IQOS reopens first multi-category boutique in Dubai Mall

IQOS has reopened its boutique in Dubai Mall following a complete redesign. Located in the mall’s Fashion Avenue, the boutique is the brand’s first multi-category retail set-up in the Middle East and North Africa and the fourth of its kind globally.

The new IQOS boutique reimagines the retail environment as an immersive, multisensory journey. The concept moves beyond transactional retail, creating a discovery-led space where legal age consumers can explore Philip Morris International (PMI)’s growing smoke-free portfolio in an engaging, personalised, and sustainable way.

“The experience has been designed so that legal-age consumers can self-discover the products based on their curiosity,” said Saim Yasin, Director of Smoke-Free Products at Philip Morris Management Services (Middle East). “All of this visual and sensory experience, whether through smell, touch, or sight, helps them understand the categories in a more meaningful way.”

The boutique also includes a personalisation station, where legal-age consumers can customise devices using digital tools and add engravings.

For the first time, the boutique also featured an exclusive art piece designed in collaboration with Dubai-based artist Kris Balerite. Known for his pioneering street art in Dubai and co-founder of acclaimed festival, Sole DXB, the artist’s bespoke piece The Thread is a striking symbol of community and connection.

“The Thread began as a reflection on everyone living in Dubai,” said Balerite. “I often observe people in the UAE, different languages, different cultures, different stories, yet somehow moving in harmony. It reminded me of threads in a single fabric: each one unique in colour and origin but tightly woven together to form something beautiful and whole. It’s curiosity that allows us to notice these threads, to seek connection and meaning where others might only see difference. That’s where the concept came from.

“I chose to build the design around the Sadu-inspired pattern, a traditional textile deeply rooted in the culture of the region. What I find so powerful about Sadu is that it’s both personal and shared: each region, each community has its own variation, but the rhythm and logic of the pattern always carries over. That’s the UAE in a nutshell, diverse, yet deeply aligned.”

“We wanted to make this boutique uniquely locally relevant,” Yasin added. “The UAE has people from all over the world – they come from different backgrounds, different ethnicities and nationalities, but work and progress together. That is what has made the UAE such a progressive place. The friendship bracelet is a symbolic representation of how each of these communities come together to make their own lives and the lives of those around them collectively better.”

The Dubai Mall boutique also reflects PMI’s multi-category strategy, showcasing various smoke-free product types, and aims to offer a space for adult nicotine users and smokers who would otherwise continue smoking to explore product categories and make informed decisions about their preferences.