Manuel Arnaut and Abla Fahita at the Vogue Arabia office.
What happens when a stylish diva like Abla Fahita visits the Vogue office? Not only does she fit right in, but she also takes over. While having no previous experience in magazine publishing, and solely on the basis of her quick wit and covetable style, the Egyptian star was able to take the reins of the publication, at least for a few hours (which seemed like days to us!).
It all started when the smart-talking TV personality sat down with the soon-to-be-former editor, Manuel Arnaut, in his office. Banter over Arnaut’s car and Abla’s new Netflix show Drama Queen quickly turned into a bet, with the top job at Vogue Arabia on the line. “If I win, you are going to work for me,” challenged Arnaut, to which Abla responded, “If I win, I will be your boss.” And so, all it took was a Google search to verify if Christian Louboutin really was a designer with Arab roots (he is French-Egyptian, although his brand was created in France in 1991) as Abla claimed, and Arnaut had lost the bet.
From then on, the mother-of-two ran the show at Vogue Arabia, calling the shots based on her personal taste, and dictating new trends according to her own wardrobe and lifestyle preferences. If the trend was 15 new ways to wear your scarf this summer, “Make it 15 ways to steal your friend’s husband… Also in summer,” she’d say. Female models were fired only to be replaced with male ones, since according to Abla, who better than men to feature in a magazine targeting women?
Arnaut — whose suggestions were simply turned a deaf ear to by Abla — had had enough when the star puppet went and got herself featured on the cover of the magazine. “You cannot be on the cover of the magazine, and be its editor-in-chief at the same time!” exclaimed Arnaut to a nonchalant Abla, whose assistant only pulled out more covers of future issues starring the widow. Fearing the loss of the magazine’s credibility at the hands of Abla, Arnaut decided to strike a deal: his car in exchange for the safe return of the editor-in-chief’s position. And guess what? Abla jumped on the deal, as she didn’t even like the job anyway…
Season 1 of Drama Queen starring Abla Fahita is streaming now on Netflix.
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