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DUBAI: US Palestinian Dutch supermodel Bella Hadid took to Instagram to thank her team and customers for the success of her fragrance label Orabella’s festive Alchemy Library pop-up in New York City.

“The best night at our @orebella Alchemy Library pop-up in NYC! So much love and gratitude to my team & the beautiful humans who showed up to transform @thenednomad into such a warm & intimate space to celebrate the holidays, each other and my favorite sets to date: Our holiday gift boxes,” she wrote on Instagram, along with a carousel of photos from the pop-up.

In a bid to look the part, Hadid traded in her cowboy Western aesthetic to adopt a more festive look and was photographed outside the pop-up in a red and white ensemble.

The retro look featured a two-toned red cardigan, straight leg blue jeans and a luxe white wool coat. Hadid glammed up the look with strappy red Valentino Garavani Ladycrush heels and statement gold earrings.

The model finished the look with her favorite choice of eyewear, a pair of Bayonetta glasses.

The alcohol-free scents of Orabella, which launched on May 2 this year, were Hadid’s answer to traditional perfumes.

Hadid wrote on her website: “For me, fragrance has always been at the center of my life — helping me feel in charge of who I am and my surroundings,” she said. “From my home to nostalgic memories, to my own energy and connection with others, scent has been an outlet for me. It made me feel safe in my own world.

“Through my healing journey, I found that I was extremely sensitive to the alcohol in traditional perfumes — both physically and mentally — it became something that was more overwhelming than calming to me,” she added. “That is the main reason I wanted to find an alternative, so essential oils became an artistic and experimental process for me.”

She started growing lavender on her farm, walking through the garden every morning and learning about her family’s tradition of making homemade scents. “I realized I might have a calling in this. I found healing, joy and love within nature’s scents,” she said.

“This is why I am so proud of Orebella. It was truly a dream and a passion, that through the universe and authentic dedication, was able to become this brand,” Hadid wrote.

JEDDAH: A trip to ��������Ƶ’s AlUla, a chance encounter with a persistent mosquito on the streets of New York and an enduring love for musicals inspired Saudi filmmaking sisters Dana and Raneem Almohandes to create their animated short film “A Mosquito,” which screened at the recently concluded Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah. 

“We were walking in New York, having a good time, and there was this mosquito who kept coming back to me,” explained older sister Raneem. “This is how it all started, with one question: ‘What does this mosquito want?’ We thought, ‘She wants to talk to us, but we’re not giving her the chance.’ So, that’s where the story was born.” 

Set in 1969, “A Mosquito” follows Zozo — a tiny mosquito with big dreams. While her peers are content with ordinary life in the majestic landscapes of AlUla, Zozo dares to dream of becoming a famous singer — heading to Egypt to sing before the legendary Umm Kulthum. 

“A Mosquito” began life as a two-minute short — part of Raneem’s university project. It turned into its fully realized version after they took their idea to the AlUla Creates program, a local initiative that provides funding, mentorship and networking opportunities for Saudi filmmakers and fashion designers. 

“When AlUla invited us to apply, we had this idea already, and we wanted to expand on it, because, you know, university projects are victims of time and resources. We developed the story with the AlUla Creates team,” said Raneem.  

“We went to AlUla earlier, and we captured the aesthetics from there. The frames that you see in the film are identical to the pictures we took during our trip,” added Dana. 

Raneem graduated from New York University in musical theater writing (Dana, the younger of the two, is studying filmmaking at Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh). “We grew up watching musicals, but we felt like we don’t have any that are in the Saudi dialect, so we wanted to create (them),” said Raneem. “That’s why I studied musical theater writing. 

“We’ve always loved expressing ourselves through art. For example, Dana will do a dance whenever she wants to express how she feels about someone. Like, for my birthday, she would do a choreographed dance. I used to do small videos for our family — sometimes they’re music videos, sometimes short films … this is how we started. And then I started an Instagram page for DIY videos, and we worked together on it. It was one of the first (Instagram accounts) to reach 1 million followers in the Middle East,” said Raneem. “Dana was, like, 10 years old back then.” 

Before they had received any formal training, the duo were chosen as For Change Ambassadors of ��������Ƶ. The screenplay for their first musical feature (“Dandana”) was shortlisted in the second round of Sundance’s Screenwriters Lab 2020. Their first short, “A Human,” was funded by Google and premiered in Riyadh. 

The sisters reiterate that their filmmaking career is closely tied to the history of cinema in the Kingdom. 

“We put ‘A Human’ up on YouTube in parallel with ��������Ƶ opening its cinemas again,” Raneem said. It went on to become one of the first 100 films to be shown in cinemas after they reopened in the country and, according to Raneem, the very first short film. 

In 2022, the pair wrote and directed the musical short “A Swing,” which was selected for the official competition at the Saudi Film Festival and was screened as part of the Kingdom’s participation at Cannes in 2022. 

Despite the eight-year age gap between the two sisters, the duo say they have a seamless working relationship. 

“We sometimes fight, as all sisters do, but we have telepathy most of the time,” said Raneem. “We are in sync in terms of ideas. Filmmaking is all about communication.” 

Working as two young women in the Saudi film industry is, Dana said, “magical.” Raneem agreed.  

“It’s overwhelmingly beautiful, because the support is magnificent,” she said. “Each and every project and idea that we’ve had, we knew for a fact that if we approached the right decision maker, it would happen.”