Skip to main content
BoF Logo

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

The Business of Fashion
Global Markets

How South Asians Help Run Dubai’s Fashion Industry

People of Indian and Pakistani heritage are critical to the UAE’s fashion sector, leading billion-dollar retail empires, trading textiles and jewellery and stitching garments for Middle Eastern brands.
Whether building billion-dollar retail empires or stitching humble cloth, people from the Indian subcontinent are an integral part of the fashion industry in the United Arab Emirates.
Business links between markets in South Asia and the Middle East are evident across Dubai where companies like Indian jewellery brand Joyalukkas establish regional offices to trade, advertise and roll out GCC store networks. (Getty Images)
By
BoF PROFESSIONAL

It’s often said that Dubai businesses have expats to thank for much of their success but there is one overlooked community that has powered the local fashion industry longer than most. Without South Asians like Micky Jagtiani, the city simply wouldn’t be the same.

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

Further Reading

© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Global Markets
A guide to unlocking opportunity in emerging and frontier fashion markets.

How Mexico’s Independent Women Fashion Designers Are Rethinking Growth

At Soho House Mexico City, Mexican fashion designers Carla Fernández, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Camila Banzo joined BoF’s Yasmine Dahlberg to speak candidly about identity, innovation and what it takes to build an independent fashion business in Mexico — as part of both Women’s History Month and the House’s ongoing Women Shaping the Future initiative.

view more
Latest News & Analysis
Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

The Industry That Eats Its Young

Small fashion labels have always been shortchanged by their wholesale partners. A wave of high-profile bankruptcies has turned a structural injustice into an existential crisis. There is a better way to do business, writes Imran Amed.

The Zara-Fication of John Galliano

Fashion’s enfant terrible is trading exclusivity for the mass market. Is it the ultimate fashion coup, or the final surrender of prestige?

The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.

VIEW MORE

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.