The event, to be attended by 500 hand-picked guests in the glitzy Place Vendome, comes midway through Paris Fashion Week's menswear and haute couture shows.

Here's what we know about the event in this summer's Olympic host city:

- The concept -

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour told AFP back in February that the outdoor show will be "a mixture of fashion show, entertainment and performances... and a few surprises."

The date was not chosen at random, June 23 being International Olympic Day.

The idea is to match different sports -- such as cycling, gymnastics, tennis, taekwondo and breakdancing -- with eras of French fashion since 1924, the last time the Games were held in Paris.

There have been two Vogue World events in the past -- a New York street fair in 2022, and a homage to London's theatre scene in 2023.

With Vogue's magazine business struggling to stay relevant in the online world, Wintour is looking to entertainment spectacles to keep the brand alive.

Front row tickets for the New York event cost $3,000. Prices have not been revealed for this week's show.

- The guests -

The guest list is also a secret, but the promotional video features top models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, and actress Isabelle Huppert, trying their hands at several sports.

Most of the 500 seats are reserved for A-listers, with the proceedings hosted by British model and actor Cara Delevingne, and directed by Sam Wrench, who has overseen Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

It is a rare move for labels to present fashion shows alongside each other, but the event will see almost all the big names of French fashion at once: Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Courreges, Dior, Fursac, Givenchy, Hermes, Jacquemus, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lacoste, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, Marine Serre, Rabanne and Saint Laurent.

Pharrell Williams, hip-hop mogul and creative director for Louis Vuitton, told the press conference in February: "Taking over the Place Vendome I have to say is pretty legendary."

He added that the show would spotlight "true French style -- what we see on the podium, what we see in the boulevards -- in an inclusive spirit."

- Congestion -

Place Vendome, home to the French justice ministry, was an ideal location for the organisers since it is also known as the heart of high-end jewellery in Paris.

But police were reportedly less keen given that central Paris is already facing considerable congestion as a result of preparations for next month's Games.

Vogue World hopes to ease the burden by offering a one-million-euro donation to a charity, French Popular Relief, which tackles poverty and discrimination.

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From helping prevent famines to feeding astronauts in space, team leader and professor Hong Jin-kee believes his new so-called "meaty rice" could become an eco-friendly, ethical way for people to get their protein.

No animals were harmed in the creation of the dish, which looks like a regular bowl of rice -- albeit pink -- but it gives off a faint buttery aroma, the result of being packed with beef muscle and fat cell culture.

Using cultured meat, "we can obtain animal protein without the slaughter of livestock," Hong, of Seoul's Yonsei University, told AFP.

Companies worldwide have sought to commercialise meat alternatives, such as plant-based or cultured meat, due to ethical issues surrounding industrial livestock rearing, as well as environmental concerns linked to the greenhouse gas emissions from animal farming.

Hong, who has a background in organoids and biomedical sciences, chose rice for his research as the grain was already the top source of protein for people in Asia.

His process can be currently time-consuming: a regular rice grain is coated with fish gelatin to help with adherence, then individually injected with beef cells before being cultured in a petri dish for up to 11 days.

Rice possesses a "slightly porous structure", Hong said, and once the beef cells have been injected into the rice, the grain offers "an ideal structure for cells to grow uniformly from the inside out".

- Carbon footprint -

Hong's "meaty" rice contains eight percent more protein and seven percent more fat than regular rice.

Hong and his team are still working on how to scale the process, he said, but he hopes to get his creation approved as a relief food for emergency situations in two African countries.

"For those who are limited to... just one meal a day, a slight increase in (protein content), even by just a few percent, becomes incredibly important," he said.

South Korea has not yet approved any cultivated meat for consumption, but it announced in 2022 plans to plough millions of dollars into a "foodtech" fund, while separately identifying cell-cultured meat as a priority research area.

Cultivated meat is sold in Singapore and the United States, but Italy banned it last year citing a need to safeguard its livestock industry.

Some scholars say potential ethical concerns with cultured meat include the sourcing of the initial animal cells.

It is difficult to be "certain about the safety of the serum used in culture media, and the antibiotics and hormones added during the culturing process", Choi Yoon-jae, a former emeritus professor at Seoul National University, wrote in a column on the website Chuksan News.

According to Hong's team, their hybrid rice method significantly reduces protein's carbon footprint by eliminating the need to raise and farm animals.

