Shop by craft
Best of Dubai; search or filter for all 49
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia / Dubai, UAE
Abdul Samad Al Qurashi has been dealing in oudh, amber, musk, and oriental perfumes since 1852 — six generations of expertise.
Best for Oudh, amber and musk from a six-generation perfume house
Dubai Mall
Dubai-founded cosmetics brand launched in 2013 by Huda Kattan and sisters Mona and Alya, growing from a 2010 makeup blog into a global line best known for false lashes and matte lipsticks; sold in the region via Sephora's Dubai Mall counter.
Best for Dubai-born global beauty brand.
Huda Beauty was founded in Dubai in 2013 by makeup artist Huda Kattan together with her sisters Mona and Alya, growing out of a WordPress beauty blog Kattan had started in 2010. The company launched with a line of false eyelashes sold through Sephora, which gained visibility after being worn by celebrities including Kim Kardashian; the brand has since expanded to more than 140 products spanning foundation, eyeshadow and lipstick. Kattan, who moved to Dubai as a child when her father took a teaching post there and later trained as a makeup artist in Los Angeles, sold a minority stake to TSG Consumer Partners in 2017 and repurchased it in 2025, returning the company to full founder ownership.
Dubai, UAE
Ajmal is a Middle Eastern perfume house specializing in oud fragrances, attars and Arabian perfumery. The range centers on oud fragrances, attars and Arabian perfumery, with production described as crafted in Dubai using premium Middle Eastern raw materials.
Best for Oud fragrances, attars and Arabian perfumery
Dubai, UAE
A Dubai-based perfume house founded in 1979 that offers exceptional Middle Eastern fragrances at accessible prices.
Best for Accessible Middle Eastern luxury — La Yuqawam series, bridging oudh and Western perfumery.
Dubai, UAE
Founded in 1974 in Dubai, Swiss Arabian was the first perfumery house to blend Western and Oriental fragrance traditions.
Best for First to blend Western and Oriental traditions — Shaghaf, authentic Bakhoor incense.
Dubai, UAE
The official US shop includes an authentication label guide for checking packaging before purchase. Orders ship from its American warehouse, while the catalogue spans women’s, men’s and unisex eau de parfum.
Best for Raghba (addictive gourmand), Oud for Glory (BR540 alternative) — genuine quality under $30.
Al Quoz 3, Dubai
A bean-to-bar chocolate factory and retail store that roasts, grinds, tempers, molds, and packages chocolate under one roof. The factory uses cocoa sourced from origins associated with the historic maritime Spice Route.
Best for Bean-to-bar chocolate roasted, tempered, and packaged on-site
Al Quoz
Dubai-founded specialty roaster launched by Kim in 2007, joined later by co-founder Matt as equal partners. RAW roasts direct-traded beans at its Al Quoz warehouse and pours them at its own daily café.
Best for Ritual and Black Tie coffee blends roasted in Al Quoz
RAW Coffee Company traces back to 2007, when co-founder Kim — a longtime Dubai resident holding a New Zealand passport — spotted a gap in the emirate's coffee scene and started roasting. Matt joined a couple of years later, and the two became equal partners, growing the business on their own investment rather than outside funding, an approach that later earned them entrepreneurial golden visas and recognition within the UAE's food and beverage sector. Every bag is still roasted at RAW's own warehouse in Al Quoz, which the founders describe as the heart of the operation, and the company deals directly with growers at origin rather than through anonymous supply chains, prioritizing traceability and fair pricing. The Al Quoz café runs daily from 7:30am to 6pm, pouring the roastery's own signature blends: the Ritual Coffee Blend, the Working Coffee Blend, the Black Tie Coffee Blend, and the LBD Coffee Blend. It amounts to a rare model in the region — a specialty coffee business built slowly by two people rather than franchised or investor-driven, with direct-trade relationships and warehouse roasting standing in for a corporate supply chain. For visitors, RAW offers Dubai's coffee culture as its founders actually built it, one blend and one grower relationship at a time.
Alserkal Avenue
Independent vinyl record shop opened in Dubai's Alserkal Avenue in May 2017 by DJ and producer Shadi Megallaa; stocks new and secondhand electronic, jazz, hip-hop, soul and reggae records and runs a DJ course on-site.
Best for Dubai vinyl, turntables and DJ releases
The Flip Side opened in May 2017 in Unit 71 of Alserkal Avenue, Dubai's converted-warehouse arts district in Al Quoz, founded by Egyptian DJ and producer Shadi Megallaa. Megallaa, who also runs the Ark to Ashes record label, had worked at a record shop in New York and opened the shop to fill a gap in vinyl retail in the UAE. The store stocks a genre span from electronic to jazz, hip-hop, rock, soul and reggae, mixing new pressings with used stock. Beyond retail, The Flip Side runs an 'Art of DJing' course and hosts in-store events.
Alserkal Avenue
Dubai community space combining upcycled café, repair workshops, fair-trade shop and cultural venue. Dog-friendly with locally-sourced, organic menu and salvaged materials.
