A Quick Visit to Dubai

I went to Dubai on Oct 1st for a week. It was quite an experience. Never have I seen so much black that was fashionable without being over the top. I saw all kinds of Abaya's, with rhinestones, with shiny Japanese Silk, with beautiful embroidery, embellished zips, polka dots and bows. All of them Black, but beautiful and elegant. I was quite impressed and inspired by all the black. And I absolutely love the concept of an Abaya. It's quite simple to put an abaya on top of whatever you're wearing like a coat for a hot climate. I also love how dresses and skirts peek out under the abaya or down the front from about the knees down. That itself adds an artistic touch to everything.

Offcourse there was color in abundance in the stores. Lots of Indian Sari's and fabrics, as well as beautiful Moroccan inspired Jalabas with lots of details. Fashion is definitely alive in Dubai. I was a bit shocked to see Prom dresses and evening dresses exactly like ones in the US but I guess I shouldn't have been, knowing what arab women wear indoors behind closed doors. Still I felt with all their beautiful dresses why would they patronize those? Atleast I only saw about a handful of them.

Skirts were another thing that I went gaga over. I felt them too expensive otherwise I would have gone crazy. That plus my handluggage was already full. There were black satin silks in an ultra modern minimalist style, plus sleek silver ones, denim punk rock long skirts, lots of bohemian inspired earthy floral skirts as well as colorful ones. The main thing I noticed was that silks and satins and charmeuses seemed to rule the day. I certainly am not complaining those are my faves!

Another thing I discovered was the way the women wore their scarves or shayla. Overwhelmingly with their hair done high up in a bun. I found that helps give it shape so your head doesn't look flat. And the hair clips and pins with rhinestones and all sorts of designs to keep it put and add your own personal touch. I loved the fabric it's so light and transparent but long enough that you wrap it around enough times to be solid but it's still light enough that you won't sweat in it. I'd say the average price for one of those scarves is DHS35 but depending on the embellishments I've seen up to DHS200. The best part about shopping their is you get to haggle and bargain that part was great! I got quite a few bargains. My best purchase was the Bahraini style Abaya I think everyone should have one. It's almost like having wings. Its loose in the back but inside there's a string that you tighten that gives you a little definition in the front then the hands hang loose. I'll post a picture cos describing it is a little tricky.

I went to the Mall of the Emirates and The City Center Mall in Dubai among other places. The malls were spotless, smelled great (which gave my allergies a field day, I had a mild cold / sniffles the whole time I was there too much perfume everywhere!) and was very familiar. They had all the well known brands like Zara, H&M, Debenhams, MNG, Ralph Lauren, etc and other lesser known brands. But for me the exciting thing was seeing the Muslim design stores such as Ameerah, Habayeb and others. Habayeb and a store next to it had some really interesting Abayas, they were very nice but very expensive. One Abaya was DHS7000 at a rate of DHS3.6 = $1 you do the math!!. I saw Gucci Abayas and YSL ones as well as Chanel, but then in the end I couldn't make up my mind as to whether or not they were actually designed by those designers or not. For all I know someone could have just added their names with rhinestones just to add a designer touch to it. Does anyone know the truth of it? If they were actually designer abayas, there was nothing special about them at all.

I took way too many pictures but unfortunately I only got a camera after I finished visiting the malls so most of the pictures are just landscapes. But I'll post pics of some of the fabrics I got from there.