Glam

About Glam

Glam is an English-language women's fashion and lifestyle magazine published in Doha, Qatar, by Oryx Advertising Co. WLL (Oryx Publishing & Advertising) — one of the two larger publishing houses in Qatar's magazine market. Described as Qatar's number-one fashion magazine, Glam covers fashion, beauty, lifestyle and design for the country's style-conscious readership, and has earned a reputation for championing new and upcoming designers from Qatar and the region.

Qatar's Fashion Magazine

In a country where luxury retail has boomed alongside the oil and gas economy — and where events like Doha's fashion week have put Qatari design on the regional map — Glam positioned itself as the local authority on style. Published by Oryx Advertising Company, the magazine combines international fashion coverage with a distinctly Qatari lens: local designers, regional trends, and the lifestyle of the Gulf's fashion-conscious elite.

The magazine's standing in the industry is reflected in how the fashion community talks about it. In coverage of Qatar's 2012 fashion week and design showdown, one designer noted respect for Glam and its constant look-out for and featuring of new and upcoming designers — a reputation for spotting talent that has made the magazine a launchpad for local labels. The same coverage noted the magazine's role alongside the main fashion week events, trunk shows and late-night shopping experiences that have shaped Doha's fashion calendar.

The Publisher: Oryx

Glam is published by Oryx — formally Oryx Advertising Co. WLL, trading as Oryx Publishing & Advertising Company — owned by the prominent Qatari businessman Yousuf Al Darwish and identified by the Oxford Business Group as one of the two larger publishing houses in Qatar's magazine market. The company's chief executive in 2010 was Ravi Raman; its general manager in later years was Faisal Fuad. The company operates from P.O. Box 3272, Doha, Qatar.

Glam sits within one of the broadest publishing stables in the country. Oryx's titles include the flagship business monthly Qatar Today, its Arabic sister Qatar Alyoum, Glam Interior & Design (the interiors companion to the fashion title), T-Qatar (the local edition of the New York Times Magazine's style title, launched in 2010), Campus and Progress, an annual coffee-table book.

Editorial Territory

Glam's editorial mix follows the classic women's fashion monthly formula, adapted to the Gulf: high-fashion editorials, beauty coverage, lifestyle features, interviews with designers and personalities, and shopping and society pages tuned to Doha's retail landscape — from the luxury flagships of the Pearl-Qatar to the boutiques of Msheireb and Katara. What distinguishes Glam is its local-designer focus. In a market flooded with international luxury titles, the magazine's commitment to featuring new and upcoming Qatari and regional designers gives it an editorial identity that global imports cannot replicate.

The Fashion Media Landscape

Qatar's fashion media scene has grown with the country's ambitions. The 2010 launch of T Qatar — the bilingual Arabic-English edition of the New York Times style magazine, published by Oryx — brought a world-class media brand to Doha's fashion community. Glam predates that venture and continues alongside it as the home-grown fashion title: less global in scope, more rooted in the local scene.

The magazine market context is compact — Wikipedia's media survey counted nine magazines in Qatar in 2009 — and within it, Glam holds the women's fashion position for Oryx, just as Qatar Today holds the business position. Its rival stables include Firefly Communications' Sur La Terre, the luxury lifestyle publication from the Jaidah-owned house.

Doha's Fashion Moment

Glam grew up alongside Doha's emergence as a fashion capital. The 2012 fashion week and design showdown — with its main events, fringe trunk shows around The Pearl, and a Fashion Night Out modelled on the New York concept — marked the moment Qatar's fashion scene began to cohere. The coverage noted that it had been close to fifteen years since Virginia Commonwealth University extended its reach to Qatar, and the local fashion industry was beginning to see the creative results of its graduates: a burgeoning artistic movement building the infrastructure — fashion weeks, design competitions, media coverage — to support it.

Glam was part of that infrastructure. Where the international luxury titles covered Doha as a market, Glam covered it as a scene: the designers, the shows, the emerging labels, the personalities. The magazine's respect among designers — earned through its constant look-out for new talent — made it a validator: a feature in Glam was a signal that a local label had arrived.

Glam Interior & Design

The fashion title's success spawned a companion: Glam Interior & Design, Oryx's interiors and design magazine. The extension follows the natural adjacency of the luxury reader's interests — from wardrobe to home — and it positioned Oryx in the interiors segment just as Qatar's real estate and hospitality boom created one of the region's most active design markets. Together, the two Glam titles cover the aesthetic life of affluent Doha: what to wear, and where to live.

The T Qatar Context

The 2010 launch of T Qatar — the bilingual Arabic-English edition of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, published by Oryx — raised the stakes for fashion publishing in Doha. Appearing bimonthly in 2010 and monthly from 2011, T Qatar combined local and regional features with the global style authority of the New York Times title, celebrating Qatar's culture and tradition alongside its modern outlook. For Glam, the arrival of a world-class stablemate was both competition and validation: proof that Doha's fashion audience warranted the world's attention, and a spur for the home-grown title to sharpen its local edge.

Position in Qatar's Media Landscape

Glam is the fashion voice of Qatar's largest Qatari-owned magazine publisher: the title that has documented the rise of Doha as a fashion capital, from the first local designer showcases to the luxury retail landscape of today. As Qatar's self-described number-one fashion magazine, it remains the reference point for style in the country — the magazine that watches for new talent, and puts it on the page.

Facts

• Publisher: Oryx Advertising Co. WLL (Oryx Publishing & Advertising)
• Owner: Yousuf Al Darwish
• Headquarters: P.O. Box 3272, Doha, Qatar
• Language: English
• Focus: Women's fashion, beauty and lifestyle — with a noted commitment to new and upcoming designers
• Market position: Described as Qatar's No.1 fashion magazine
• Sister titles: Glam Interior & Design, Qatar Today, Qatar Alyoum, T-Qatar, Campus, Progress (annual)
• Coverage: Qatar and the wider Gulf fashion scene