Ohlala

About Ohlala

Ohlala is a monthly luxury fashion and lifestyle magazine published from Doha, Qatar, in English. Billing itself with the tagline "luxury. fashion. lifestyle. uberly chic and classy. a fashionista's favorite magazine," it is a fashion-forward, finger-on-the-pulse monthly built around exclusive interviews, high-gloss fashion shoots, bold beauty features and luxury lifestyle coverage. Its digital home, ohlalamag.net, packages the best of the print edition alongside Qatar events and happenings, and the magazine's media kit describes the site as the driving force and authority on fashion, beauty and lifestyle in the country — a go-to portal for readers seeking the essentials of a fabulous lifestyle.

History

Ohlala emerged in the 2010s as Qatar's answer to the international fashion glossies. By 2015 the magazine was already publishing substantial monthly issues — the July 2015 edition ran to 108 pages, the June issue to 124, the September 2015 issue to 116 — establishing a rhythm of thick, advertising-rich monthly volumes that mirrored the established European fashion titles. Through the middle of the decade and beyond, Ohlala settled into its role as the English-language fashion authority in a country where luxury retail was expanding at extraordinary speed: new malls, flagship boutiques and international fashion events arriving in Doha year after year.

The magazine's timing was astute. Qatar's luxury market was booming in the 2010s — the Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE), which Ohlala covers extensively, grew into one of the region's premier luxury events, drawing hundreds of brands and tens of thousands of visitors — and the English-speaking expatriate community alongside the Qatari elite had an appetite for a fashion title that spoke their language and knew their city. Ohlala filled that space: a monthly that treated Doha not as a provincial outpost but as a fashion capital in its own right, with its own seasons, its own social calendar and its own style logic.

Editorial Formula

Each issue follows the classic fashion-monthly formula, executed with local knowledge. Fashion shoots are the centerpiece: seasonal trend stories built around international designer collections — Michael Kors, Max Mara, Celine, Stella McCartney, Prada, Burberry, Versace, Alexander McQueen, Zimmermann, Oscar de la Renta, Saint Laurent — styled for the Gulf climate and the Doha social calendar. Beauty coverage is equally central, with departments breaking the season's looks into achievable elements, and luxury beauty interviews connecting readers to the heritage behind prestige skincare.

Motoring features extend the luxury brief beyond the wardrobe. Ohlala's test drive of the Lotus Eletre S — the British marque's fully electric high-performance SUV — is written in the magazine's characteristically enthusiastic voice, dwelling on the exterior craftsmanship and the experience of driving a machine that represents the electrified future of luxury motoring. For a readership in a car-loving culture, the motoring pages are a natural fit.

Interviews and Local Coverage

Ohlala's exclusive interviews bring international luxury figures to its pages, but the magazine's distinctive value is local: coverage of Doha's fashion and luxury calendar. The Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition is a signature subject — Ohlala's DJWE coverage tracks the exhibitors, the collections and the trends of an event that has grown to bring together dozens of exhibitors representing hundreds of brands, from Qatari fine jewellers to the great Swiss watch maisons. Local fashion weeks, boutique openings, hotel launches and cultural happenings fill the events pages, making the magazine a social record of Doha's luxury scene as well as a style guide.

The Business of Luxury Media

Like all fashion magazines, Ohlala is an advertising business as much as an editorial one, and its media kit reveals the economics of luxury publishing in Qatar. The website's rate card prices homepage placements in thousands of Qatari riyals per week or month, reflecting an advertiser base of fashion houses, beauty brands, jewellers, hotels and luxury retailers competing for the attention of Doha's affluent consumers. The print magazine's hundred-plus-page issues, heavy with advertising, testify to the same market: Qatar's luxury advertising spend has long supported a glossy magazine sector even as print has contracted elsewhere.

The magazine's distribution model blends print and digital. Digital editions are published through the Issuu platform, giving each issue a worldwide readership beyond the Doha newsstand, while the website's tens of thousands of monthly visitors and reads extend the brand's reach between issues.

Position in Qatar's Media Landscape

Within Qatar, Ohlala occupies the English-language luxury fashion position. It sits alongside Arabic-language fashion titles like Jamila — the long-running Arabic women's magazine — and the broader lifestyle press: Marhaba, the information guide that has covered Doha lifestyle since 1994; Time Out Doha, the city guide; FACT Qatar, the dining and entertainment title. But Ohlala's specific territory is high fashion and luxury lifestyle in English, aimed at the fashion-conscious women (and men) of Doha's international community.

In a market where magazine offerings remain relatively thin compared to the newspaper sector, Ohlala has sustained a monthly print rhythm for over a decade. That durability is itself the story: through the Gulf blockade years, through the World Cup transformation of the country, through the global pressures on print media, the magazine has kept publishing — a fashionista's favorite, in its own words, and a fixture of Doha's media landscape.

Facts

• Launched: 2010s (monthly issues documented from 2015)
• Headquarters: Doha, Qatar
• Language: English
• Frequency: Monthly
• Format: Luxury fashion and lifestyle — fashion shoots, beauty, interviews, motoring, events
• Tagline: "luxury. fashion. lifestyle. uberly chic and classy. a fashionista's favorite magazine"
• Digital: ohlalamag.net; digital editions via Issuu
• Signature coverage: Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE), seasonal fashion trends, luxury beauty
• Coverage: Qatar; worldwide via digital
• Official website: https://ohlalamag.net/