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