UAE-based Sudanese creative Rihab Nubi (@riinubi) revealed her first major partnership with Gucci Beauty this week, promoting the brand’s recently relaunched Eau de Parfum, Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia.
Rihab announced the partnership with a Reel on Instagram. The artistic video, which is at once whimsical yet punchy, embodies the Flora Fantasy theme of Gucci’s Flora Gorgeous Gardenia relaunch. The short snippet shows Rihab dressed in a feminine pink dress layered over an electric yellow turtleneck, topped off with a cream-coloured headscarf. She poses and plays with the perfume in a field of flowers, capturing the spirit of the perfume’s joyful floral signature scent of the Gardenia flower.
For the relaunch of Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia, Gucci Beauty went back to its archives. The revamped perfume bottle features a new silhouette with a distinctive Flora pattern created by artist and illustrator Vittorio Accornero for Gucci in 1966.
Gucci Beauty announced Miley Cyrus as the face of their campaign, which featured a Kawaii and anime-inspired video starring the multi-platinum selling recording artist with fluffy kittens, puppies and rabbits: a combination of Kawaii cuteness and an ode to free-spirited nature of the flower power movement.
Rihab, who was a was the face of a Reebok Middle East campaign in 2019, is a graphic designer and taste-maker with a penchant for artful, edgy and experimental modest fashion. In Modesty, A Fashion Paradox, she stated: “I like to believe that there have always been really dope hijabi and modest sisters out there in the world even before the social media age, however maybe it just wasn’t popular until social media made it accessible for people to see alternative fashion styles from all over the world, which in turn eventually gave birth to today’s diverse modest fashion scene. Seeing someone who looks like you, dress in a way you never thought you could dress, encourages and
inspires you to start thinking outside the box that society has forced modesty into.”
Gucci Beauty previously partnered with another hijabi fashion influencer, Aya Mohamed (@milanpyramid) to promote its Rouge De Beauté Brillant lipstick. Aya created an IGTV tutorial showing how she achieves her fresh and dewy makeup look. Gucci has clearly taken steps to adopt more inclusive digital marketing strategies in efforts to represent and appeal to women from the Middle East and North Africa. Recently, a campaign showcasing The North Face X Gucci collaboration also featured a hijabi model of color.
Under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele, the iconic Italian house has revamped its image into a more eclectic and inclusive luxury brand, that’s very clearly catering to the MENA and modest demographics.