Best for Upcycled and repaired design objects with their own stories
KAVE describes itself as 'a space of patience, of soul, of love made visible'—a multifaceted social enterprise on Dubai's Alserkal Avenue combining sustainable practices with community engagement. The space operates an upcycled café serving organic, locally-sourced meals while encouraging customers to bring reusable cups. Approximately 95% of the wood used in construction came from salvaged sources. Beyond dining, KAVE runs repair services, hosts workshops and educational activations, operates a fair-trade retail shop, and maintains a monthly 'Market of Misfits' celebrating vintage items. The venue is dog-friendly and available for event hosting. KAVE tracks environmental impact metrics including water reuse and waste reduction, positioning itself as both environmentally and socially conscious. The organization blends commerce with activism, serving as a cultural anchor for Dubai's growing sustainability-focused community.
Dubai
Founded in Dubai in 1990, Hanayen manufactures abayas and traditional garments in-house with more than a hundred craftspeople, combining machine tailoring with hand embroidery. Its workshops produce modest wear for the UAE and the wider Gulf.
Best for Emirati abayas and modest wear
Al Seef, Bur Dubai
A UAE-founded sandal and footwear brand drawing on Arabian Peninsula traditions. Established 2013.
Best for Sandals and footwear drawing on Arabian Peninsula traditions, est. 2013
Dubai Design District
Run by Emirati designer Aljoud Lootah from Dubai Design District, this studio makes furniture, lighting, objects and jewellery drawn from Emirati craft traditions. Pieces are produced as limited editions and bespoke commissions rather than mass retail.
Best for Emirati-inspired design objects
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Middle East pen retail beyond general marketplaces is thin, but Pens Corner in Dubai is a genuine, directly verifiable exception.
Best for Fine pens, engraving and restoration at a Dubai specialist
Middle East pen retail beyond general marketplaces is thin, but Pens Corner in Dubai is a genuine, directly verifiable exception. Its own site, penscorner.com, displays "Since 1997" and its About Us page states the shop traces its lineage to King's Traders, a Karani-family pen business also referenced independently by the Khaleej Times as one of Dubai's older writing-instrument retailers. The site's own "first exclusive pen shop in the UAE" framing is the business's own marketing claim rather than an independently confirmed superlative, and its stated King's Traders founding year (1964) conflicts with King's Traders' own current site, which states 1965 — both figures are reported here rather than one asserted as settled. The physical store is located in the Al Khaleej Centre, Bur Dubai.
The site's own homepage lists roughly seventeen brands carried, including Cross, Waterman, Parker, Sheaffer, Lamy, Porsche Design, Kaweco, Graf von Faber-Castell, Sailor, Caran d'Ache, Pelikan, Pilot, Platinum, Montegrappa, Fisher, and Conway Stewart. Services advertised directly on the site include free engraving, gift wrapping, personalized gift cards, corporate bulk ordering, and pen restoration and repair.
Pens Corner Trading LLC is named on the site as the entity that owns and manages the business, and free UAE delivery is offered on orders above AED 300.
Dubai
Al Nassma makes chocolate from camel milk rather than cow's, moulding it into bars, praline caravan boxes and hollow camel figures. Produced in Dubai as the first camel-milk chocolate line of its kind, it flavours several editions with honey and Arabian spices.
Best for Camel-milk chocolate bars and gift boxes
Dubai
Dubai streetwear label and store founded in 2014 by Mike Taylor, Flo Moser and Emirati partner Khalid; opened Dubai's first dedicated sneaker boutique in December 2015 and a two-story Jumeirah flagship combining store, cafe and barbershop in 2021.
Best for Curated streetwear and regional exclusives.
amongst few began in 2014 as a conversation among three friends -- Mike Taylor from Britain, Flo Moser from Austria, and Emirati co-founder Khalid -- about what a homegrown streetwear brand for the Gulf could look like. At the time, Dubai's street culture scene was far smaller than it is now, with limited specialty footwear retail in the city. The trio opened their flagship store in December 2015, credited as the first brick-and-mortar shop in Dubai carrying specialty sneakers alongside its own apparel line. The label's design work fuses regional cultural references -- including the ghitra headscarf pattern and Arabic calligraphy -- with contemporary streetwear silhouettes, distinguishing it from imported Western labels sold elsewhere in the city. amongst few has also worked on collaborations beyond its own line, including NBA off-court apparel in 2018 and a Reebok Club C 85 'Magic Carpet' sneaker in 2022. In 2021 the brand opened a two-story flagship in Jumeirah that expanded the original store-only format into a combined retail space, cafe, barbershop and an invite-only studio -- positioning amongst few as a lifestyle hub rather than a single-category shop.
The Courtyard, Al Quoz
Vintage and high-end guitar dealer in Dubai's Al Quoz Courtyard, stocking rare guitars, amps and pedals alongside Custom Shop Fender and Gibson instruments; runs an in-house luthier workshop and guitar-building classes.
