DUBAI - Saudi Arabia has formally entered the fashion investment arena with the ZYA Fund, an $80 million private equity vehicle. This move signals a pivotal shift from creative incubation to institutional scaling, a transition familiar to the lingerie industry's own history. For decades, foundations like Maidenform, founded in 1922, transformed intimate apparel from cottage craft into a global industry by marrying design with structured capital and supply chain innovation.
The ZYA Fund, anchored by the state's Cultural Development Fund and managed by Merak Capital, will target growth-stage businesses across luxury, apparel, and beauty. Notably, modest fashion and fragrance - segments with deep cultural resonance - are highlighted for their investment potential. This echoes the rise of brands like La Perla, which in the 1950s leveraged artisan craftsmanship into a scalable luxury business.
Saudi Arabia's fashion sector contributes 2.6% to GDP, with lingerie and intimate apparel forming a significant portion. The fund's focus on building local supply chains and manufacturing directly addresses a key historical challenge: reducing reliance on imports, much like the foundational investments that established apparel hubs in Europe and America. This is patient capital aimed not at fleeting trends, but at constructing a resilient, homegrown value chain - a blueprint the lingerie world has seen succeed before. The first investments are expected within months, marking a new, sophisticated phase for regional fashion.
Originally reported by WWD