For every 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of protein produced, it releases 6.27 kilograms (13.8 pounds) of carbon dioxide, he estimates -- eight times less than traditional beef production.

- Would you eat it? -

Cultured meat has long been "presented as a climate solution compared to traditional livestock", said Neil Stephens, a lecturer on technology and society at the University of Birmingham.

But the sector faces challenges such as needing to be "produced at scale, and cheap, with low energy needs and environmentally friendly inputs," he told AFP.

"The 'meaty' rice might have an advantage over some other cultured meat products", as it is a hybrid product "mixing animal cells with plant material -- the rice -- making cheaper and less energy intensive," he said.

"This said, it would still need to prove its environmental credentials at scale -- and convince people to eat it. Both might be a challenge."

Global consultancy AT Kearney has predicted that by around 2040, only 40 percent of global meat consumption will come from conventional sources -- and the whole industry will be upended.

"Products such as milk, egg white, gelatin and fish can be created with similar technology," it said in a 2019 report.

Hong passionately believes that biotechnology can change the way humans consume food for the better.

For example, he said, an older person with sarcopenia -- muscle loss -- could eat lab-grown meat produced solely with muscle cells, not fat, to help ease their specific condition.

The world is on the cusp of an era where "more biological information becomes available and we need to meticulously control our food", he said.

This could mean, he said, that a future AI-infused kitchen could assess a person's health through a blood analysis, then instruct a robot to prepare the most suitable breakfast.

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Three years ago Huh, who has a Japanese mother and Korean father, gave up her Japanese citizenship and moved to South Korea to train. She barely spoke Korean at the time.

Huh, who won the world title in May at -57kg, discovered only after moving to South Korea that she was a descendant of Heo Seok, an independence activist who was imprisoned and died in 1920 fighting Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula.

"I was very surprised and it has made me want to work even harder," the 21-year-old Huh told AFP at the Jincheon National Training Center south of Seoul.

But her biggest motivation is her "very kind" late grandmother.

She was a key figure in the community of Koreans living in Japan and told Huh that she wanted her to compete for South Korea if she ever got to the Olympics.

"I am competing for South Korea because of what my grandmother told me, and it still makes me think of her," Huh said.

Huh divides her time between Tokyo's Waseda University, where she studies sports science, and South Korea's training centre for the nation's finest athletes.

She is a rising superstar in South Korea, where judo is popular but the country hasn't won women's Olympic gold in the sport since 1996.

- Balance, control -

At the world championships in Abu Dhabi, Huh dethroned double world champion Christa Deguchi, who was also born in Japan but competes for Canada. She too will be at the Paris Olympics.

"Before the world championships I had lost (to Deguchi) once, so I had been feeling a bit insecure," Huh told AFP, adding she believes she has an advantage over her rival when it comes to stamina.

"I won (in Abu Dhabi) and my self-confidence has grown significantly, so I feel like I can do well if I (compete against) her again."

Huh's biggest strengths as a judoka lie in her balance and control, said Kim Mi-jung, the coach of South Korea's women's team.

"Actually, Huh Mi-mi isn't technically the strongest," Kim, who won judo gold at the 1992 Olympics, said.

"But judo involves a lot of grappling and Huh's gripping and balance skills are so exceptional.

"If you watch her matches, you'll notice that it's very rare to see her get thrown and lose."

- Personal hero -

Huh has previously said her hero is An Chang-rim, another Japanese-born and raised judoka who competed for South Korea and won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

An has since candidly shared his experiences of facing discrimination both while growing up as a Korean in Japan and training as a Japanese-born athlete in South Korea.

Having relocated to South Korea at about age 20, he said it was not easy to get used to the culture and training.

An, who now works as a coach, told reporters that Huh -- known for her bubbly personality and positive attitude -- has managed to adapt well to life in South Korea despite hurdles such as the language barrier.

Huh is above all else mentally strong, An told AFP.

"She does what she needs to do, no matter who is watching. She concentrates on her own tasks without worrying about others," he said.

Huh's story in many ways mirrors An's, albeit she does not have an Olympic medal to show for it -- not yet.

For Huh, who started judo at age six, Paris has been a long time coming.

Going to the Olympics "has been my dream since I was really young, so I'm very happy", she said.

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The life-sized sculpture is a homage to thousands of emigrants who proudly returned home from Germany at the wheel of the ultimate status symbol.

