More blingtastic and vulgar than ever! It's that month when super rich Arabs flock here for an orgy of spending. And this year, they and their cars are taking excess to a new level

The Middle Eastern owner of the gleaming white Rolls-Royce doesn’t even glance at the double yellow lines as he parks over them outside the famous green-and-gold frontage of Harrods in London.

He is on his way to the store’s exclusive French cafe Ladurée, where outdoor tables are packed full of stylish men speaking Arabic and smoking, while glamorous women stand chatting in niqabs or brightly coloured scarves with jeans and stack-heeled designer trainers.

And as a parking warden fixes a £60 ticket to the perfectly polished windscreen of his car — a Phantom Drophead Coupé with a Saudi Arabian number plate — he doesn’t even flinch, simply continuing the animated chatter with friends. 

Ramadan Rush: Jordanians (from left) Zizi, Shahed, Janat and Fatima hit Knightsbridge in London for a spree

Striking gold: A heavily modified Range Rover that looks like a bar of bullion, worth £150,000. With gold-rimmed, carbon-black alloy wheels and wrap-around tinted windows, this golden bullet is powered by a 5.0 litre 500bhp V8 engine and will accelerate from rest to 62mph in just 5.4 second, with a top speed of around 140mph

After all, the car is worth £350,000, making the fine small change for a man of his means.

Besides, these wealthy men and women are here in the UK with one main objective — to spend outrageous amounts of cash.

It is late Thursday afternoon in the first week after Ramadan — the month-long Muslim fasting period that emphasises self-control and moderation.

When it ended last month, it heralded not just the traditional fast-breaking Eid celebrations, but also the now infamous ‘Ramadan Rush’, which sees thousands of super-rich Middle Easterners flying in from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.

They have one intention: to see off their month of fasting with major indulgence.

That means retail therapy on an eye-watering scale — and experts expect the post‑Ramadan splurge to last throughout August, not just in London, but all over Britain. The French ban on burqas, worn by women from some of the Middle East’s richest families, means the number of post-Ramadan visitors to the UK is even higher.

Last August, credit card processing giant Worldpay dealt with more than £73.2 million from Middle Eastern shoppers — a figure estimated to rise by 25 per cent.

Exuberant spending was certainly on display when the Mail visited London’s most expensive shopping destinations.

In the jewellery and watch departments at Selfridges on Oxford Street, we watched as one Middle Eastern man tried on an £18,000 limited-edition Hublot watch, while others clustered around £23,000 diamond-studded Piaget timepieces.

In Chopard’s discreet private room, reserved for the wealthiest customers, a group of three burqa-wearing ladies — exquisite eye make-up and pristinely manicured nails peeping through the black fabric — examined necklaces that retail at upwards of £6,000.

Big spenders: These shoppers load up on designer labels while shopping in the capital today

By far the most coveted items are designer handbags and shoes, which are plucked from the shelves like pick-and-mix. Women shopping in groups of twos or threes, perhaps with children in tow, will snap up armfuls of luxury accessories worth anything from £1,000 to £87,000.

When we visited Harrods, a robed and veiled woman was handing over her credit card to pay for two classic Chanel 2.2 handbags, costing £3,090 each, while young girls wearing headscarves picked up £2,300 denim-studded shoulder bags and pink quilted clutch bags — a bargain at £1,690.

It was the same story at all the luxury accessories departments.

In Dolce & Gabbana, twenty-something Middle Eastern shoppers tried £1,050 limited-edition handbags against their robes, one smiling woman instantly snapping up two. There was also lots of interest in Yves St Laurent’s latest wheeze: tiny handbags in an array of bright candy colours that are just begging to be collected, at a comparatively modest £1,300.

‘Customers often buy more than one colour because they can’t choose,’ the assistant reveals, as one young shopper, with the blue version already hanging over her black abaya cloak, handed over her card to buy the same bag in pink.

Gucci, too, is in on the act, with a £510 evening bag in a choice of bronze, gold, black and red. ‘They’ll buy all four at once,’ the assistant shrugs. ‘It happens all the time.’

Another Harrods worker told us: ‘I’ve seen a 14-year-old buying a crocodile bag for her mother. She paid the £12,000 price tag in cash.’

‘Some of our customers came across literally the day after Ramadan ended,’ says Adhum Carter, a partner at Pocketlife, a concierge firm for high net-worth individuals, which has bases in Dubai, London and Switzerland.

