How two female entrepreneurs are bringing circular luxury into physical retail

Life

Two female entrepreneurs are behind a new retail concept taking shape in Dubai, one that pairs Gemaee founder Safiya Mehbaliyeva’s work in luxury resale with interior architect Derya Aktan’s approach to design, built on the same belief that luxury today has as much to do with longevity and quality as it does with newness. The project sees Gemaee stepping off the screen and into a physical space, translating the values it has built online, trust, authenticity and a more considered approach to consumption, into a retail environment guests can actually walk through.

Founded by Safiya Mehbaliyeva, Gemaee deals in pre-owned bags, jewellery, watches and accessories from some of the biggest names in fashion, built around the premise that quality holds up better than the churn of trends and constant buying. The platform plants a tree with every purchase, folding a small environmental gesture into every transaction and treating resale as something closer to a cultural shift than a straightforward sales model, one aimed at making luxury fashion more sustainable and less wasteful over time.

Derya Aktan brings a design background shaped by her studies in Milan and more than a decade spent across the UAE delivering residential, commercial and retail projects under Deline Conceptual. Her current practice, The Longevity Design Method, pulls together architecture, neuroscience and wellbeing, looking past how a space looks on first glance to how it actually makes the people inside it feel, and how well it holds up as their needs shift over the years.

That approach is what’s shaping Gemaee’s new store, which moves away from a conventional retail layout in favour of something closer to a full sensory experience, one where customers are meant to feel at ease and genuinely connected to the space around them rather than simply passing through it. Spatial flow, lighting, material choices and sensory comfort have all been considered with Gemaee’s philosophy of conscious, timeless luxury in mind, giving the brand’s circular ethos a physical identity to match its digital one.

The collaboration is built on the idea that good design doesn’t stop at first impressions, that its real value shows up in how a space lives and evolves over time, which lines up neatly with what Gemaee is already doing with the pieces that pass through its platform. Where Gemaee gives luxury items a second life, Aktan’s design work is meant to give that next chapter somewhere considered to unfold, bringing fashion and interior architecture together around the same goal of conscious consumption and lasting value.

Led by Safiya Mehbaliyeva and Derya Aktan, the new store marks more than another opening on Dubai’s retail map. It’s a look at what a more thoughtful, longevity-driven version of luxury retail might actually look like.

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Images: Supplied & Feature image: Supplied