- The first spot on our behind-the-scenes Dubai fashion & retail tour was exploring the Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping destinations, adjacent to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. The Dubai Mall is a grand palace to shop top global brands within what can be characterized as a luxury amusement park.
The Dubai Mall consists of over 1,200 stores, including many of the world’s top luxury brands.
One of the most unique shopping destinations is Level Shoes, the world’s largest shoe store. The store carries over 350 brands consisting of over 40 boutiques, like a luxury shoe department store.
The timing coincided just before the start of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, with many holiday-themed window displays displaying phrases like Ramadan Kareem (رمَضَان كريم), a blessed Ramadan.
In addition to shopping, the Dubai Mall offers many exciting experiences like an aquarium featuring sharks and sting rays and dinosaur fossils.
Additionally, there are many spots to sit, eat, and explore the many indoor art installations.
A trip further behind the scenes took us into the Chalhoub Group, the largest luxury, fashion, and beauty operator in the Middle East (especially in countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia). Many of the brands featured in the Dubai Mall are partnered and managed with them, including Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Fendi, and more.
The Chalhoub Group also has its own University and Retail Academy in Dubai designed to train and develop its leaders and regional workforce.
An even deeper dive was exploring The Retail Summit, which brought together leaders within Dubai’s fashion retail industry with those from abroad, in partnership with Dubai Chambers, which helps provide economic development, business opportunities, and more. This annual event hosted over 500 attendees at the Palm Atlantis, a luxury hotel resort constructed as a palm tree. This year’s feature speaker was Tommy Hilfiger, who shared his entrepreneurial journey of how he started his first store with $150, and how he grew his brand to worth over $10 billion today.
Additionally, The Retail Summit brought together leaders from around the world to share the latest trends affecting the global retail industry.
Professors and students of Heriot Watt University School of Textiles and Design pictured with Tommy Hilfiger at The Retail Summit.
Dubai is also full of outdoor collaborations, connecting brands within art, culinary, fashion, and hospitality, including the Dior exhibition with Nammos restaurant and the Idriss B. exhibition with Atlantis, The Palm resort.
Going even deeper was to visit some of the local specialists in Dubai that help create the retail experience, including building stores, pop-ups, window displays, events, and more that can be found at such places as the Dubai Mall. These specialists all have experience doing business in Dubai in various capacities.
SignWorks is the largest luxury retail production company in the Middle East, with a headquarters of 145,000 square feet in Dubai, 35,000 in Riyadh, and 20,000 in Qatar, and a team of 400+ professionals.
Abra Visual Merchandising & Store Design is a one stop shop for design & production of luxury shop fittings, interior fitouts and bespoke joinery for the Middle East and Africa region, with production facilities in Dubai and Riyadh for a total size of 200,000 square feet including dust-free paint booths, router and laser machines, metal and glass fabrication, and wood working machinery.
Harlequin Design is retail design and production agency that has extended its reach to the Middle East, with their fifth global location in Dubai (in addition to London, Milan, New York, and Shanghai), providing luxury expertise in creative, project management, fabrication, shipping and installation.
Store Makers Middle East is one of the largest and most renowned companies for retail interiors in the Middle East with its substantial manufacturing capacities and retail expertise as well as an even wider service portfolio.
Delta Global is a leading worldwide luxury packaging provider specializing in luxury papers, fabrics and bags, rigid and flat pack boxes and accessories such as ribbons, tissue and stickers, the company also offers sustainable finishes, embossing and more.
Scandit is a Swiss technology company that provides smart data capture software. Their technology allows any smart device equipped with a camera to scan barcodes, IDs and text and to perform additional functions using augmented reality and advanced analytics.
Have you visited to Dubai yet? What are your thoughts, please share them in the comments below.