How a Career Reboot Inspired Designer Mariam Yeya, Dubai’s Most Fashionable Woman

Mariam Yeya’s a-ha moment came during her honeymoon. After climbing the corporate ladder for years and becoming an executive director of a media company at 27, Yeya found herself fielding work emails and requests in the middle of what should have been an idyllic Italian getaway—and she’d had enough. Fed up with having no personal time and a boss without boundaries, she made a choice that would change her life forever. “With zero hesitations, I emailed my resignation letter the second day of my honeymoon, giving up the big title and the big money I used to make,” says Yeya. She also happened to be in Florence and surrounded by some of the world’s most luxurious boutiques—and she knew she wanted to segue into fashion, a fact hammered home by her supportive husband, Keepa. “His reaction was, 'you are made to do fashion,' she explains. “Those were the exact words I needed to hear to reassure my plans and refuel my energy to re-do it all over again from square one.”

Yeya’s second act has been especially chic. She enrolled in the Dubai branch of Esmod, the French fashion school, honing her skills as a designer before launching her label, Mrs. Keepa, in May of 2016. “I didn’t want to be a parasite on the industry," she says of her choice to invest in education. "We live in an era where everyone wakes up in the morning and decides to change career to one of three: a fashion designer, personal trainer, or cupcake maker." She started her Instagram page around the same time, documenting her studies by sharing sketches and designs alongside a vibrant selection of daily looks. Yeya is fearless in her interpretation of runway trends, wearing full Gucci looks and Balenciaga heels with aplomb while mixing in dramatic pieces from her brand along the way. Though she’s amassed hundreds of thousands of followers and become one of the Middle East’s best-dressed women, Yeya never sought online stardom. “It was a very random step to just follow the social media trend,” she says. “My outfit pics started to get randomly reposted and my follower base increased highly overnight.”

The social boon was unexpected, but it has helped to propel Yeya into the spotlight. She’s struck a chord with clothes for girls “who don’t really care what others think of their style.” And the brand, which now has its own atelier in Dubai and recently launched a made-to-measure line, is thriving, a fact that Yeya truly appreciates. “I was lucky to have a quite credible brand the day it was born—et voila, this is the story of our first baby!”

Here, the entrepreneur and designer reflects on her inspirations, growing up with a designing mother, and jet-setting style in Dubai.

Fashion should be experienced—even when you’re not working in it.

Throughout my upbringing, fashion was a lifestyle; to wear unique clothes with personalized fabrics and patterns was the norm. I used to watch my mother almost on a daily basis either sitting on her sewing machine or on the dining table cutting patterns to make herself, as well as my sister and me, some beautiful clothes. Designing and sewing was a hobby of hers, and I have to say she excelled at it.

Since my mother never commercialized her hobby, I in turn didn’t perceive fashion as a career or something one would make money from. I studied integrated marketing communication at the American University in Cairo, the where I pursued my career for almost 12 years, but I never gave up on fashion; I used to entertain the Dubai Media City with my daily corporate outfits!

Forget labels and embrace your truth.

I really find difficulty in describing my style. It is very personal, random, unplanned. I wear as well as design all styles, from vintage to bohemian, classic, tomboy, sexy—the list goes on. The way I mix pieces from different styles, prints, and fabrics together is what I think differentiates my personal style, as well as my brand, from others.

I just go to my dressing room, put my hands on any random piece, and some creative cells in my brain help me add some other random pieces which somehow leads to a successful outfit—to me, at least!

Dubai has its own distinctive fashion flavor.

Dubai is the Middle East's fashion hub—most of the international brands’ headquarters and Middle East flagship stores are based here. Hence we are lucky to get the brands’ runway looks and limited edition pieces at the same time as the international markets, which kind of helps our personal style to be fashion-forward. Dubai is also a cosmopolitan city with so many different nationalities, cultures, and authentic costumes, which is a great inspiration tool.