All you backstreet-scouring style hunters, rejoice. If mass-produced, heavily branded fashion are not your thing (it shouldn’t be anyone’s), a new men’s fashion store just launched in the UAE wants to talk to you.
Remy Rue, started by four entrepreneurs, wants to give style hunters the boutique alternative to what’s already out there — at affordable, fashionable prices.
The Directory caught up with founder and CEO Ricardo Simpson to talk fashion, online shopping and how he plans to give UAE men more stylish options.
Q: So tell us what Remy Rue is all about?
A: It’s all about sourcing good quality, unique, well-designed pieces of clothing from around the world, and offering these to the people of the UAE.
Q: How long has it been in the making?
A: The webstore has been in the making for the past 18 months. But the idea and the concept of Remy Rue is something that I’ve always wanted to do — since the age of 18 when I used to do shopping trips to London, relentlessly searching the backstreets around areas such as Shoreditch and Camden to find those individual, exclusive products that nobody else will have. I always knew that I wanted my own clothes store.
Q: Why a menswear store?
A: It was always going to be a men’s store, ever since I had the idea to own my own store. That, coupled with the fact that I’ve always felt that the UAE has a distinct lack of boutique stores. We seem to have two real markets for men’s clothes in the UAE: One is the mass produced products you find in high street stores such as Topman and H&M, and the other is the high-end designers.
Again you can find these in most cities around the world at extremely expensive prices. My idea is to offer something that is an alternative to those. Most importantly, my idea is to bring ‘boutique’ to Dubai for men.
Q: Who is your target audience?
A: My target audience are people who hold a strong interest in style. People who will go out of their way to find the right items of clothing to ensure that they achieve their own individual look. We don’t really have a direct pigeonhole of this type of person: It could be somebody who is 20 years old in university; it could be somebody who is a 50-year-old professional. The two things these people will have in common is their own unique identities.
Q: Who are the people behind Remy Rue?
A: There’s me, the CEO. I am an executive search consultant, who has spent last five years working with multinational pharmaceutical companies throughout the region. There’s Christina Wright Lyons, our creative director, who started out as a shop assistant within a men’s clothing boutique in the UK working her way up to their regional creative and operations manager. Blue Wright, our buying director, has spent the last 10 years working as a buyer for various men’s retail stores in the UK. And Matthew Gibson, our chief web designer, who is the young shining star within our organisation, responsible for transferring visions and ideas from our minds to the website.
Q: Why an online store as opposed to a physical store?
A: In a fast-developing, cosmopolitan country with cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which has experienced a large increase in population, there is opportunity. And with the gap that we aim to fill in the market, I felt it was the perfect opportunity. The plan is to launch our retail store in January 2015. The idea behind the website is to develop a loyal customer base and a cult-like following in advance of our retail outlet.
Q: What was the process of selecting brands and designers for the store?
A: It is really quite simple. First, we look at the quality of the item, the material has to be of a high standard. We want products to hold their shape over the years. Second is the creation of the piece: the cut, the shape and the build (the way a product sits). Third is the attention to detail. We like products where designers have thought about the finer details, where they use intricate detailing or pay extra attention to the way an emblem is embroided, for example.
Q: What has the response been so far?
A: The response has been overwhelming. We didn’t really know to start with, how receptive the UAE would be to our idea. But we knew that we were very passionate about it, and if we stuck to our principles of offering high quality, unique products and never straying away from that path, that our reputation would grow.
Q: What next for Remy Rue?
A: Too much to list. We have various new brands coming for our autumn-winter collections — again all new to Dubai. In September, we’ll have our official Remy Rue launch party. And finally our retail outlet in January 2015.
For more on Remy Rue, go to remyrue.com