Best for Master-built guitars and boutique amplifiers
Art of Guitar operates out of The Courtyard, a converted warehouse arts complex on Street 6A in Al Quoz 1, Dubai's industrial gallery district. Founded to fill what The National described as a gap in the region's vintage and high-end guitar market, the shop combines retail with a working museum feel, mixing rare vintage instruments, amplifiers and effects pedals with modern Custom Shop and Masterbuilt models from Fender, Gibson and boutique brands like Rickenbacker. Staff describe over 150 years of combined experience sourcing and selling guitars. The store also functions as a small gallery, displaying guitar-related art, and runs guitar-building workshops led by in-house luthier Basil Azizoghly, alongside a published trade-in program for players looking to sell or swap instruments. Its Al Quoz setting places it among a cluster of galleries and independent studios in the district's warehouse spaces, distinct from Dubai's mall-based retail.
Al Quoz Industrial Area 1, Dubai
A vintage furniture store selling mid-century seating, tables, lighting, rugs, art, and decorative objects sourced internationally.
Best for Mid-century seating, tables, lighting, rugs, and internationally sourced vintage decor
United Arab Emirates
Ayyam Gallery occupies Warehouse #11 at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai’s Al Quoz Industrial district, representing contemporary artists from the Middle East and beyond since its founding in 2006. Alongside exhibitions and art-fair presentations, its online viewing room and store let collectors browse and purchase work beyond the physical gallery as part of its continuing commercial program.
Best for Contemporary art, gallery, Middle Eastern art
Times Square Center, Al Quoz, Dubai
A specialist tabletop retailer selling board games, card games, role-playing games, miniatures, puzzles, painting supplies, dice, and gaming accessories. The shop runs in-store events and supports tabletop gaming communities.
Best for Board games, RPGs, miniatures, and painting supplies, with in-store gaming events
Back to Games was founded by Mark Azzam in late 2015, opening its first shop at Shams Boutik Mall on Abu Dhabi's Al Reem Island as, by its own account, the UAE's first retailer dedicated specifically to modern board and card games -- a category distinct from the mainstream toy chains that had previously carried only a narrow selection of mass-market titles. The concept expanded to Dubai in 2017, with a second outlet holding its grand launch at Times Square Center on Sheikh Zayed Road on 24 March 2017. The store stocks board games, card games, role-playing systems, tabletop miniatures, and the paints and hobby supplies used to finish them, and runs in-store events aimed at building a local tabletop community rather than simply moving stock. Back to Games has since grown to three physical locations across Abu Dhabi and Dubai -- including a further branch at Town Centre Jumeirah -- alongside an e-commerce operation, positioning it as the UAE's specialist alternative to general-purpose toy retailers for tabletop hobbyists.
Dubai Mall
The first Bloomingdale's outside the United States, opened February 1, 2010 inside The Dubai Mall. Operated under license by Al Tayer Insignia (Al Tayer Group) rather than by Macy's, Inc. directly, spanning a three-level, 146,000 sq ft apparel and accessories store plus a separate one-level home store.
Best for Designer fashion beauty and homeware
Bloomingdale's Dubai opened on February 1, 2010, as the first Bloomingdale's location outside the United States, the result of a licensing partnership between Macy's, Inc. and Dubai-based Al Tayer Group. The store is run day-to-day by Al Tayer Insignia, the same Al Tayer division that also holds the UAE license for Harvey Nichols; Al Tayer Insignia later opened a second Bloomingdale's in Kuwait's 360 Mall in 2017. The Dubai location anchors The Dubai Mall with two separate buildings: a three-level apparel and accessories store covering roughly 146,000 square feet, and a one-level, 54,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's Home store. Like its US counterparts, the Dubai store carries designer ready-to-wear, accessories, beauty and home goods from a mix of international luxury and contemporary brands, adapted to the regional market. Because it operates under a franchise/license structure rather than as a directly Macy's-owned unit, product assortment, pricing and operations are set locally by Al Tayer rather than being identical to a US Bloomingdale's. It remains one of the anchor department stores of The Dubai Mall alongside Galeries Lafayette.
Al Quoz
African-inspired concept store and café in Dubai's Al Quoz warehouse district, founded by Nomi; sells fashion made from Nigerian-sourced fabric alongside handcrafted home decor and art sourced directly from Africa.
Best for Colorful African craft and design in a Dubai concept store
Blumi was founded by Nomi, who grew up in an African village where her family steered her toward conventional careers such as accounting or medicine rather than design. After spending time in the UK, she returned to Dubai and opened what she originally conceived as a fashion boutique. When she found a large warehouse space in Al Quoz, she expanded the concept beyond clothing into home decor, art and eventually a café, describing her reasoning as not wanting 'to limit it to fashion alone.' The store operates out of Goshi Warehouse Village in Al Quoz 3, a part of Dubai's industrial district that has become known for independent cafés and creative studios. Blumi's fashion pieces use fabric sourced from Nigeria and are produced locally in Dubai, while its home-decor offering — baskets, wall art, furniture and other pieces — is sourced directly from artisans and makers across Africa. Nomi has described the shop as a way of bringing African craftsmanship and design narratives into a Gulf retail context that rarely foregrounds them, positioning Blumi as a cultural showcase as much as a shop.