Like many poorer areas across southeast Europe and Turkey, Imotski sent thousands of its sons and daughters to work in Germany as "gastarbeiters" or guest workers in the 1960s and 1970s.

And those that returned home driving a Mercedes-Benz were seen as having made it.

"It was a symbol of success, anyone who had one could have his pick of girlfriends, sit in the front row in church," said Ivan Topic, who worked in construction in Frankfurt for 18 years before returning to Imotski in 1997.

Topic came up with the idea for the monument, arguing that the rugged endurance of the ageless "Minika" -- as the classic 1960s W115 saloon is called here -- mirrors the qualities of the rocky region's people.

"That car was way ahead of its time, and it's modern even today," he told AFP as he helped workers put the final touches to the statue in local white karst stone.

- Town full of Mercedes -

The people of Imotski remain huge fans of the brand. Half of the area's 16,000 registered vehicles are Mercedes.

As well as being a synonym of success, Mercedes-Benz has become deeply embedded in the identity of the region and its people, said Mislav Rebic, who came up with the design.

The poor agricultural area close to Bosnian border had been marked by emigration for decades, something that continues even today.

In the 1970s nearly a fifth of Imotski's population was working abroad with some 9,000 living in Germany alone.

"They left looking to work to buy a cow, a bicycle," Topic told AFP. But as the area's road network developed, they brought back cars.

"They would buy a Mercedes, drive it back home and leave it as an inheritance.

"Mercedes is something we bought and left to our children and they will leave it to theirs," he said.

Given the cult of the Merc, Topic said it was obvious to him that a statue of the iconic model would be the perfect show of gratitude for the sacrifices the region's migrants made.

He knows a thing or two about the cars. He owns several himself, including a 1929 model, and heads the Imotski Mercedes Club, which has an impressive 230 members.

- 'You've made it' -

But initially not everyone shared his enthusiasm and it took several years for the idea to build up speed.

However, as soon as work started interest in unusual monument quickly spread, even beyond Croatia's borders.

In February, several young sculptors from Croatia, Denmark and Slovenia came to work for a week on the monument.

Nediljko Djuka, a returnee from Australia, hailed the statue.

"Mercedes symbolises safety and our people, who emerged from this (karst) stone," he said.

Stipan Busic, who helped with the monument, said there is nothing else like it anywhere in the world.

"Here a Mercedes means everything. When you buy one, you can be at peace -- 'You've made it!'" said Busic, who has three himself.

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The town of just under 10,000 people is split in two, Baarle-Nassau (which is Dutch) and Baarle-Hertog (a Belgian enclave surrounded by the Netherlands).

The international border runs through the town, marked by a series of white crosses in the pavement that sometimes even bisects buildings -- including the town hall.

And come European election day, the Dutch parts of the town voted on June 6 whereas their Belgian neighbours have to wait three days later to cast their ballot.

"Anyone Dutch? Come and vote in here," cried a volunteer outside the "Stembureau" (polling station) when AFP visited on Dutch election day.

Literally a few metres across the road is Belgium, a snack bar offering "Fresh Belgian Fries".

Dutch and Belgian election posters stand a stone's throw apart with a completely different set of candidates and parties.

The town's split identity is much more complex than a single border line. There are several separate chunks of land scattered around the town belonging to one country or the other.

There are 22 Belgian enclaves in total, the smallest the size of half a football pitch, and six Dutch "counter-enclaves" within these Belgian enclaves.

This means the border snakes haphazardly around the town, resulting in a bizarre patchwork quilt effect on international maps.

Visiting every enclave would mean crossing the Dutch-Belgian border 60 times in a few kilometres (miles), explained Ad Tuijtelaars from the local tourist office.

- 'World's strangest border' -

Anecdotes abound about the pecularities of the town, which describes itself as "Europe in Miniature" or the "World's Strangest Border Situation."

Couples tying the knot in the town hall have to decide which country to get married in. Left side of the room: Belgium. Right side: Netherlands.

In one house split by the border, a 90-year-old woman lives on the Belgian side. Her son just down the corridor ... in the Netherlands.

People seize upon different laws and tax regimes, said Tuijtelaars, a 75-year-old retired Dutch businessman.

"Petrol is cheaper in Belgium. Cigarettes are cheaper in Belgium. But food tends to be cheaper in the Netherlands," he told AFP.

In the Netherlands, fireworks can only be purchased in the run-up to New Year, but all year round in Belgium, meaning people flock to Baarle-Hertog to stock up on bangers.

