Nine West has trod a sure and steady path since it was first established in New York nearly 35 years ago, and to mark the reopening of its flagship Dubai store, Ninive Giordano, the senior vice president of product development at Nine West, flew in from the US. Rebecca McLaughlin-Duane gets the skinny on the trends she’s forecasting for 2012.

Ninive Giordano is the senior vice president of product development for Nine West. Pawan Singh / The National

Nine West recently opened its newly refurbished doors in Dubai Mall, coinciding with the launch of a vibrant spring/summer 2012 collection. You’ll need a pair of comfortable shoes to walk around the boutique, which boasts more than 1,500 square feet of wall-to-wall footwear, bags and accessories.

Is there a predominant theme to the S/S2012 collection?

There is no one theme, but there are some key trends we’re addressing for spring/summer 2012. Colour has been very important, prints too, and strong combinations like florals, for example. Our customer appreciates graphic prints and we think she is also welcoming metallics more so than she was last year. I don’t think she’s ready to give up platformed shoes just yet, either.

Name some key seasonal colours.

Yellow is very important this season and our consumers are still coveting all shades of blue. Red is being embraced and pink is definitely back – from soft, pale pink to hot fuchsia. More info

DUBAI // Police have introduced a batch of electrical vehicles they say will help them to patrol narrow and crowded areas not easily reached by cars.

The new vehicles do not produce carbon dioxide and are larger than a golf buggy but smaller than a police car.

They will also be used to carry employees and visitors at police headquarters.

Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the chief of Dubai Police, launched the first batch today.

“We at Dubai Police continuously seek a safe and clean, sustainable and attractive environment,” Gen Tamim said.

He said that the vehicles would help to reduce emissions and noise, and would improve levels of “occupational health and safety”. More info

The gold souq in Dubai Mall has reopened after a nine-month closure during which the market underwent a major redesign.

Rebranded The Souk, the huge area in the middle of one of the world’s biggest malls now has a long, wide avenue running through it, where it once had a labyrinth of walkways.

The redesign includes three life-size metal camels at the entrance, a corridor of ladies’ Arabic fashions and small wagons that run along the main avenue selling jewellery.

“I think I like it, personally,” said Jay Soni, the general manager for Manish Jewellers, which opened its store in the new souq on Wednesday. “Now I can see people walking in. They would get lost in the corridors before.”

Emaar Properties, the developer behind Dubai Mall, decided to overhaul the gold souq last year after a flurry of jewellers went out of business because they could not survive on the trickle of tourists visiting the market each day.

As many as 50 jewellers pulled out, some leaving unpaid rents and being chased last year by Emaar via the Dubai Municipality Rent Committee.

The gold souq has now been cut from more than 200 retailers to about 50. More info

Good lighting can make or break an interior, but a bespoke light feature can utterly transform it, creating a captivating statement that sets the tone for an entire home. Whether it’s a delicate crystal chandelier or a mammoth lighting sculpture that experiments with unusual materials and the latest LED technologies, bespoke lights are now an essential element of the luxury interior.

Lasvit is behind the spectacular chandelier on the ground floor of Hyatt Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Courtesy of Lasvit

In terms of design, the possibilities are thrilling – just look to the ceilings of the lobbies, restaurants and bars of some of the UAE’s most exciting new hotels, where you’ll more than likely be greeted with a stunning installation by the Czech lighting company, Lasvit. “The Emirates love Lasvit” their website proudly announces – and it appears to be true.

In the lobby of Abu Dhabi’s new Capital Gate Hyatt, you’ll see Wave, a 17m long, 9m-high behemoth made of hand-blown and hand-shaped pieces of glass, which emulates the dramatic motion of water. In At.mosphere Grill and Lounge in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s highest restaurant, you can dine under Bubbles Elevated, a tumble of hand-blown amber spheres that cast a golden glow over the restaurant’s banqueting table. In the pre-function area at Jumeirah Etihad Towers, there’s Oculuc, a stunning choreography of handcrafted crystal and glass components that took the team from Lasvit an incredible 12 weeks to install.

