporting the community, which is especially important during the holy month and the UAE’s Year of Giving, and we would like to thank Diala Makki for upholding this charitable spirit with her generous donation.”

The SHOES FIRST event by Marie Claire Arabia, a Mediaquest publication, was held on Saturday, October 29, 2016 at Level Shoes in The Dubai Mall – the leading destination for footwear in the Middle East. The event gave shoe aficionados the opportunity to experience in the season’s most enticing footwear and experience a full day of entertaining activities, including shoe customisation, personal shopping advice from Marie Claire Arabia’s team of fashion experts, an interactive 360° video booth and a ‘shoe selfie station’.

The SHOES FIRST programme was first introduced 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. Shoe fans will be pleased to hear that the highly anticipated second edition of this stylish event will be returning to Dubai this year in November 2017.