One of the most prized possessions in my house is a handmade tray created by WTD magazine for the dXb store. It bears an image of Metroplex, a place where many of the kids who grew up in Dubai used to hang out, go to movies, and sneak some shisha at Pyramids Café, complete with celebrity sightings and romantic drama.
Metroplex is gone now, along with another iconic landmark it was adjacent to—the Metropolitan Hotel, on Sheikh Zayed Road. This event, recent by any other city’s sense of time, is an example of how a lot of us experience a very particular kind of accelerated nostalgia.
Nima Nabavi grew up in Dubai and, like most expat kids, left for the States to attend college. He spent twenty years between New York City and L.A., and founded Digital Gravel, a pioneering premier online streetwear distributor. While Digital Gravel grew and went from strength to strength, Nima always wanted to do something that’s connected to Dubai and contribute to the growing creative scene here. He noticed that in places such as New York and L.A., brands would proudly display their cities in their names and make clothing that reflected their stories of growing up in those locations. Realizing that there was a gap, Nima created NONEOTHERDXB to reflect what, for him and “Dubai kids” (as he affectionately calls those living here), this city is (and was) about—and to communicate a sense of hometown pride and nostalgia.
After asking Nima why he chose to name the brand NONEOTHERDXB, I realized that in most of my conversations with people about Dubai, I almost always finish my DXB intro with, “It’s a city like no other,” or some variation of that.
Ask anyone who’s ever lived here. That’s the honest truth.
For more information, visit www.noneotherdxb.com.