‘They love to stay at top hotels like the Dorchester and Brown’s, and many keep family flats here. They do a lot of shopping themselves, but they also like to use the services of personal shoppers.

‘Sometimes they might ring up and just say: “I’ve got a budget of £20,000, you know my taste, just get some stuff.”’

Not surprisingly, retailers fall over themselves to accommodate these lucrative customers in exquisite comfort. At Bond Street jeweller Boodles, staff are given training in cultural nuances, and a private area allows women to try on jewels without their faces being seen.

Among the Middle Eastern customers’ favourite lines is the Wonderland collection, costing from £30,000 to £300,000, specifically designed with their market in mind. More elaborate than other ranges in the Boodles collection, it features brightly coloured precious stones.

Supercar Invasion! London full with brand new Arab motors

Light touch: Don’t let the subdued shade of this Bugatti Veyron fool you - the sculpted £1 million hypercar is powered by an 8-litre W16 engine, producing 1,000bhp. Put your foot down and it’ll hit 230mph in 30 seconds

High roller: With a £6,000 gold-plated Spirit of Ecstasy ‘Flying Lady’ at its prow, this bespoke £225,000 Rolls-Royce Wraith is spectacularly finished in Madeira Red and English White. It makes 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds

‘Where British shoppers might buy just one piece, the Middle Eastern customer might buy a whole suite,’ explains Boodles managing director Michael Wainwright, who might be forgiven for having something of a spring in his step.

Bouncing along the road behind Harrods, two twentysomething Saudi Arabian girls are thrilled with their handbags, purchased moments before but already slung over their shoulders.

But Lama Obi’s £1,840 caramel leather Prada tote and her friend Deema Alakeel’s blue Balenciaga Padlock mini, £875, are just the start of their month-long shopping trip, they tell us with a giggle. ‘I love London — the weather, the restaurants, everything,’ smiles Lama.

For Lama Al Qheliwi, 21, also from Saudi Arabia, it is choice that gives our shops the edge: ‘London is much better than Paris or Milan. Yesterday, I stocked up on Acqua Di Parma perfume [£63] and Monica Vinader jewellery, which aren’t available at home. Altogether, I’ll probably spend £10,000 to £20,000 shopping.’

Another group of seven elegantly robed women dangle an impressive collection of designer handbags — including an Yves St Laurent Betty (£1,385), a Chanel Boy (£2,850) and a Bottega Veneta shoulder bag (£2,185).

Many luxury stores such as Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols extend their opening hours during July and August. ‘Gulf clients like to shop late because they wake up late,’ an assistant in Versace explains. ‘They come here before going out for the evening.’

At Westfield shopping centre in West London, extra Arabic-speaking concierge staff are laid on for Ramadan and Eid, and the upmarket boutiques often employ Arabic-speaking female staff.

Money spider: This two-seater Ferrari 458 Italia is covered in a blue web ‘wrap’ and costs £160,000. The 4.5 litre V8 engine develops 570bhp, taking it from rest to 62mph in just 3.3 seconds

Rise of the machines: Built in Austria, this £80,000 Terminator-style KTM X-Bow supercar is open to the elements. When its 2.0 litre Audi engine is specially tuned, it can go from rest to 60mph in three seconds

There, we observed groups of Middle Eastern shoppers being ferried around the air-conditioned mall in chauffeur-driven electric red buggies laid on by the centre.

‘It’s been a busy start,’ says Myf Ryan, marketing director for Westfield UK And Europe. ‘Middle Eastern tourists take advantage of the concierge service because they buy a lot. To carry around all those bags is just not an option.’

Back in Knightsbridge, Sara Ali, 35, and her sister Batool, 20, are shopping on Sloane Street. ‘We’re on holiday with our children and our family, but without husbands because we want to do a lot of shopping and it’s boring for them,’ says Sara.

‘We’ve been in Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Bicester Village, and my best buys are from Dior — belts, accessories, wallets.

‘Why here? The weather maybe, and it’s more unique, more expensive things that I’d prefer to buy here rather than in Dubai.’

The wealthiest shoppers often fly in an entire entourage to help them with their shopping and partying, including bodyguard, chauffeurs and, of course, cars. In the evenings in Knightsbridge and Mayfair, fleets of so-called ‘supercars’ zoom through the streets, including a gun-metal grey bespoke Oakley-modified Porsche 918 ‘hypercar’ valued at an astonishing £900,000.

