Dubai Success Story: How Dalia El Ali swapped finance for fashion design
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00:00I am Dushar Radha Krishnan, I am the entertainment editor Gulf News, today I am back with the
00:12Dubai success story, we all know that we love to reinvent and here is Dahlia who is like
00:18I think the queen of the invention, she was an investment banker before she became a designer,
00:24fashion designer and now an art collector, tell me more about it, an entrepreneur who
00:29is in two, many businesses right? Sure, so it started with of course everyone studied in university
00:36a degree that you thought your career will be in it and I did love investment banking,
00:42I was very happy until of course I got married and I got my kids and it was a bit too much pressure for
00:49newborns to have a full-time job especially investment banking is very demanding so me and
00:55my husband decided that I should take a break and go back in a few years and that few years
01:00I decided to take courses with LCF London College of Fashion for fashion design because it's always
01:06been my passion and after that I really enjoyed it so much that I couldn't go back to banking
01:15I created my own line, I had my own showroom and design district and the brand was extremely successful
01:24until Covid came and at that year it was very hard to maintain any small business so I decided to
01:32downsize and at that time my name as Dahlia Ali as in someone who's born and raised here and knows a lot of
01:39people in the fashion from clientele to sourcers and everything a lot of brands became reaching out to
01:47me to collaborate on different projects and from that I became an entrepreneur and now I actually have
01:56Dahlia Ali company which runs different things from hosting events to luxury brands to having my own
02:04warehouse in Serkal where we exhibit 40 designers it's an exhibition we do it every two months and that's
02:13mainly to support a regional talent after being a regional designer and knowing how hard it is to be in that
02:19field I wanted to give back so that is something that I do you could say quarterly and the third
02:29kind of business that is my brand itself I want to revive it this year so hopefully it will be back
02:36in business soon right but of course art became part of just a hobby so I don't work in art but I love
02:44collecting art and I'm part of Art Saloon which is the small group from Art Dubai that we travel the world
02:53for Art so it's it's lovely when you think of investment banking you think of somebody cracking
03:00numbers you know and being in a boardroom etc what made you you know that's a lucrative career that's
03:06easy money I think yeah what would you think why did you decide to do something creative it was a gamble
03:12right yeah of course it was a gamble and it's all I always say till now being your own boss and having
03:18your own business is a big gamble in life you need to have the right support and you need to be
03:24talented enough or keen enough to reach to that goal so it needs a certain personality kind of of a
03:33hustler yes for you to really be able to do it because as you said no matter how tiring physically
03:40a corporate job is it's still an eight to six and you get paid so there is not a lot of creativity
03:47there there's not a lot of working harder than of course nothing beats a physical corporate job
03:55no one is putting anyone down it's just a different way of um uh struggle right when you decided to take
04:03the plunge what was your biggest fear um honestly I loved the investment banking so I was scared that
04:10I'm missing out a big opportunity which still till now sometimes I say I wish I didn't leave corporate
04:15life because I like corporate life I like to have a proper business and to have um to talk to different
04:23also um nationalities and meet different uh people from different criteria and no one can say creative
04:32world is better than corporate world they give you totally different kind of satisfaction a corporate
04:38world gives you satisfaction on a different level it opens up your brain you use your brain more
04:44like you said you use numbers you research you read more you're up to the world knowledge more and
04:50that's really good to challenge your brain and of course you get paid more um creative world is a
04:58different kind of world you can reach to your dreams and to things that you love and passion
05:06but it's a bit harder because you're your own boss so if you're not working hard you're not gonna
05:11get anywhere there's no one paying your salary at the end of the month right so it's a business that
05:17you need to decide what you want from it you want money or you want creativity or you just want to
05:23entertain yourself I would say for me as a mother and I wanted to be part of my kid's life and I knew
05:33corporate world will take a lot of that so I took the balance of having my own business so I work hard for
05:39it but at the same time I have the flexibility to travel with my kids stay with them at home be at
05:45home every day by 3 pm and that's the best part of my job that I am my own boss that's love it
05:53I like the fact that you're your own boss because there's no price that can be attached to it right
05:58because you have to be motivated which is not easy as well it comes with its pitfalls like nobody is
06:04there telling you listen you need to do this there are deadlines how do you stay motivated
06:09so you need to always I think every time you feel a bit demotivated or uncreative try to change your
06:19change your not carrier try to get a new project something that is totally new for me personally I go on
06:26trips that's how I get inspired to work again every time I feel core like cornered and I'm not feeling
06:32great or I'm feeling pressured I just go on a trip and that's how art came our trips were the most ones
06:39that made me feel comfortable and relaxed and inspired right so I come back refueled refreshed
