Life

Nada Debs has opened her first Dubai store at Alserkal Avenue.

It is quiet in tone yet considered in scale and clear in intent. Dubai, for Debs, is a natural setting for this next phase. “The UAE has become a real hub between the East and the West,” she says. “It’s a centre point. I’m happy to be here.” Alserkal Avenue, with its mix of galleries, studios, and slow foot traffic, suits the brand’s pace.

Debs founded her studio in Beirut in 2003. Her original boutique on Gemmayze Street was damaged in the 2020 port explosion. That moment changed the pace of the business and also shifted its geography.

Craft has always been the point. Raised in Kobe, Japan and educated in the US, Debs returned to the region through making. “I want to revive it and elevate it and make it into something relevant to our lifestyle,”  she says. Her work often draws on Islamic geometry, mother-of-pearl inlay, hand carving, and marquetry, which have become hallmarks of her working techniques. “Craft is an extension of our identity,” she says. In the store, you see this idea play out through detail rather than explanation.

You enter through a raw metal shell, the typical container-like structures you see in the cultural and arts district. Inside, it sits a wood-clad structure. Debs calls it a box within a box. “I came up with a concept of incorporating a wooden box inside this metal box,” she says. The idea came from constraint, not excess. The original shell was tall, narrow, and industrial. The solution was to reduce scale and bring warmth back into the room.

Downstairs feels deliberate. “It’s this cosy, four-meter-high ceiling. It’s warm and not intimidating,” she says. This is where the store lives. Small furniture, objects, and the new Palma collection invite you to slow down, look closely, and engage with the pieces. Upstairs, the mood shifts. A curved staircase leads you into a more open, industrial space. This level functions as a studio and sample library. “The attention is on the craft itself,” Debs says. “I’m trying to highlight the craft in each of the pieces I have.” Two circular windows cut through the upper floor. Debs calls them the two dots. They reference duality. Japan and the Arab world, old and new. “Our practice lives in the space between cultures,” she says. “The two dots represent coexistence. Distinct, but connected.” The store also carries a sensory layer. A soft scent of sandalwood, cedarwood, and incense fills the room. It is meant to calm rather than announce itself. “We wanted the boutique to be a centre of calm,” Debs says. “From the materials to the scent to the craft in the products.” There is a customisation area at the back of the ground floor where clients sit with materials and talk through finishes with a team of experts. “This brand is about the human being,” Debs says. “It’s about connecting with people through design.”

The opening took time. “It took over a year,” Debs says. “When we signed for the lease, the problems in Beirut were so severe. We got depressed. It was hard to get started.” The delay matters. This store is not the result of momentum, but a result of persistence.

The push came from close to home. “My son joined my business five years ago,” she says. “He kept telling me, everyone is asking to buy products in Dubai. Why don’t we open a store?” Today, her son Tamer Khatib runs the business as Managing Director. The Dubai opening marks that handover in a quiet way. “Since he’s my son, it can be a legacy. The company can now last another generation,” she says.

After two decades in practice, Debs is not trying to define herself. She is building a place that reflects how she works now – calm, precise and grounded in craft.

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Images: Supplied / Žiga Mihelčič