From the Royal Enclosure at the Meydan Grandstand to the The Ritz-Carlton DIFC and even the Dubai Metro, there seem to be very few places where you won’t come across a Lasvit creation. In fact, tennis fans may have noticed that the trophy handed to Novak Djokovic when he won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in December was also created by the Czech glass and light specialist, designed by a Zayed University student as part of a design competition hosted by Lasvit.

Even Dubai’s Metro passengers will be familiar with the company’s installations. When the designers of the Metro came to do the interiors of the stations, they found themselves in a unique position. With most metro stations around the world, designers have had to focus on making the space entirely vandal-proof – hence the usual cold, hard-edge palette of steel, glass and concrete.

Not so in the crime-free city of Dubai. So the designers decided to go all out, and introduced a series of luxury finishes, including chandeliers, in key stations. Lasvit chandeliers, to be precise. More info

Anyone who has heard the choking roar of an engine being throttled as the sleek frame of a Formula One car turns a corner will find it hard to associate the sport with environmental awareness.

Green and go: Formula One teams are turning to environmental thinking by reducing their carbon footprint. Julio Munoz / EPA

But seeking to reduce carbon emissions has become standard corporate-social-responsibility fare – and even the F1 stables have jumped on the bandwagon.

One of these is the Lotus F1 team, whose drivers include Kimi Räikkönen, a former world champion.

Lotus drivers finished second and third in the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 22. The team aims to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of this year.

While Lotus was neither first in the race in Bahrain nor the leader in turning to environmental thinking among F1 teams, it is in the driver’s seat in reducing, rather than simply offsetting, its carbon footprint.

The team has hired Advanced Global Trading (AGT), a carbon-credits trader in Dubai that provides consultancy for companies looking to boost their green credentials.

AGT, which Lotus hired for three years, will first audit Lotus’s operations, including its headquarters in the United Kingdom and its suppliers, as well as the Lotus team’s activities on the road.

After thorough stocktaking, AGT will advise Lotus on ways of reducing its carbon emissions.

“To properly reduce emissions, you have to reduce them in your daily work,” said Stephen Curnow, the chief commercial officer at Lotus. “It’s not just a case of just buying credits.”

Despite the best intentions, a sport based on driving big-engined, fuel-burning cars at high speeds will never be able to function without emitting carbon dioxide, so the team will make use of AGT’s trading capabilities to buy credits to achieve the desired carbon neutrality.

AGT will also help Lotus’s sponsors, among them Marks & Spencer, Unilever and Symantec, to reduce their emissions.

“The image of F1 is perhaps slightly unfair,” said Mr Curnow. “If you look at any large international event, you need to transport fans, equipment … so really, F1 is no worse or better than [many of those competitions].”

At least compared with many companies and organisations in the Middle East, the gas-guzzling F1 seems to fare favourably, given the still-fledgling nature of green thinking in the region. This provides opportunities for AGT’s carbon-emissions trading business.

AGT, founded two years ago, relocated its headquarters to Dubai shortly after its inception. The company has several offices around the world.

Although AGT has advised multinational companies such as Rolls-Royce and Samsung on carbon reduction, its UAE operation has focused on the trading of carbon credits.

“Our main business in Dubai has been on the personal investment side; credits are a tradeable commodity,” said Charles Stephenson, the director at AGT.

This is changing, however.

AGT has started working with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to transform it into the region’s first transport regulator to achieve carbon neutrality. AGT also counts the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority and the property company Landmark among its clients. More info

DUBAI // Researchers in Dubai are looking at ways to lure people out of their cars and on to public transport, after it was found that nine in 10 motorised trips are made in private vehicles.

Nine of 10 city trips in Dubai are made in private vehicles. Pawan Singh / The National

The figure is extremely high, exceeding the global average of 60 per cent, and even the Middle East average of 85 per cent.