06:47we are very fortunate here in Dubai that there is a lot of work and every market has its
06:55clientele and audience that's true so it's just you need to be smart to know what you're good at
07:01I have to say the investment banking background helped me a lot because I do have a business
07:06mentality a lot of my friends tell me how no no no it's just business did help me because I do believe
07:13if there is no business what's the point it right so I'm not just the creative mind my background of
07:19finance helped me a lot to be a business owner right and always wondered can creativity and art be
07:26monetized I think if you have the right help or the right background yes that that's that's where
07:32I think your degree also comes to you also have that economics at in 100 percent but that's a lot
07:38really and Dubai is one city where I feel people can reinvent like I have seen influencers just growing
07:45out of nowhere during covert for instance they just did videos at home and now they've become like
07:50house alone yes do you think Dubai as a city lends itself to reinvention yes 100 percent it's a very
07:57big city and it's extremely cosmopolitan and it grew so quickly that it gave so many opportunities to
08:04people and there it's still giving opportunities to people so yes in Dubai you have a voice more than
08:11other places in the world which is amazing um I just think that uh if you're not um hard working
08:19enough you're not gonna get anywhere because there's off competition right so this is I think what
08:24differentiates me from other people or you from other people if you are hard working you will always
08:30get somewhere nothing comes on a silver plate this is not true opportunities come but you won't be able
08:38to really take advantage of the opportunities or make it happen if you're not hard working right
08:43Daniel what was your background like uh like before you became the designer before your label began
08:50what was your childhood life for instance so I grew up in a lion which is the small small small town
09:00it was like the countryside exactly the zoo was amazing I'm like I loved growing up there because it
09:05was very small we only had two hotels and everyone was a member either in the heltonia or the intercon
09:11so everyone knew everyone from mothers to babies to siblings so we all were like playing tennis together
09:18basketball together swimming together so the community was lovely and I won't give it for any
09:25other childhood I loved my childhood and then from there I went to university in Lebanon American
09:31University of Beirut where I did investment banking and when I moved back my first job was in Dubai it was
09:37Shawah Capital which was one of the very leading investment houses and since then I've moved around
09:44the UAE I lived in Abu Dhabi for a while each I have to say the UAE in general is a very giving country
09:52and every place we moved to was amazing I enjoyed every stage and every stop you know excellent I love that
10:00do you think women can have it all I look at you you have a beautiful home I'm assuming kids and
10:06husband etc a very full life you have ticked the boxes but yes of course touch wood
10:12unfortunately no matter what you say there is nothing perfect like the what you see in social media is
10:18is a fake everyone knows it's a fake image it's not the reality and because we want to see happy
10:27so no one wants to put sad but of course not you are we are grown-ups and with grown-ups you have
10:33problems and you have stories and sick parents healthy parents the kids the responsibility the husband
10:43raising kids is very hard nowadays oh yes have you seen adolescence exactly having teenager boys is very
10:50difficult so no it's not always a happy go happy like everyone thinks i i'm i'm very fortunate and
10:59lucky that i'm a very smiley person so i always give very positive and cheerful energy to people around
11:05me and i'm always smiling even if i'm a bit down but of course life is life there's nothing called it's
11:12easy we are more fortunate and luckier than a lot of people in the world and that's we're very thankful
11:17for alhamdulillah we have amazing country amazing houses we're healthy we have our kids and that
11:25we're very thankful for but of course like everyone else life challenges nothing nothing serious alhamdulillah
11:32but of course it's just you live life so the global geopolitics what happened around in the region was
11:37really sad and it made people sad and it did all affect us all so no matter how happy we are but you feel
11:44deep inside we all became a bit more real and realized that we are very lucky and fortunate but
11:50at the same time life is too short that's true and catastrophes do come along the way without you knowing
11:59from where so you should always be thankful and try to make the best of what you have which you have
12:06i think galia you'll lead by example as well thank you have reinvented yourself last question if there's
12:11one lesson that you've learned during your reinvention from investment banker to creatively what would it
12:17be i believe in yourself and always put goals so that you can achieve achieve them because it will
12:26always help you to work harder you know like have a goal in your mind and everything you do in your life
12:32it and reaching that goal is the best feeling in the world and it will help you to do another goal and
12:37another goal right with your fashion designer you said you're going to start the label so i i snoozed
12:43the label for two three years during covert then i revived it a year ago it's not as active as before
12:50but hopefully this year i'm gonna reactivate it fully excellent on that note here is hoping you continue
12:57to reinvent yourself because reinvention is the name of the game yes thank you so much thank you dahlia and
13:03this is how she rolls in a beautiful home thank you excellent