Clothes that hold a meeting in one hand and an iftar table in the other.

In 2020, Aisha Rahman spent eight years as a senior merchandiser at a UK high-street fashion group before moving back to Dubai. She kept running into the same problem: the modest-wear market was split between religious-goods retailers and over-priced, under-fit luxury boutiques. Nothing sat in the middle — well-made, reasonably priced, actually designed for the women wearing it.

She started GlamStyle from her apartment in Dubai Marina in the same month the city went into lockdown. The first drop was a run of 40 abayas; she cut the patterns herself and had them sewn at a small atelier in Dragon Mart. Within six months the brand had an Instagram following of 3,000, a fulfilment space in Ras Al Khaimah, and customers in seven countries.

Five years on, we're a team of 14 — merchandisers, creatives, fulfilment, customer care. We design in Dubai; we sew across Istanbul, Bursa, and Karachi; we sample until the pattern is right and then we re-sample. We don't do theatrical discounts. We don't do fast fashion. We're building a wardrobe for women who expect their clothes to keep up with their lives.

What we stand for

• Size-inclusive, for real. Every new dress and abaya is graded to XXL. Most of our competitors still stop at XL. We grade every pattern individually — not by stretching the size L.
• Fabric first. Before a garment goes into production, we sample it in at least two fabrics and wear-test it for a week. The best-engineered cut fails if the fabric is wrong.
• Transparent pricing. No fake 70%-off drama. What's on sale is on sale because the season is turning.
• Return-friendly. 30 days, free returns in the UAE, and a prepaid label option internationally. We'd rather you returned one piece and loved the next than kept one you won't wear.

Where we make

Our core run is cut and sewn at two factories in Istanbul and one family-run atelier in Bursa. Embroidery is hand-done in Bursa on Ottoman-traditional patterns re-drawn for us by illustrator Merve Kılıç. Accessories — leathergoods and silk — come from small workshops in Florence and Como. Every factory we work with has been visited by a GlamStyle team member and is paid above the local market rate.

The team

14 of us, mostly women, across four offices: Dubai (HQ, merchandising, creative, customer care), Ras Al Khaimah (fulfilment), Istanbul (production liaison), and Karachi (embroidery liaison). You'll usually hear from one of three people when you email us: Noor (orders), Sara (returns), or Aisha herself on weekends.

What's next

An Arabic version of the site is shipping this summer. A small physical showroom at d3 in Dubai is opening in autumn 2026 — appointment-only, one stylist at a time. If you'd like to be on the opening list, drop us an email at hello@glamstyle.co.