DOHA DELIGHTS

Our society editor-at-large, the Marchioness of Bath, mingles with fashion mavens at a double bill of glamorous events in Qatar to celebrate Fashion Trust Arabia and the Franca Fund

- REPORT: EMMA THYNN, MARCHIONESS OF BATH

Looking at the images of beautiful people parading the red carpet at their most dazzling in Doha, you might imagine it was a strictly formal affair.

But for the guests at the Fashion Trust Arabia Awards and Franca Fund Gala, there was the frisson of a school trip.

This was my first visit to Qatar, a whirlwind weekend of glamour in the desert that makes me long to go again.

In previous years, I've had to miss Fashion Trust Arabia because it's fallen around the time of my eldest son John's birthday, but not this year. I was stepping into the unknown but it was a delight.

The entrepreneur and fashion writer Tania Fares who co-founded Fashion Trust Arabia with Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and her daughter, Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, to shine a light on design excellence in the Middle East and North Africa - is a good friend, and the cause really inspires me. It's so hard to get your break as a designer.