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Bouguessa is a Dubai-based luxury womenswear label known for architectural, sculptural silhouettes designed for timeless, everyday elegance. Its flagship online store, run from the brand's atelier at Dubai Design District, sells full seasonal collections from co-ords to outerwear alongside a dedicated UAE storefront.
Best for Womenswear, fashion design, luxury apparel
Al Wasl
Shipping-container retail and dining destination developed by Meraas along roughly 1.5km of Al Wasl Road, Dubai. Opened in 2015 using over 200 converted containers, housing about 45 independent shops, cafes and restaurants plus a Roxy Cinema.
Best for Shipping container retail and street art.
Boxpark Dubai opened in 2015 as a retail and food-and-beverage development stretching along Al Wasl Road, built by Meraas — a Dubai government-linked developer — with its in-house design team, Studio M. The project's defining feature is its construction from more than 200 modified and insulated shipping containers, stacked and combined with precast concrete elements to form individual retail units and restaurant spaces along the strip. The concept follows an international trend of container-based pop-up retail, adapted here into a permanent fixture housing roughly 45 independent boutiques, cafes and restaurants, anchored by a Roxy Cinema location. Positioned between the Dubai Canal and Jumeirah Beach, the development has been credited with helping revitalize the surrounding Al Wasl corridor and giving small, independent retail and food concepts a foothold they might not otherwise afford in Dubai's larger mall developments. The venue reports roughly one million visitors annually.
Al Quoz Industrial Area 3, Dubai
An appointment-only ceramics studio selling handmade coiled vases, tableware, candleholders, and home objects produced in Dubai. Ceramicist Nicole Farrelly founded the studio. Established 2019.
Best for Handmade coiled vases, tableware, and candleholders from Nicole Farrelly's appointment-only Dubai studio
Cole & Cinder is a Dubai ceramics studio founded in 2019 by Nicole Farrelly, working from inside Oka Ceramics' workshop in Al Quoz Industrial Area 3, where visitors are received by appointment rather than through open retail hours. The studio describes itself as rooted in the art of coiling — the hand-building technique of stacking and smoothing ropes of clay into form rather than throwing on a wheel — though its own account of its process also describes direct hand-sculpting. Clay is sourced from both Europe and China, and the resulting pieces are presented as deliberately imperfect, each carrying its own quirks rather than being machined to uniformity. The stated inspiration behind the work is the geometry and texture found in natural forms, filtered into a pared-back, muted aesthetic across four in-house collection lines — Studio Line, Form Line, Collectors Line and an Everyday Tableware range — spanning statement vases, plates, bowls, cups, candleholders and tapers. The studio's own language, 'Timeless forms, made in the moment,' summarizes its positioning: functional, individually hand-finished objects made and sold directly from the workshop rather than produced at volume or distributed through third-party retail.
Jumeirah
Comptoir 102 is an organic café and concept store, offering healthy food, sustainable fashion, and holistic wellness.
Best for Organic café and sustainable concept store.
Dubai Mall
Creed boutique at Dubai Mall; the house traces to London in 1760 under James Henry Creed, is now Anglo-French and Paris-based, and is best known for its top-selling fragrance, Aventus.
Best for Heritage French niche fragrances.
This location is a Creed boutique at The Dubai Mall - one of several UAE outposts for the brand alongside a store at Mall of the Emirates. Creed traces its founding to London in 1760, when James Henry Creed established a tailoring house serving British nobility; company lore holds that a pair of scented leather gloves was presented to King George III around that period, marking the brand's move into perfumery. Today Creed operates as an Anglo-French niche perfume house based in Paris, with boutiques across cities including London, New York, Paris, Sydney, and Dubai. Its best-known fragrance, Aventus, launched decades after the brand's founding and remains its top seller.
Al Quoz Industrial Area, Dubai
A vintage and thrift clothing shop selling retro sportswear, denim, varsity jackets, dresses, T-shirts, and accessories.
Best for Retro sportswear, varsity jackets, and vintage denim
Dubai Mall
Dior Dubai is a French luxury maison, offering fashion, leather goods, and fragrance.
Best for Dior fashion and handbags
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Forrey & Galland has crafted chocolates in the Belle Epoque tradition since 1912, when its ateliers first opened on Paris's Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. Today the maison operates from The Dubai Mall with same-day delivery, click-and-collect, and a menu spanning macarons, chocolates, dates, and the signature Galland'Or gift boxes.
Best for Chocolatier, confectionery, macarons, dates
Dubai
An Emirati fine-jewelry house founded in Dubai in 2010 by Hamad Bin Shaiban Al Mheiri and Abdulla Beljafla; its Bahar collection in gold, diamonds, pearls and coral is built around the Gulf's historic pearl-diving heritage.