Different national closing times once meant diners at a restaurant split by the border had to move across to the other side of the room to finish their meals.

The border runs through one of the supermarkets with a sign promising Belgian mayonnaise 25 metres to the left, Hagelslag (Dutch chocolate sprinkles) 30 metres to the right.

Covid sparked pandemonium -- in Baarle-Hertog, masks were compulsory but in Baarle-Nassau, only on public transport.

Tuijtelaars, born and bred in Baarle, recalls walking to school -- crossing through Belgium several times along the way.

"It was just normal for us as kids. It was only when I grew up and travelled abroad that I realised it was quite a unique situation," he said.

- 'No need for conflict' -

The geographical oddity, which attracts thousands of tourists every year from all over the world, has its roots in the Middle Ages.

The territory was first carved up in 1198 when Henry I, Duke of Brabant, handed some of his land to Godfried of Schoten, Lord of Breda.

The border question came to the fore in 1830 when Belgium became independent from the Netherlands and the issue was only finally settled in 1995.

Voting in the "Cafe in Holland", a pub-cum-polling station on the outskirts of the town, Theo van der Veerdonk, a 64-year-old lecturer, said Baarle offered lessons for Europe to come together.

"We have a town here of two nationalities and I think Europe should be one. You see in a town such as this that Europe actually isn't one at all. I think that's a pity," he told AFP.

"I want more Europe and more integration, to make Europe closer and better... Here we've got two town halls, two police services, two fire services... and that's completely crazy."

But Tuijtelaars said Baarle showed how neighbours can live together in harmony despite nationality and borders.

"If you live so close to each other, why should you quarrel? There's no need for conflict -- well, apart from when Belgium plays the Netherlands at football," he joked.

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Neo Px is a bioengineered plant capable of purifying indoor air at an unprecedented scale, the first in a potentially long line of such super-powered organisms.

"It's the equivalent of up to 30 regular houseplants in terms of air purification," said Lionel Mora, co-founder of startup Neoplants.

"It will not only capture, but also remove and recycle, some of the most harmful pollutants you can find indoors."

Five years ago, the entrepreneur met Patrick Torbey, a genome editing researcher, who dreamed of creating living organisms "with functions."

"There were plants around us, and we thought that the most powerful function we could add to them was to purify the air," said Mora, during a tour of a rented greenhouse in Lodi, California, two hours from San Francisco.

Protected from the elements, several thousand modified pothos plants, green speckled with white, awaited their turn to be potted, packed and shipped.

The French startup began selling its first products in the United States in April.

The United States was a particularly promising first market, since many Americans already widely use air purifiers.

"We do our best to send as many plants as possible every week, but it's not enough to meet demand for now," said Mora.

- Wildfires -

Americans have a keen appreciation for cleaner air given all the recent "problems associated with wildfires," which have become a "bigger and bigger" problem in the country, Mora said.

"One of the pollutants that comes from combustion is benzene, which we're targeting," he added.

Indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, mainly due to volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.

VOCs are gaseous pollutants that can accumulate indoors and negatively impact air quality and health.

Opening windows won't help much because the VOC pollution can come from solvents, glues and paints, and therefore could lurk in cleaning products, furniture and walls.

"These chemicals are associated with a range of adverse health effects, including cancer," especially for the young, the elderly and people who are already vulnerable, said Tracey Woodruff, a professor of reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

"They can bring respiratory related effects or reproductive health effects... like adverse pregnancy outcomes, preterm birth, miscarriages, as well as neurological disorders like Parkinson's," she said.

Neo Px does not itself absorb the chemicals. The plant is sold at a starting price of $120 with packets of powder that contain a microbiome, essentially a bacterial strain.

"This bacteria colonizes the plant's roots, soil and leaves," said Torbey, the company's chief technology officer, at its research lab in Saint-Ouen, France, just outside Paris.

- Bacteria powder -

The bacteria "absorbs the VOCs to grow and reproduce. The plant is there to create this ecosystem for the bacteria. So we have a symbiotic system between plants and bacteria," he said.

In the future, Neoplants plans to produce genetically modified plants whose metabolism will directly do the work of air purification.

And in the longer term, it hopes to tackle problems linked to global warming.

"We could increase the capacity of trees to capture CO2," Torbey said.

Or "develop seeds that are more resistant to drought," added Mora.

