The Week According to YUNG

Gentle Monster’s latest drop proves that eyewear can still surprise us. The Korean label unveiled its new 2026 Veggie Collection, a playful yet highly conceptual series of folding eyewear inspired entirely by vegetables. From tomato-red tones to sculptural temple details mimicking stems and organic curves, the collection transforms everyday produce into futuristic accessories with the brand’s signature surreal edge.

The campaign stars Karina of aespa alongside multihyphenate Yosh, placing the collection inside an intentionally bizarre universe set against empty fields and oversized vegetable-inspired installations. Across global pop-ups in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok, Los Angeles, and Beijing, visitors are immersed into a “Veggiemon” world where giant tomatoes and whimsical vegetable creatures turn retail into performance art.

Comprised of ten compact folding silhouettes, the collection balances practicality with experimentation, proving once again that Gentle Monster continues to lead fashion’s obsession with eyewear as collectible design objects rather than simple accessories.

Patrick Starrr’s cult beauty brand ONE/SIZE has officially entered the Middle East exclusively through Sephora Middle East, bringing some of beauty TikTok’s most viral products to the region.

Known globally for its bold approach to makeup, inclusive messaging, and high-performance formulas, the brand quickly built a devoted following online thanks to products engineered to survive heat, humidity, and long days and nights. Its regional launch introduces some of its biggest hits, including the On ‘Til Dawn Mattifying Waterproof Setting Spray, Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder, and the newly launched Oil Sucker Liquid Blotting Paper Spray.

Beyond the products themselves, the launch reflects how Middle Eastern beauty consumers continue shaping global beauty conversations. The region’s demand for high-performance complexion products and long-wear formulas has transformed it into one of the industry’s most important markets. With ONE/SIZE now officially available in selected Sephora stores and online, the brand enters the region at a moment where bold, unapologetic beauty feels more culturally relevant than ever.

Former YUNG cover star, Naïka, continues building one of the most globally fluid sounds in pop music. The singer returns with “One Track Mind Part II,” a reimagining of her viral hit alongside Martinican-born French rapper Kalash, blending French and Haitian Creole into a summer anthem rooted in Caribbean identity and self-empowerment.

The original track already surpassed 30 million global streams while dominating TikTok and Spotify’s viral charts in France, but this new version pushes the song into even deeper cultural territory. The collaboration came about after fan demand for a full Creole version intensified following Naïka and Kalash’s sold-out performance together in Paris earlier this year.

The release arrives during a breakout year for Naïka, whose debut album ECLESIA has already crossed 60 million streams globally. Beyond music, she continues her rise as a wider cultural figure through fashion collaborations with brands like Jimmy Choo, Fendi, and Jean Paul Gaultier, while simultaneously using her platform to support educational initiatives in Haiti.

Twenty years after opening her first boutique in Beirut just one week before the 2006 war broke out, Yara Nehme is celebrating two decades of Yara Eyewear — a brand built on resilience, precision, and deeply personal design.

Trained in France in both optics and optometry, Nehme returned to Lebanon with a vision that went beyond trends. Instead, Yara Eyewear became centred around understanding people: how they see themselves, how frames interact with identity, and how eyewear can feel instinctively personal.

What makes the brand stand out is its balance between technical expertise and emotional sensitivity. Each frame is approached through customization, proportion, and conversation rather than seasonal fashion cycles. Lebanon itself remains central to the brand’s visual language, influencing lens colours, moods, and textures inspired by Beirut sunsets, coastlines, and mountain landscapes.

Today, Yara Eyewear has expanded internationally with placements in Dubai Mall’s Level Shoes, THAT Concept Store, Printemps Qatar, and retailers across France, while still remaining deeply rooted in Beirut.

H&M HOME is opening a new concept store at Dubai Mall tomorrow, and notably, Dubai becomes the very first city globally to debut the brand’s refreshed retail identity.

Designed around a more elevated and architectural approach, the store moves beyond traditional home retail into something closer to a contemporary interiors destination. Inspired by modernist architecture, the space combines warm woods, soft lighting, stone textures, and immersive room-by-room environments that make browsing feel more residential than commercial.

The store will showcase H&M HOME’s complete universe, spanning furniture, textiles, tableware, decorative objects, and lighting, while introducing permanent experiences including monogramming services and an in-house florist by Bloombox.

By selecting Dubai as the first market globally for this rollout, H&M HOME further reinforces the city’s growing role as a major design and retail capital shaping international consumer experiences.

Giorgio Armani has officially opened its first boutique in Riyadh, marking another major luxury milestone for Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving retail landscape. Located inside Kingdom Centre’s newly renovated luxury wing, the 180-square-metre space reflects the brand’s unmistakable aesthetic language through marble-effect flooring, silk Armani/Casa wall coverings, platinum-toned furnishings, and softly illuminated architectural details.

The boutique unfolds across four distinct rooms dedicated to menswear and womenswear, each defined by its own tonal palette while remaining connected through Armani’s signature understated elegance. The space carries the quiet sophistication that has long defined Giorgio Armani globally, balancing refinement with restraint rather than excess.

