Beyond The Glitz

But the country's burgeoning alternative culture is most apparent in the retail sphere. Dubai's most eclectic independent boutique, S*uce, is headquartered in a strip mall set in an expensive residential area. Despite its prosaic location, the store is exuberantly offbeat, with a blend of feminine designer apparel and accessories from both regional talents such as Essa, one of the U.A.E.'s top designers, and international brands such as Cacharel and Vanessa Bruno. "The initial design concept for S*uce grew out of a desire to create the feeling of peeking into your best friend's closet," says head buyer and part-owner Zayan Ghandour. So they created an appealing display of pieces, each possessing a unique character that is expressed through color, embroidery and unexpected combinations.

The high-design gift shop 50ºC is another unexpected pleasure found in an unlikely setting: the Souk al Bahar mall, in the middle of Dubai's future "downtown" district centered around the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower. Straddling both high- and low-end, its offerings all share a strong design point of view, ranging from moldable furniture to limited-edition toys by the cult company Kid Robot, famous for its collaborations with artists in the fields of fine art, fashion, industrial design, graffiti and music. Shahi Hamad, an owner of 50ºC, applied a similar retail approach to her first project, Five Green, Dubai's original concept store, which opened in 2004. Designed by architect Khalid al Najjar, the contemporary concrete, steel and glass building showcases streetwear, artwork and limited-edition sneakers on a par with other international outposts of cool such as Paris's Surface to Air or New York's Reed Space.

Whether in traditional or cutting-edge venues, Dubai is still best defined by the consumer impulse. To be sure, the aura of worldly sophistication that surrounds this alternative cultural universe helps give the Emirate a patina of cool—an effect the government would be well advised to promote. As the number of unique destinations within Dubai continues to grow, it's clear that people like a little "counter-" with their consumer culture.

© 2008