DUBAI — Karen Wazen is scaling her namesake label from an influencer eyewear line into a full lifestyle brand, and she is doing it on an increasingly international footing.
The Dubai-based entrepreneur opens her first United Arab Emirates flagship for Karen Wazen Collection at Dubai Mall Friday, the most high profile marker of a growth plan that spans a multistore rollout in Egypt, a category push beyond eyewear into jewelry and accessories, and ambitions in the U.S. and Europe.
Wazen frames the opening as a global statement. “For us, Dubai Mall represents an international expansion, because of the target of the space and the footfall,” she told WWD. “It’s our global flagship, not just the UAE one.”
The 40-square-meter boutique sits in the mall’s new Social District, the redeveloped former gold souk now anchored by buzzy food and beverage concepts. Finished in stainless steel, with high ceilings, mirrors and a free-to-use photo booth, it leans into the experiential, community-first positioning Wazen credits for the brand’s momentum.
The Karen Wazen boutique in Dubai Mall will be the new global flagship for the influencer created brand
“Our retail space has really changed the game for us,” she said. “Sunglasses are an accessory people like to try on, so giving them a place to do so was important. But ours is very much a community brand. People love to feel they have stepped into the world of Karen Wazen.”
Launched in 2020, the label is a wholly owned, profitable family business. Wazen leads marketing and creative vision, while her husband, a former HSBC banker, oversees the business alongside her brother-in-law. The eyewear is designed in Paris and manufactured in Hong Kong, pairing premium acetates and lenses with accessible price points. The collection is now carried by more than 20 retailers worldwide, but Wazen says direct-to-consumer is the brand’s largest channel.
The Dubai Mall opening brings Wazen’s footprint to roughly 10 doors across Lebanon and the UAE, including duty-free locations. Wazen recently announced a joint venture in Egypt with Baraka Group, the country’s largest eyewear distributor, targeting more than 14 stores over three years. The first two, in East and West Cairo, are slated to open by late June. The U.S. and Europe are also on her radar, with America being her second-biggest e-commerce market.
The growth plan tracks with a deliberate push beyond sunglasses. Wazen has added jewelry, belts and other accessories, categories she said have “picked up significantly over the past year,” and she is steering the label toward what she calls a “full-on lifestyle brand.”
She is also navigating the question facing every creator-led business — how to institutionalize. “The brand is picking up without a really strong correlation to me,” she said. “I see people wearing the glasses and they have no idea who I am, don’t recognize me. That feels really special, because that is the goal. I don’t want the brand to be solely dependent on me.”
For Wazen, securing space among the global giants at Dubai Mall is also a signal to the region’s homegrown labels. “If you had asked me a few years ago if I imagined having a store here, I would have said absolutely never,” she said. “We almost felt it was reserved for the big international brands. Today, we are proving otherwise.”
The opening lands at a fragile stretch for Dubai’s retail and tourism economy, which has absorbed the strain of regional instability since the conflict that erupted earlier this year. A homegrown, founder-led label committing to permanent space at the mall is a bet on the city’s resilience. “More than ever, local brands need space and they need hope,” Wazen said. “I hope our story inspires others to know there is room for everyone here.”