Their vision, coupled with the team's scientific expertise, led Google product manager Vincent Nallatamby to invest in the startup from the outset.

He now owns his own bacteria-boosted pothos plant, which sits unnoticed in his San Francisco living room, already well-stocked with houseplants of all sizes.

"It's more my wife who takes care of them, except this one. This one's me!" he joked, pointing to his Neo Px.

"I'm often seduced by technological objects and I want to bring them home," he said.

"This was one of the first times I had no trouble convincing my wife."

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But is it still?

The country of Pele, Garrincha and Ronaldinho, which once wowed the world with its 'samba' style, has not won the World Cup since 2002. Nor has it produced a Ballon d'Or winner since Kaka in 2007.

With the "Selecao" currently struggling to book its place at the 2026 World Cup, many in Brazil and beyond wonder why.

"We're at a low point. We used to have more top-quality athletes," the late Pele's eldest son, Edinho, told AFP recently.

Even President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has joined the national soul-searching, admitting Brazil "doesn't play the greatest football in the world anymore".

So what happened?

- Disappearing pitches -

One answer could be the decline of street football, where some of Brazil's all-time greats started out, such as Rivellino, Zico and Romario.

"Nobody plays in the street anymore. You don't hear stories about that kick that broke somebody's window," says amateur footballer Lauro Nascimento, his jersey stained with orange mud after playing on one of the few dirt pitches left on Sao Paulo's north side.

Nascimento, a 52-year-old finance professional who plays for local side Aurora, broke several toes playing football barefoot as a boy.

Today, the district of Vila Aurora, is covered in concrete sprawl. Two buildings stand on what was once open pasture used as a football pitch.

"Any open space used to be enough for kids to get their start in football. Now, they're seen as prime development real estate," says sports historian Aira Bonfim.

Nascimento and his friends pay $160 a month to rent the battered scrap of land where they play matches but that kind of money is a barrier for working class families.

To access a pitch today, poor kids in Brazil often depend on school, social programs or a football academy.

Just one in five such academies is free, according to a 2021 study.

And many of those pitches are synthetic, a surface some say develops players' technique less than the rough, rocky fields of yesterday.

- 'Mechanical' style -

The decline in time spent playing the sport has had "a giant impact on our football", says researcher Euler Victor.

"We have a huge number of Brazilians playing in Europe but very few stars."

Brazil's latest great hope, Neymar, shone at Barcelona, but struggled to lead the national team to championships in a career bogged down by controversy and injury.

Brazilians now have their hopes pinned on 23-year-old Vinicius Junior and young phenomenon Endrick, who is set to join Vinicius at Real Madrid when he turns 18 in July.

Brazil is still the world's top exporter of footballers but they are bringing in less money.

According to FIFA figures, clubs paid $935.3 million in transfer fees for 2,375 Brazilian players last year, down nearly 20 percent from 2018, when the number of players was smaller -- 1,753.

Part of the drop is because teams are paying less to hire free agents and younger players.

But there is also a shortage of standout stars.

"Our technique has suffered," says Victor Hugo da Silva, a coach at Flamengo's youth academy in Sao Goncalo, outside Rio de Janeiro.

"The playing style changed and that ended up taking away some of our creativity. Our football used to be so joyful. Now it's become more mechanical."

On a synthetic pitch, he trains seven to 10-year-olds dreaming of following in the footsteps of Vinicius, the academy's most famous graduate.

The next generation still has football in its veins, but has "difficulties" with training, a problem Da Silva attributes to their sedentary lifestyles and "addiction" to screens.

Brazil, population 203 million, has more cell phones than people. More than one-third of children aged five to 19 are overweight or obese, according to the World Obesity Atlas.

Robson Zimerman, a talent scout for Sao Paulo club Corinthians, says emerging footballers today face tougher conditions, including the ability to play multiple positions and outsize expectations from family and the media.

"Before, they just had to worry about playing football," he says.

But Leila Pereira, president of cross-town rivals Palmeiras, the reigning league champions, insists Brazil will never stop being the country of football.

Brazilian teams have claimed the past five Copa Libertadores titles with Palmeiras claiming two of those.

The club is the cradle of Endrick -- whose sale to Real Madrid brought in a reported $65 million with bonuses -- as well as rising prospects Estevao and Luis Guilherme.

"I disagree with those who think (Brazilian players) have lost quality. Look at the astronomical sums they bring in," says Pereira.