Best for Emirati jewellery shaped by Gulf heritage
Gafla was founded in Dubai in 2010 by Hamad Bin Shaiban Al Mheiri and Abdulla Beljafla. The name comes from the Arabic word for caravan, reflecting the brand's stated intent to carry regional stories and cultural memory forward through jewelry design. Rather than working from generic luxury motifs, Gafla builds pieces around specific Emirati and Gulf references — family rituals, historic symbols and coastal customs translated into wearable objects. Its Bahar collection is the clearest example: worked in gold with diamonds, pearls and coral, it is built directly around the Arabian Gulf's pearl-diving economy, which was the region's principal livelihood before the discovery of oil and depended on freedivers working without equipment in Gulf waters for months at a time each season. By anchoring a fine-jewelry line to that specific maritime history rather than treating it as generic ornament, Gafla positions itself within a small group of contemporary Emirati houses using regional heritage as a design brief rather than a marketing gloss.
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Gallery Isabelle operates from Unit 17 in Dubai's Alserkal Avenue arts district, representing artists such as Hassan Sharif, Mohammed Kazem, and Raed Yassin. The gallery mounts rotating exhibitions and viewing rooms and is open Monday through Saturday for in-person visits and sales.
Best for Contemporary Middle Eastern art at Alserkal Avenue's Unit 17
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Green Art Gallery opened as a salon d'art in a Jumeirah villa in 1995 and now operates from Unit 28 in Dubai's Alserkal Avenue, representing a multi-generational roster of artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. The women-led gallery mounts rotating exhibitions and is open Monday to Saturday for visits and sales.
Best for Green Art Gallery opened as a salon d'art in a Jumeirah villa
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Grey Noise runs from Unit 24 on Alserkal Avenue's Street 8 in Dubai's Al Quoz district, showing a rotating program of present, future, and past exhibitions from its represented artists. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday for in-person visits.
Best for Rotating Alserkal Avenue exhibitions from Grey Noise artists
Dubai Mall
Kayali builds layered fragrances around vanilla, musk, fruit, florals and oud-influenced accords. The Dubai Mall counter is useful for testing combinations, since the brand explicitly encourages wearing several scents together.
Best for Arabic-inspired modern fragrances.
Villa 106, Jumeirah Beach Road / Online
Kulture House in Dubai — Regional jewellery, abayas and homegrown brands in a reimagined 1980s Jumeirah villa with café and pop-up exhibitions.
Best for Regional jewellery, abayas and homegrown brands in a reimagined 1980s Jumeirah villa
Al Quoz Industrial Area 4, Dubai
A warehouse shop buying and selling vintage, retro, antique, and pre-owned furniture, lighting, crockery, posters, clocks, and decorative objects. The business also repairs, restores, rents, and trades furniture. Established 2020.
Best for Vintage furniture, lighting, crockery, and clocks, with repair and restoration
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Lawrie Shabibi is a contemporary art gallery in Dubai's Alserkal Avenue warehouse district, founded in 2011 by William Lawrie and Asmaa Al-Shabibi and focused on emerging and historic Middle Eastern and North African artists. It runs its own Shopify-based store for editions and publications, and has placed works with institutions including the Guggenheim, Tate Modern, and LACMA.
Best for Emerging and historic Middle Eastern and North African art from Dubai's Alserkal
Dubai Mall
Dubai Mall’s 96,000-square-foot footwear destination — more than 250 designer names, restoration, styling and specialist services under one roof.
Best for Comparing 250+ designer footwear labels in one Dubai Mall destination
Level opened in Dubai Mall in 2012 as a new kind of footwear department store: roughly 96,000 square feet devoted to shoes, bags and accessories rather than a single house. Its current first-party account describes more than 250 designers across women’s, men’s and children’s edits, with personal-shopping suites, restoration by The Cobbler and other specialist services built into the flagship. The useful distinction is breadth: this is where a shopper can compare established luxury names, emerging designers and sneaker releases in one destination rather than moving between separate boutiques.
Jumeirah 1, Dubai
A family-run Dubai bookseller carrying books, educational toys, stationery, arts-and-crafts supplies, gifts, and school materials. The company began trading in 1975, and its official history describes Jumeirah as its spiritual home.
Best for Family-run Dubai bookseller carrying books, educational toys, stationery, arts-and-crafts supplies, gifts
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
The gift shop of Dubai's Museum of the Future sells souvenirs tied to the building's exhibits, organized into lines like O.S.S. Hope, Al Waha, and Future Heroes covering toys, stationery, and apparel. It operates both inside the museum, which sits next to Jumeirah Emirates Towers, and as a full online store with its own direct online ordering and account system.
Best for Museum-shop, gifts, toys, design-objects
Al Wasl
Set in a villa at 999 Al Wasl Road in Umm Suqeim, o'de rose is a concept store gathering apparel, jewellery, furniture and homeware from Middle Eastern and regional artisans. Founded to support regional and disadvantaged makers, it pairs Arabic craft traditions with contemporary design.
Best for Regional artisan fashion and homeware
Deira
Dubai’s Perfume Souk is a cluster of traders selling oud, attar, bakhoor and custom-blended fragrances. It is a market area rather than one merchant, and quality varies by individual seller.
Best for Oud, attar, and custom-blended Arabic perfumes.
