🎙️'The Ensemble': Live from Riyadh fashion week, strapless dress threatens Iranian regime, British monarch to pray with the Pope for the first time in 500 years
Plus AWS meltdown proves we need humans, Australian ambassador walks back Trump criticism, and tensions over the Trump-Putin postponed summit
Hi - it’s Suzy in Saudi. Welcome to our midweek update - at the end of the Long and Winding Road to the Stella McCartney show in Riyadh (sorry!), wedding dress unrest in Iran, and all the rest of the news so far this week.
It’s been ten years since my first reporting trip to Saudi Arabia, a time when it was so rare for reporters to get access to the Kingdom that, when I walked into the State Department press office, I was told there was no way I’d get a visa with a last name like Kianpour. At the time, I was part of the diplomatic press corps, traveling the world with the U.S. Secretary of State for the BBC. Not only did I get that visa - I got an extended one.
Back then, I managed to finagle an invite to an underground mixer of men and women - illegal at the time - which was promptly broken up by the religious police. They even followed me through a mall and hissed when my hijab slipped off my hair.
Last night, a decade later, I found myself at a mocktail reception in Riyadh’s financial district before the Stella McCartney show closing out Fashion Week. I was surrounded by beautiful Saudi women in form-fitting dresses posing at the step-and-repeat, men in traditional dress and others not, the DJ spinning, and one young Gen Z man taught me how to selfie properly – the energy was electric. On the runway, women strutted the season’s collection, some modestly dressed, some decidedly not, as an audience of men and women sat together critiquing.
Many are still critical of the country’s human rights record, including the outrage from the granddaughter of Vivienne Westwood, whose label opened Riyadh fashion week. With two giants of fashion topping and tailing the Kingdom’s attempts to compete with the big 4 - London, Milan, Paris, and New York - it is clear MBS is betting on fashion for his Vision 2030.
I asked fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg what Vivienne Westwood would think about her brand opening Riyadh fashion week, given Vivienne’s granddaughter complained about it. She responded: “It has changed.”
Just across the Gulf, in regional rival Iran, this scene would still be illegal.
See how the event went on our IG!
Why a strapless wedding dress threatens Iran hardliner Ali Shamkhani
Now this is a Helmet to Heels approved story - combining fashion and foreign affairs, in a country close to my heart. The Women’s Movement in Iran has fought its highest profile battles over dress codes, particularly wearing headscarves, so any suggestion of hypocrisy amongst Iran’s ruling elites always provokes a strong reaction. That’s what happened this week: a viral video of Fatemeh Shamkhani, the daughter of senior Iranian official and Supreme Leader adviser, Ali Shamkhani, sparked outrage after she was seen at her April 2024 wedding in Tehran’s luxury Espinas Palace Hotel wearing a strapless, Western-style wedding gown and minimal veiling, with other female guests also uncovered. The scandal provoked accusations of hypocrisy against the Iranian leadership, as Shamkhani is known for enforcing Iran’s strict hijab laws and leading the government’s crackdown on anti-hijab protests—particularly since the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
Sources: The Times, Daily Mail
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
We’ve seen an increasing tempo of global tech outages, reminding us all that we are totally dependent on cloud-based tech that few of us fully understand. This week, it was Amazon Web Services (AWS )’s turn, when its East Coast data center posted the ‘spinning wheel’ for multiple hours on Monday. It affected plenty of platforms we use daily. According to Amazon, it was an underlying issue – not a cyber attack. The services are now back to normal, thankfully.
Royal Rumble refuses to die down
We published a great video explainer of the Prince Andrew vs King Charles story earlier this week. Get a deep dive with all the tea here.
But the drama rumbles on. Buckingham Palace had hoped its action removing Prince Andrew’s use of his title Duke of York last week would have calmed tempers after a series of further damaging revelations about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. But the story shows no sign of slowing - this week, UK Parliamentarians are turning their attention to exactly who paid the 12 million GBP settlement in 2022 with Virginia Giuffre, whether Andrew had his police bodyguards use public resources to try and smear Giuffre, and finally, how he lives effectively rent-free for life in a 30-bedroom mansion adjacent to Windsor Castle.
Source: The Guardian
Royal meets holy: Charles crosses a 500-year line
King Charles III is heading to the Vatican this week to do something no British monarch has done since Henry VIII: pray publicly with the pope. It’s a symbolic thaw between the Church of England, which Charles leads, and the Catholic Church, five centuries after their schism.
The trip comes with shadows. Charles, still undergoing cancer treatment, leaves London as his brother, Prince Andrew, faces new fallout from the Epstein scandal. While the palace frames the visit as a gesture of “spiritual communion,” headlines back home are less divine.
Source: France24
Image: Vatican Museums
US talks with Moscow to end Ukraine war stall, Putin orders nuclear drills
Earlier today, Russia reminded everyone that the war isn’t pausing for politics. Overnight strikes on Oct. 21–22 hit Kyiv and several Ukrainian regions, killing at least six people, including two children, and injuring more than twenty. Power stations burned, neighborhoods went dark, and Zelenskyy called it proof Moscow feels zero pressure to stop.
The timing wasn’t lost on anyone: the attacks came just hours after Trump postponed his much-hyped Budapest summit with Putin, another one that is supposed to end the war. Instead, as this delay was announced, Putin ordered drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.
Only days earlier, Trump and Zelenskyy’s White House meeting reportedly melted down when Trump told him to give up Donbas and freeze the front lines. No Tomahawks and talks of “letting history decide.” Meanwhile, Trump’s still teasing a meeting with Putin in Hungary, and Zelenskyy’s still chasing real defense help, flying to Sweden for weapons and solidarity. The world’s watching three men play chess, but only one country keeps taking the hits.
Friendly Albanese-Trump meeting masks Australia’s creeping doubts about US
The Australian Embassy in DC is Helmet to Heels approved - it’s in my neighborhood and they have hosted me a few times in recent years, most recently under former Australian PM and current Ambassador Kevin Rudd. Many were surprised he was kept in post in the Trump second term, as, like many world leaders, he’d made impolitic remarks about Donald Trump in the past. Sure enough, a reporter called him out on it when he was in the Oval Office with visiting Australian PM Anthony Albanese. It went down pretty much how you’d imagine…
Source: BBC
Hermès boosted by strong demand for Birkin and Kelly handbags
Finally, you’ll forgive me for updating you on one of my favourite luxury brands, and it’s good news: Hermès reported strong sales growth in the third quarter of 2025, with revenues reaching €3.9 billion, up 10% at constant exchange rates and exceeding expectations slightly. The luxury group, known for high-end leather goods, like Birkin and Kelly handbags and silk scarves, saw sales increase notably in Greater China and the Americas, with Asia outside Japan growing 6.4% despite previous market challenges. All regions, except Asia Pacific, experienced double-digit growth.
Source: Financial Times
Thanks for tuning in this week, Ensemble readers! From Riyadh’s runway renaissance to an Iranian wedding dress rebellion, from Buckingham Palace drama to delayed diplomacy and divine encounters in the Vatican — this week proved fashion and foreign policy are walking the same catwalk. See you next week for more stories at the intersection of power, culture, and style.