- Favela party -

For many people, Pereira, one of Brazil's wealthiest people, is the face of a new brand of Brazilian football -- more like Europe's, with lavish salaries, by South American standards, and expensive ticket prices.

"With the absurd salaries they pay the players, clubs have to raise ticket prices, which excludes fans like me," says Flamengo supporter David Santos.

In 2019, he founded a fan club for Flamengo die-hards like himself from the impoverished favelas.

From atop the hillside slum that overlooks the trendy beach neighborhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema, they recreate the ambiance of the Maracana on match days, decorating an old pitch with flags, grilling barbecue and belting out chants as the match plays on a giant screen.

"The 'country of football' thing -- we're losing that," says one attendee, 38-year-old Vasco fan Pablo Igor.

"Football is what you see here. It's a game of the people. But street kids like I was don't have access to it anymore."

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The club's membership is a closely guarded secret but is known to include leading figures from the civil service, the law, journalism, publicly funded institutions and the arts.

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson last week tweeted: "Various Garrick Club members including Sting, Mark Knopfler and leading actors and producers have reportedly written to the club chairman saying they'll resign if the membership doesn't vote to accept women next Tuesday."

He added: "Many others like me would also find it impossible to stay."

In March, the head of Britain's spy service Richard Moore resigned after a list of the club's membership was made public for the first time.

Moore sent a message to MI6 employees acknowledging the reputational hit that news of his membership posed to the service -- in particular the risk of it undermining its work to attract more women to join MI6.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's most senior policy adviser, the civil service leader Simon Case, also quit his membership.

Founded in 1831 for actors and "men of refinement and education", the Garrick is one of the last such clubs not to allow women in, except as guests of men.

A petition launched in 2021 backing the admission of women attracted the support of Cherie Blair, a leading barrister and wife of former prime minister Tony Blair.

She recalled that in 1976 as a trainee lawyer she was left standing outside while her future husband Tony was allowed in for dinner.

"It's outrageous that so little progress has been made since then," she wrote.

Organisers of the petition said that the large number of judges and senior lawyers who were members deprived women of networking opportunities in a profession in which women were under-represented, particularly in the higher echelons.

A previous vote in 2015 on allowing female members saw the narrowest of majorities -- 50.5 percent -- back continuing the ban on female membership.

The Garrick, located in Covent Garden in central London, offers members overnight accommodation, a restaurant, bars and a library.

Other high-profile figures reported to be members include  "Sherlock" star Benedict Cumberbatch and senior minister Michael Gove.

An early member was Charles Dickens.

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The poolside show featuring the work of Moroccan designer Yasmina Qanzal included mostly one-piece suits in shades of red, beige and blue. Most models had exposed shoulders and some had their midriffs partially visible.

"It's true that this country is very conservative but we tried to show elegant swimsuits which represent the Arab world," Qanzal told AFP.

"When we came here, we understood that a swimsuit fashion show in Saudi Arabia is a historic moment, because it is the first time to have such event," she said, adding it was "an honour" to be involved.

The show took place on the second day of the inaugural Red Sea Fashion Week at the St Regis Red Sea Resort, situated off Saudi Arabia's western coast.

The resort is part of Red Sea Global, one of the so-called giga-projects at the heart of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 social and economic reform programme overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Prince Mohammed, who became first in line to the throne in 2017, has initiated a series of dramatic social reforms in a bid to soften Saudi Arabia's austere image stemming from its historical championing of a purist form of Islam known as Wahhabism.

Those changes have included sidelining stick-wielding religious police who used to chase men out of malls to pray, re-introducing cinemas and organising mixed-gender music festivals.

They have coincided with ramped-up repression targeting dissent, including from conservative clerics who might protest such moves.

Shouq Mohammed, a Syrian fashion influencer who attended Friday's show, said it was not surprising given Saudi Arabia's attempt to open up to the world and grow its fashion and tourism sectors.

The fashion industry in 2022 accounted for $12.5 billion, or 1.4 percent of national GDP, and employed 230,000 people, according to a report published last year by the official Saudi Fashion Commission.

"It's the first time to have a swimsuit fashion show in Saudi Arabia, but why not? Seriously why not?" Mohammed said.

"It's possible and we have it here."

Raphael Simacourbe, a French influencer who also attended on Friday, said there was nothing risque to his eyes but in the Saudi context it was a major achievement.

"That's very brave from them to do that today, so I am very happy to be part of it," he said.

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