Dubai / United Arab Emirates / Online
Rami Al Ali's online atelier showcases the Dubai-based couturier's ready-to-wear, bridal, and evening collections, from the White bridal series to the Autumn Winter 2027 line. Orders ship worldwide with complimentary delivery, and clients can book a private or virtual styling appointment through the site.
Best for Fashion design, couture, bridal wear
Al Quoz
Vinyl and hi-fi shop in a warehouse unit in Dubai's Al Quoz Industrial 1 district, stocking used and new records across genres plus turntables and audio gear; an authorized dealer for British loudspeaker maker ATC.
Best for New vinyl and cds
Raw Music Store operates from a warehouse unit at Al Marabea Street, at the corner of 14B Street, in Dubai's Al Quoz Industrial 1 district - a part of the city known more for workshops and light industry than retail, which is where several of Dubai's specialist shops, including its record stores, have ended up due to space and rent. The shop stocks used and secondhand vinyl spanning genres from jazz, soul and funk to electronic, metal and hip-hop, alongside new and reissued pressings from established labels, positioning itself as a broad source for collectors rather than a single-genre specialist. Beyond records, it sells turntables, amplifiers, speakers and vinyl-care accessories, and is listed as an authorized dealer for the British loudspeaker manufacturer ATC Loudspeakers, putting it in a small category of Gulf retailers carrying serious two-channel hi-fi equipment alongside record bins. It has been featured in Time Out Dubai's guide to the city's vinyl-buying spots and is listed on Discogs' directory of physical record stores, both of which treat it as one of a handful of dedicated vinyl retailers operating in the emirate.
Deira
Founded in 1954 by Shaikh Mohd Saeed as one of the first perfume shops in Dubai's Deira souq, Shaikh Saeed Perfumes still manufactures its own oud attars, bakhoor and dukhoon incense, with pieces held in the Dubai Museum.
Best for Family-run since 1954 in Dubai's historic Deira perfume souq
Shaikh Saeed Perfumes opened in 1954 as Al Souk, one of the first perfume shops in Dubai's Deira souq, founded by the late Shaikh Mohd Saeed on what is now Sikkat al-Khali Street, in the historic quarter that still sits beside the Gold and Spice Souks along Dubai Creek. More than 70 years on, the house still manufactures its own fragrances rather than reselling outside stock, working across oud attars, spray eau de parfums, and traditional bakhoor and dukhoon incense. Its standing in Emirati fragrance history is documented rather than claimed: pieces from the house are held in the Dubai Museum, and its work also appears in the city's dedicated Perfume Museum. Over the decades the company built out a portfolio of house brands beyond its own name — Al Hunaidi, Dhammasons, Giovanni Bacci, Saattco, Paris Oud, Bernard Dimitri and Armas among them — turning a single Deira perfumery into a wholesaler and manufacturer supplying multiple labels across the UAE. The Deira shop itself remains the through-line: a business that opened as Dubai's early trading culture along the Creek was still forming, still running from the same souk district seven decades later.
Galle Fort
Stick No Bills began in Galle Fort and now runs galleries there and in Dubai and Barcelona, selling authorised, museum-grade fine-art prints and vintage-style travel posters. Its Church Street gallery specialises in Ceylon and Sri Lankan destination imagery.
Best for Authorised Ceylon travel-poster art prints
Dubai
The Camel Soap Factory makes cold-process and milled soaps, creams and balms using camel milk together with Omani frankincense and essential oils. Everything is produced in the UAE, cruelty-free, and sold as skincare and heritage-scented gifting.
Best for Camel-milk soaps and skincare
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Founded in 2005 on Dubai's Alserkal Avenue, The Third Line represents contemporary artists from the Gulf region and its diaspora, including Farah Al Qasimi, Hassan Hajjaj, and Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian. The gallery welcomes visitors daily from 11am to 7pm to view and acquire work through its exhibitions and viewing rooms.
Best for Gulf-region contemporary art by Farah Al Qasimi, Hassan Hajjaj
Neighbourhood walks
Area names come from each shop’s published address record; ORBIS does not invent neighbourhoods.
ORBIS city intelligence
Dubai’s commercial brilliance is access: almost any object can be placed within reach, quickly and convincingly. The city’s central shopping discipline is therefore separation—platform from provenance, display from manufacture, headline price from final cost, and purchase convenience from after-sales reality.
Availability is not provenance. A watch in the world’s largest mall is not automatically a Dubai purchase. A European handbag does not become locally meaningful because the transaction happened beside a fountain. Even gold, oud and regional dress need to be separated into material, maker, market and service before the city’s glamour becomes useful.
Dubai is strongest when its logistics reveal rather than conceal the chain. The right question is not “Can I buy it here?” but “What has Dubai added?” Sometimes the answer is access. Sometimes it is roasting, blending, design, service or a marketplace that allows unusually efficient comparison. Sometimes the honest answer is nothing beyond convenience.
The most compelling Dubai category is fragrance, especially concentrated oils, oud compositions, bakhoor and the spectrum between regional perfumery and international spray fragrance. Abdul Samad Al Qurashi, Ajmal, Rasasi, Swiss Arabian and Lattafa Perfumes make it possible to compare houses, concentrations and interpretations within one city.
