It is strange how quickly a year can pass, and, at the same time, how much can fit inside it. This issue marks my first anniversary with MADAME Arabia, and looking back at the past 12 months, I find myself thinking less about time and more about everything that has filled it – the people I have met, the stories we have told, the places this role has taken me to, and inevitably, everything I have learned along the way.

After a great summer, one that gave me time to travel and spend time with the people I love, I returned with renewed energy and a clearer sense of what I want to keep building with MADAME. Stepping away, even briefly, has a useful way of reminding you what deserves your attention when you return.

Our cover this month brings things full circle in an unexpected way. My first issue with MADAME Arabia featured Monica Bellucci – this month, her daughter, Deva Cassel takes the cover. The connection is impossible to miss, yet Cassel arrives very much on her own terms. At 22, she is navigating fashion, acting, ambition, and identity without feeling the need to define herself too quickly.

“I don’t want to be understood as someone’s daughter or someone’s successor,” she tells us. “I want to be understood
as a person who is still becoming.”

That idea of defining life on your own terms runs through this issue. Chriselle Lim talks about reinvention, while Helen Farmer reflects on motherhood, vulnerability, and community. We spotlight some of the region’s leading names in sport, share the stories of breast cancer survivors and explore where wealthy women are investing today. And looking to the next generation, FAD students bring their own perspective to a fashion editorial created for MADAME Arabia.

What I enjoy most about bringing an issue like this together with my team is seeing how women from very different worlds can find themselves speaking to the same questions – Who are we becoming? What do we choose to hold onto? And what are we ready to leave behind?

I find myself asking some of those questions too. I am proud of what we have created, grateful for the people who have trusted us with their stories, and most excited by what we haven’t done yet.

As Cassel said, “I think there’s something beautiful about leaving space to the unknown.”

Right now, I couldn’t agree more.

Cynthia Kattar
Editor-in-chief, MADAME Arabia
cynthia@apmedia.ae

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