Al Ostoura was established by Najla Maatouk, who had long been fascinated with fashion and elegance. Her first success in fashion, Bint El-Ishrine Boutique, was opened in 1975 with her husband. Its instant success established her name as a leader in high fashion and luxury in the Kuwaiti market. \"My husband and I opened a fashion boutique with the intention of bringing the most fashionable clothes from Paris and Milan to the Kuwaiti market. It was a great commercial success and gave me confidence for my vision.\"Bint El-Ishrine provided Najla with the impetus to continue her career and, for the next 10 years, she divided her time traveling between Paris, Florence and Kuwait, while widening her knowledge about philosophy and the history of art.In 1985, Najla decided it was time to consolidate the vision that she had been cultivating for the previous decade, and she returned to Kuwait to found Al-Ostoura, \"The Legend\" in Arabic. Najla was looking to be even more cutting-edge than before and to forward her mission to bring the most avant-garde designers to Kuwait.The first Al Ostoura store opened its doors in Zahra Complex, covering only 150 square meters with designer offerings from Comme Des Garcons, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yohji Yamamoto, to name a few. Al Ostoura was definitely pushing the boundaries at that time in the Middle East.However, Najla knew that Kuwait and its people have always been fashion leaders in the region due to their education, diversity and high degree of interaction with global and metropolitan cultures. Since its independence, Kuwait\'s recognition as a country of freedom and democracy has gained its reputation as the \"pearl\" of the Gulf region.