Beyond fashion, the opening also reflects Riyadh’s growing position within the global luxury ecosystem. As international brands continue investing heavily into Saudi Arabia’s retail future, flagship boutiques increasingly function as cultural statements as much as commercial spaces. Armani’s arrival at Kingdom Centre signals the continued transformation of Riyadh into one of the region’s most significant luxury destinations.

Bentley Motors has teamed up with cultural personality, and former YUNG cover star, The Gstaad Guy for a new Bentayga EWB Chalet Edition, blending automotive luxury with the internet’s growing obsession with Alpine aesthetics and old-money culture.

The collaboration reimagines the chalet lifestyle through Bentley craftsmanship, translating the warmth and elegance of mountain living into the ultra-luxury SUV experience. While details remain selective, the concept leans heavily into the nostalgic codes currently dominating luxury culture online: wood finishes, tailored interiors, après-ski sophistication, and understated wealth.

The timing feels especially relevant. “Old money” aesthetics have evolved from a social media trend into a wider cultural language influencing fashion, interiors, travel, and automotive design. Through The Gstaad Guy — whose satirical yet aspirational content has built a massive global following — Bentley taps directly into that conversation while maintaining its own heritage of craftsmanship and prestige.

The result feels less like a traditional car collaboration and more like a fully realized lifestyle fantasy.

Ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, adidas is spotlighting Saudi Arabia’s evolving football culture through its new “Backyard Legends” campaign starring footballer Saud Abdulhamid.

Set across Riyadh’s neighbourhood streets, football screenings, gaming sessions, and local pitches, the campaign captures how deeply football is woven into everyday life within the Kingdom. Rather than focusing purely on elite athletes, the film highlights communities, friendships, and grassroots passion shaping the next generation of Saudi football.

The campaign also arrives at a defining cultural moment for Saudi Arabia as the country continues positioning itself at the centre of global football conversations. Alongside major investments into clubs, tournaments, and sporting infrastructure, the emotional side of football culture — fandom, identity, and youth participation — has become equally important.

Part of adidas’ wider “You Got This” platform, the campaign emphasizes confidence, positivity, and belief while celebrating football as something larger than sport itself: a shared cultural language connecting generations across Saudi Arabia.

Balenciaga and Manolo Blahnik officially unveiled their latest collaboration, first seen during Balenciaga’s Fall 2026 collection “Body and Being.”

The capsule transforms classic Manolo Blahnik silhouettes through Balenciaga’s exaggerated and fashion-forward lens, introducing crystal-embellished slingback heels, kitten heels, and mules in bold satin colourways including violet, lime, grass green, and gris plume.

The collaboration feels like a collision between two entirely different fashion energies: Manolo’s timeless femininity and Balenciaga’s more disruptive, sculptural approach. Together, they create shoes that feel simultaneously archival and futuristic, elegant yet intentionally theatrical.

Launching globally in select Balenciaga stores and online, the collection continues fashion’s growing fascination with merging heritage craftsmanship with contemporary experimentation. Rather than reinventing the shoe entirely, the collaboration works by pushing familiar silhouettes into more exaggerated emotional territory through colour, texture, and scale.

Roberto Cavalli expands its Marbleous fragrance collection with Marbleous Cypress, a new scent inspired by the iconic Italian cypress trees scattered across Tuscany’s landscapes.

Designed as a woody floral vetiver fragrance, Marbleous Cypress blends grapefruit, Italian bergamot, nutmeg, cypress, jasmine, gardenia, cedarwood, sandalwood, and juniper berry into a scent intended to evoke stillness, warmth, and Mediterranean calm. Perfumer Sophie Labbé described the fragrance as imagining “when forest meets ocean and tranquillity lingers like stillness after a storm.”

Visually, the bottle continues the Marbleous collection’s dramatic identity through emerald green marble patterns intersected with metallic gold veins, balancing maximalism with refinement.

The launch reflects the wider shift within luxury fragrance toward storytelling rooted in place, emotion, and atmosphere rather than celebrity or trend-driven marketing. In Cavalli’s case, Tuscany itself becomes both the inspiration and the fantasy being sold.

Abu Dhabi’s 421 Arts Campus is set to unveil Human in the Loop, a new immersive installation by Emirati artist Dr. Ahmad AlAttar running from June 21 to September 13. Developed through 421’s Artistic Development Program, the work explores the increasingly blurred relationship between human behaviour and technological systems.

Inside the installation, visitors move through a suspended field of ropes that trigger evolving sound responses when pulled. What begins as playful interaction slowly reveals itself as a larger game controlled by an algorithm constantly relocating throughout the space. As participants search for patterns, sounds sharpen and intensify, transforming the audience from passive observers into active components within the system itself.

Drawing from his background in engineering and experimental electronics, AlAttar creates an experience that feels both physical and psychological, questioning who truly holds control between humans and technology. The exhibition arrives at a moment when conversations around AI, surveillance, and algorithmic behaviour are becoming increasingly central to contemporary life across both art and culture.

And that was The Week According to YUNG.