When Burberry asked Esquire to partner on an entrepreneurial-themed evening, we didn’t have to think for long before giving the British fashion brand an affirmative response.
Esquire has long championed the rise of regional talents within the region, and has the tagline ‘Refined Mavericks’ as its theme for 2017. Burberry, meanwhile, is a brand that strives to engage with new, disruptive ideas. Most recently its recent shift to the ‘See Now, Buy Now’ format allows customers to purchase items immediately after its runway shows, both physically and digitally. It also recently combined the menswear and womenswear shows into two seasonless, straight-to-consumer collections per year. And more recently, in 2016, Burberry was the first brand to shoot an ad campaign live on Instagram, through a global account takeover by Brooklyn Beckham.
Back in this region, Burberry’s 2016 Art of the Trench Middle East Campaign featured 40 influencers from the region – many of them from the business world. Two of those influencers joined Esquire editor-in-chief Jeremy Lawrence on stage at the plush Burberry store in Mall of the Emirates on February 1 to discuss their rise to success. Anas Bukhash is the co-founder of Ahdaaf Sports Club and of the UAE based talent agency, Bukhash Brothers. Tarik Al Zaharna is the founder of the Dubai-based architecture firm, T.ZED Architects. Both, incidentally, can be found in the February edition of Esquire, in stores now.
Bukhash and Al Zaharna have striven to build unique businesses that tap into the rich seam of opportunity that exists in the region. During the event they talked about what got them started, their inspirations, and what drives them towards excellence.
A select audience of fashion fans and fellow entreprenuers joined in with a barrage of questions and comments related to the subject of doing business in the Gulf. What emerged from the dicussion was a consensus that passion, together with hard work, and an ability to engage with people and ideas is what sets apart the leaders of today and tomorrow.
After the panel event concluded, guests made their way to Noir at the Kempinski Mall of the Emirates to continue their lively discussions over drinks. It was a fitting event to an engaging, refined evening in the company of some of Dubai’s brightest talents.
ae.burberry.com