The comparison becomes meaningful only when “oud” stops functioning as a single word. A composition may contain natural agarwood, a blended accord, synthetic reconstruction or several materials working together. Natural oud also raises sourcing and wildlife-trade questions. A reputable seller should be able to identify the product, concentration, size and intended use, even when a complete formula remains proprietary.
Use blotters to narrow the field, then test one or two finalists on skin and leave long enough for the dry-down to emerge. Dubai’s heat, air-conditioning and enclosed retail environments can make the opening feel more decisive than it is.
The Perfume Souk in Deira is valuable because it keeps the regional grammar visible: oils, incense, burners, attars and custom blending. The malls are useful for controlled comparison and formal returns. One is not more authentic by default. They are different retail systems.
The Gold Souk is a district, not a guarantee and not one seller. Its advantage is density: several quotations can be gathered without crossing a city.
A serious quote separates metal fineness, weight, reference gold rate, making charge, stones, tax, resizing and repair. That structure allows two objects to be compared honestly. A hallmark may support a fineness claim, but it does not prove weight, stone treatment or a fair labour charge.
For gemstones, the documentation should rise with the value. Treatments, laboratory reports, setting quality and future resizing belong to the purchase. Dubai can make comparison efficient, but efficiency helps only when the same components are being compared.
For a deeper category framework, ORBIS’s Jewellers & Silversmiths guide explains why metal, stone, labour and service should remain distinct.
The city’s most persuasive local chapter is not a mall. It is Al Quoz.
Mirzam Chocolate Makers makes Dubai’s contribution visible through bean-to-bar production, factory activity and workshops. The cacao comes from elsewhere; the local value lies in sourcing, roasting, refining, recipe, design and the way those decisions are made public. A good purchase records origin, cacao percentage, allergens, shelf life and the temperature the bar can tolerate after leaving the factory.
RAW Coffee Company offers a parallel story. The coffee plant did not grow in the UAE. Dubai’s contribution is the selection, roasting, brewing advice and service around the bean. Buy according to your grinder and brewer, not according to a romantic origin note that your kitchen cannot reproduce.
Alserkal Avenue adds contemporary art, publishing, records and design to the same industrial district. The Flip Side is meaningful not because vinyl is locally manufactured, but because the shop sustains a music community and an exacting edit. KAVE The Story of Things belongs to the city’s reuse and repair conversation; its programme should be checked before building a day around a workshop.
The district works because it makes transformation visible. Dubai is not claiming to have grown cacao or coffee. It is showing what it did next.
Hanayen and Tamashee represent different relationships to regional dress, footwear and design. “Emirati design,” “Gulf style,” “made in the UAE” and “sold in Dubai” are not interchangeable claims.
Fit, material, production country, alteration and care should be understood for the exact item. An abaya may be ready-to-wear, altered, made to order or formally bespoke. Footwear may draw on regional forms while being produced through a contemporary supply chain. The story becomes stronger, not weaker, when those distinctions remain visible.
Aljoud Lootah Design Studio is part of the contemporary Emirati design landscape, but a studio practice should not be treated as a guaranteed walk-in shop. Appointment and public access need direct confirmation.
Deira is the right environment for perfume, gold and the old commercial grain of the city. Downtown and Dubai Mall are strongest for exact-model comparison, formal service and international brands. Al Quoz and Alserkal Avenue carry the productive and independent chapter. Trying to compress all three into one day turns geography into fatigue and shopping into transport.
Dubai is more useful when each district is assigned one method: compare in Deira, verify in the mall, understand production in Al Quoz.
The UAE’s tourist VAT-refund system applies through participating retailers and governed procedures. Eligibility, invoice requirements, export timing and validation should be confirmed before payment through the retailer and the current official scheme. The expected refund should never rescue an object that is poor value at the full price.
For international luxury, the warranty may be global, regional or tied to the selling retailer. A price comparison is incomplete until warranty, exchange rate, tax treatment, service location and final landed cost are included.
Dubai’s speed becomes an advantage only when the comparison is exact.
Leave the fragrance whose material story never becomes more precise than “pure oud.” Leave the gold quote that cannot be separated into weight and labour. Leave chocolate that will spend the afternoon in a parked car. Leave the global product whose only local contribution is a shopping bag.
Dubai is not diminished when the platform is named honestly. Its real authority lies in moving the world—and, at its best, showing exactly what happened to an object along the way.
Use Dubai for what it does exceptionally well—comparison, logistics and access—while insisting that origin, warranty, refund and service remain attached to the exact object.
Continue with the Dubai buyer’s guide, follow the Dubai shopping route, read “Dubai: The Platform Is Not the Provenance” or the city feature, compare the city with Istanbul, or Browse stores.
Dubai's specialist shops offer several ways to make a purchase personal without making it extravagant. At Mirzam, the choice can begin with a cocoa origin; at The Flip Side, it can begin with music you want to hear again. Pens Corner provides a different starting point: the way a writing instrument feels in your hand 126.