There’s also a £480,000 customised Lamborghini Aventador in dark chrome, a £170,000 modified Porsche GT2 and countless Ferraris, Bentleys and Mercedes.

They delight the assembled ‘carparazzi’ — supercar fans who flock here for the annual display.

Many of the vehicles have been customised, with bespoke modifications made for members of the Kuwaiti, Qatari and Saudi royal families on a money-no-object basis.

Mighty Merc: This six-wheel G63 AMG 6x6 is the largest civilian sports utility vehicle built by the German firm Mercedes. Powered by a vast twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V8 bi-turbo engine, the beastly motor costs £370,000

Red bullet: The brushed-metal bonnet of this Maserati Granturismo MC Stradale tips the price over £150,000

‘What the drivers really want is individual one-offs,’ says Jon Oakley, owner of one company trusted with such alterations, Oakley Design. ‘They’ll have their names tooled into the exhaust and bodywork and so on.’

Drivers can use foreign registration plates for only six months at a time, so those who keep a car here for occasional visits snap up personalised British plates — though even these are somewhat pricy.

A company called Prestigious Plates is offering EMII RAT for £35,000, as well as KUW 4IIT, E9 YPT and YAII AA (for yalla, the commonly used Arabic phrase for ‘let’s go’).

Meanwhile, for mini-sheikhs, Harrods’ toy department offers a £29,895 Mini V8 Roadster and £39,900 mini Hummer for kids.

Of course, all these visitors need somewhere to stay between shopping trips, and the swankiest five-star hotels across the capital, from the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington to The Langham in Regent Street, have seen smart Middle Easterners booking up to 80 per cent of the rooms.

Not that they handle the bookings themselves, of course — it is staff and high-level concierge companies who take care of everything, making sure their clients can fully enjoy the London lifestyle.

‘A lot of them find it more fun here,’ says Mr Carter. ‘When they’re in their mid-20s and at home with their families, they don’t get room to do much; they are under strict guidelines. But here, they have freedom.

‘This year we’ve made lots of club bookings for upmarket places like Annabel’s. Clients agree to spend at least £40,000 in the venue so they waive the membership requirement.’

Rumours abound, too, of the generosity of Middle Eastern visitors. Steven Skippen, a shoeshine at the Hilton Park Lane for the past 14 years, has polished the footwear of the King of Jordan and the Sultan of Brunei, and says his Middle Eastern clientele are ‘extremely generous’. One Arab even presented him with a £1,500 pair of Berluti shoes — his ‘absolute top favourite brand’.

And it’s not only adults’ footwear that he tends to. Every day, there’ll be a succession of Gucci and Louis Vuitton-clad kids who love nothing more than to jump into his chair.

Any colour you like: A Bugatti Veyron, hand-built at the firm’s boutique factory in Molsheim, north-eastern France, where the well-heeled customers can pick all variety hues to match their lipstick or nail varnish

Green with envy? This lime green Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Coupe stands out from the crowd at £82,000

He knows his Arab customers’ tastes in footwear well. In fact, rather surprisingly, Clarks is often among their favourite brands.

‘They like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, obviously, but in the Middle East, Clarks is promoted so well that when visitors come to London they rush there and buy loads of shoes. One of my clients from Bahrain says: “Oh, yeah, Clarks are the best shoes.” I haven’t the heart to tell him they are not. Primark bags are flowing through this hotel, too.’

But it is high-end designer goods that remain the biggest lure. Sisters Sara, Noura and Hessa Saud from Saudi Arabia are staying at the exclusive Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane with their family for one month.

Twenty-year-old Sara confesses: ‘Saudis are shopaholics, and at home, everything sells out really fast — so here we have a lot more choice. We like the items that are a big hit on the catwalk.’

It’s not just the retail sector raking in cash from Arab visitors. After the strict period of Ramadan fasting, female visitors also like to indulge in high-end beauty treatments, too.

Dr Aamer Khan, co-founder of the Harley Street Skin Clinic, says: ‘[During Ramadan] women can’t have injectables because they can’t take anything into their body. Following Ramadan, we get an influx for Botox and fillers and non-surgical injectables.’

Meanwhile, as dusk falls in Knightsbridge, the Ramadan Rush continues. The nightly supercar parade is revving up outside Harrods and Harvey Nichols, while chauffeurs drop off their high-spending female passengers, who are whizzed through the hotel entrances by slick doormen.

A good night’s sleep is essential. They need to recuperate in time to carry on their spending tomorrow.

DM