Dubai: Michael Burke has good reason to be in Dubai this week. As the ultra-wealthy in the US and the rest of the world tighten their belts, the CEO of luxury clothing giant Fendi is visiting his best customers.

With the highest-end spending dwindling rapidly in the West, the GCC represents a key market for luxury retailers such as Fendi.

"It's not a crisis here," said Michael Burke, CEO of Fendi. "We have a crisis in the US, especially in the department store. The Japanese department stores are struggling. But with the UAE it's not a crisis."

"It's our highest growth in the world," added Philippe Fortunato, managing director of the Fendi Group.

On Saturday, Fendi opened its third store in the UAE, making their total 11 in the GCC. Indeed, the Arab world is of increasing importance to the company, including North Africa, with three new stores planned for Morocco by the end of next year. "North Africa is the next opening-up market," said Fortunato.

Although the pair would not give an exact figure on sales growth within the GCC region, Burke described it as high double digit growth. "It doesn't start with a one, or a two, or a three," he said, smiling.

A true luxury house, explains Burke, displays its designs on the runway and in turn those who are interested come to the showroom and place orders. The made-to-order pieces are then shipped. This kind of merchandise of course however, comes with an enormous price tag.

But Burke believes the reason that those in the GCC countries haven't shied away from the super expensive is down to more than just a happy supply of cash. It's a certain mindset that seeks a clear lifestyle despite the price tag. Indeed, an example he uses is Italy, which is suffering a disastrous recession.

"We see the same thing in Italy," he said. "We have northern Italy and southern Italy and our business in southern Italy is on fire. Certain cultures have a more positive world view than others. It's a little bit of a North/South thing."

During a global economic recession, the key to success with high-end ladies of fashion, says Fortunato, is excellence in service, something particularly significant to Fendi's Middle Eastern customers.

"Because they will travel the world to buy from a specific store if they are very happy with the service," he said. "We do provide this very personal, high-grade service to our clients."

Quizzed on the form such personalised shopping services can assume, Fortunato has a ready answer: "Whatever the client wants."

Personalised shopping service can happen in the home and within Fendi's stores. The new store is divided in half by huge, sliding doors which appear to be a wall. "You are in the biggest fitting room in Dubai," Burke says.

Visiting homes and palaces and placing special orders is something that has always been important to the Middle Eastern shopper for high-end clothing. For years the region's wealthy have been joining their American and European counterparts in Rome and Paris to shop.

"They've been buying like this for much longer than most people think," said Burke, who has worked in the industry for other houses such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Mark Jacobs.

"Most people think the luxury business [here] only started when people began opening stores. Well, it started back in the 1950s. They went to Paris and Rome, then their daughters went in the 1980s. This is our third or fourth generation of Gulf customers, and it's cultural."

Now, as the region more and more represents the highest growth for haute couture, it is coming to them.

"There's another strata of consumers that is really basically here," said Burke. "It used to exist in America - the couture customer who would go to Paris and to Rome. That kind of customer has disappeared. The biggest percentage of them are here."

And what proportion of their sales in the region are made through such personalised shopping?

The Fendi bosses are reticent. Burke simply says, "It's big". "Significant," says Fortunato, breaking into a smile.