These five stops are selected for distinct interests, not presented as a single walking route. Tamashee's flagship lists visits by appointment, while the record shop identifies a unit at Alserkal Avenue. Pens Corner gives a Bur Dubai retail address separate from its postal address 357. Arrange the visit that needs planning first, and let the remaining choices follow what you actually want to bring home.
Mirzam Chocolate Makers describes making bean-to-bar chocolate in its Dubai factory. Its catalogue includes single-origin bars from Tanzania and Papua New Guinea, alongside drinking chocolate and products using dates. The official site identifies its factory and store at Al Ghurair Warehouse Complex in Al Quoz 3 1.
Start by deciding what you want to compare. Two plain bars with different cocoa origins make a different tasting exercise from a plain bar beside one with an added ingredient. Keep their labels so you can connect a preference to an identifiable product later.
If the chocolate is a gift, consider the journey after leaving the shop. Ask how the actual purchase should be stored and explain any further travel. A product intended for drinking also needs preparation information; it should not be chosen as though it were simply another eating bar.
Check the ingredients on the particular package rather than transferring assumptions between recipes. A date product and a single-origin dark bar can answer different tastes even when they come from the same maker. Choose the format the recipient will use, not just the box that looks appropriate to the trip.
The Flip Side separates local labels and Arabic music from its broader genre categories. Used records and CDs or cassettes are also listed distinctly. Its official location is Unit 71 at Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz 1, giving you a specific destination rather than an unspecified stop somewhere in the arts district 23.
For discovery, describe music you already enjoy and ask for a connection rather than a record that represents all of Dubai. The local-label section provides a useful starting point, but the shop's wider catalogue need not have been produced locally. Keep the artist and label details with anything unfamiliar.
When buying a title you already know, check which edition and format you are considering. A familiar cover does not establish the pressing, and a used copy deserves an enquiry about its condition. Listen to an authorised preview where available instead of choosing an unfamiliar release solely by its sleeve.
Plan how the record will travel without pressure on its sleeve. If you do not own suitable playback equipment, say so before choosing a format. An album you can actually play at home is a more useful purchase than one selected only as decoration.
Tamashee offers sandals for men and women, with faux-leather styles separated within its range. The brand presents its design around Arabian Gulf identity, while accessories form another part of the catalogue. Its flagship page lists Al Seef Heritage Souq, S3-43, Bur Dubai, and identifies the boutique as appointment-only 45.
Contact the boutique before making a special trip, and name the styles you want to compare. A catalogue photograph can help explain your interest, but cannot settle how a particular sandal will sit on your foot. Do not assume a size used in another shoe will answer that question.
Try the fit with attention to the sole and the points where the upper meets your foot. Ask about the material of that specific style rather than assuming the whole range is leather. The distinction is especially relevant when choosing from the separately labelled faux-leather collection.
If buying for someone absent, consider how you would establish fit before personalising the gift. Get any proposed arrangements directly from the seller. A cultural reference can draw you to the design, but comfort still needs to be part of your own buying decision.
Pens Corner lists writing instruments from brands including Pilot and Lamy. Its catalogue distinguishes fountain pens from rollerballs, even within a named model family. The contact page places the shop at D001, Al Khaleej Centre on Mankhool Road in Bur Dubai; the separate post-office box is not the visiting address 67.
Begin with how you use a pen. Writing short notes and working through long pages can lead to different preferences about weight and grip. If the shop permits testing, use the kind of writing you normally do rather than judging only a signature.
For a fountain pen, establish the nib option and filling system before choosing the colour. Ask what ink or refill you will need and how readily you can obtain it at home. A pen that is pleasing to hold can still become an inconvenient purchase if its consumables are a mystery.
If it is a gift, leave room for the recipient's preferences rather than assuming a familiar brand determines the choice. Confirm the exact model and any personalisation arrangements before committing. Keep the product reference with the pen so a later refill enquiry does not depend on describing its appearance.
Swiss Arabian separates perfumes from concentrated perfume oils in its UAE catalogue, with incense and home fragrances in their own categories. The Shaghaf collection is one named range, while hair mists appear separately. Those distinctions are a practical starting point: similar names do not make products interchangeable 8.
Begin by explaining if the purchase is for personal wear or for a room. Ask to compare a small number of relevant options rather than accumulating several unrelated impressions. Record each product's full name and format so you can return to the one you preferred.
Check the instructions for the specific product before using it. In particular, do not treat a home-fragrance item as a skin perfume simply because its scent is familiar. Nor should a word such as oud in a product name be taken as a complete statement of its ingredients.
For a present, finding out what the recipient already enjoys is more useful than assuming they want a powerful scent. Use the house's UAE contact and store locator to confirm the intended shop and item. The international web catalogue is not proof of what a Dubai branch currently carries.
A musical reference helps the record enquiry; a brewing plan helps the drinking-chocolate purchase. The same principle applies to a pen's refill or a sandal's fit. Choose the two interests that matter most to you, confirm current visiting arrangements, and keep the product information with anything you buy. The value of these stops lies in making an informed choice, not in covering every address.
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