Emirati fashion label wins global exposure as Expo uniform designer

UAE fashion label Twisted Roots will have the opportunity to showcase its unique style to the world, as the selected designer for Expo 2020 Dubai’s workforce uniform.

Twisted Roots won a competition to dress the more than 30,000 Expo staff and volunteers with its concept inspired by the sky, the stars and the desert.

Practical, modest, weather-appropriate and easily identifiable, Twisted Roots’ uniform line also incorporates Expo 2020’s subtheme of Sustainability through various elements such as encouraging people to donate used fabrics, which can be recycled to help create the uniforms. Old polyester, for example, can be stripped and weaved into new collars and cuffs.

There Emirati designers were shortlisted in the competition, having been evaluated based on their concepts’ practicality and sustainability, as well as the extent to which they represented UAE culture and the Expo 2020 brand.

Twisted Roots’ submission was chosen by a judging panel comprising Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General, Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau; Manuel Arnaut, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue Arabia; Sass Brown, Founding Dean, Dubai Institute of Design; and Jazia Al Dhanhani, CEO, Dubai Design and Fashion Council.

The firm will continue to work closely with Expo 2020 to develop uniforms that reflect the UAE’s rich heritage by combining traditional and modern design elements.

Expo 2020 expects to attract 25 million visits between October 2020 and April 2021, offering the Twisted Roots team an opportunity to showcase their chic but sustainable creations on a truly global stage.