City Walk

Last year, Parisian concept store LE66 opened its first UAE outpost here, bringing their brand mix of more than two hundred designers—from Theory to Helmut Lang to Rachel Comey—to City Walk. The fairly large space houses menswear, home goods, and accessories, too. As a bonus, the store is open late (till midnight) on weekends.

Like Los Angeles, Dubai was not born a walking city (you'll be hard pressed to find more high-end cars in one place anywhere else in the world), but a number of ventures are changing that, creating walkable pockets across Dubai, from JBR to the developing outdoor retail/food space known as City Walk. Like other shopping centers in Dubai, you'll find international and well-known brands like Diane von Furstenberg, Vince, Agent Provocateur, and outposts of US restaurants (like Bareburger) and fitness classes (Physique 57). A more homegrown Dubai shop in City Walk is Bambah, founded by the incredibly charismatic and warm Maha Abdul Rasheed. A vintage aficionado, Rasheed started the Bambah concept as a vintage shop, grew a loyal following (women fly in from Saudi Arabia specifically to see her), and re-opened in City Walk, selling her own line of embellished, flirty formal and cocktail separates. It's very cool to see local Emirati women shopping at Bambah and the different ways they style the pieces—as Rasheed explains, sometimes making her looks their own for entirely covered wedding outfits, or mixing and matching a bright crop top with a full, high-waisted…