The fundamental problem is that, despite the UAE’s transport infrastructure being regarded as a leader in the region, the car remains the most convenient way to get around.

“It gives you a sense of freedom of movement,” said Dr Arun Bajracharya, who conducted the study at the British University in Dubai.

“It gives you a sense of satisfaction and, if used again and again, it becomes attractive and people don’t want to use other forms of transportation.”

Roads were the priority when Dubai was first developing.

“Before the RTA [Roads and Transport Authority] took over, the main emphasis was expanding the road network,” Dr Bajracharya said.

“Settlement is sectored here and roads were sparse, so there was little chance of movement by walking or cycling otherwise.”

That problem has not gone away. The city’s communities are spread several kilometres apart and with only two metro lines, travelling on public transport takes time.

Cars are cheap in Dubai and the roads are world class, Dr Bajracharya said.

“The costs of maintenance, registration and fuel makes [cars] very affordable,” he said. “Because of these factors, people tend to use cars.”

And large parts of the city still lack decent public transport. Academic City on the Al Ain Road, where many of Dubai’s universities are based, is hard to reach without a car.

“Accessibility and availability isn’t there yet,” said Dr Bajracharya. “Public transport also takes longer than driving, even with traffic.”

Many students at Heriot-Watt University take the Metro to Rashidiya, from where a single bus travels to Academic City.

The bus journey takes an hour, passing through International City and Silicon Oasis.

“If there was a metro a lot of our students would use it,” said Chris Burgoyne, the university’s student president, adding he would use it instead of driving.

Afshan Pathan, an MBA student at Amity University, who lives in Karama, tried the Metro and bus route. It took an hour and a half – twice as long as the privately operated minibus she now uses.

“There was a lot of waiting time for the bus and then it was a very long journey,” Ms Pathan said.

Part of the answer could be dedicated bus lanes to let services run faster. A pilot scheme has set up lanes in Bur Dubai. More info

Majid Al Futtaim plans to double its portfolio of major malls across the region by the end of the decade with a US$2 billion (Dh7.3bn) funding programme in place.

Majid Al Futtaim, the developer of Fujairah City Centre, plans to invest billions of dirhams to open 10 more malls. Sarah Dea / The National

The developer behind the country’s City Centre brand wants to open as many as 10 malls in five years, with a potential investment of several billion dirhams.

Last week, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) opened its 11th mall, Fujairah City Centre, and the developer is seeking land in Abu Dhabi for a major shopping centre but has yet to find a suitable plot.

“I think to put it into context, our plan is to double the size of the company over the next five to seven years to go from 10 malls to 20 in that period,” said Peter Walichnowski, the chief executive of MAF Properties, the company’s malls division. He was speaking at the opening of the Fujairah mall. “We want to be represented across the Middle East and North Africa.”

MAF has a total retail area of more than 800,000 square metres across the region. It has six malls in the UAE, including Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, two in Egypt, two in Oman and one in Bahrain.

The Fujairah mall cost more than Dh400 million to build, while MAF said last month that an Abu Dhabi mall would cost about Dh3bn.

“If you say ‘do you have interest in Abu Dhabi?’, yes because we are an Emirati company and Abu Dhabi is an important emirate and we would like a shopping mall in Abu Dhabi,” said Mr Walichnowski. “But ‘when’ is a difficult question to answer.

“A strategic objective is to have a mall in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully that will be in the next five to seven years.”

Each of MAF’s malls has a Carrefour hypermarket as a tenant because the brand is operated by the developer across the Middle East in a joint-venture agreement with the French retail giant.

Developers and retailers based in the UAE are rapidly expanding the number of stores they operate and are investing in new malls and mall extensions.

Billions of dirhams are set to be spent over the next three years on retail expansion in the UAE as well as the wider Gulf.

Already, Dubai has the largest mall space per person in Mena, followed by Abu Dhabi.

Emaar, the region’s biggest developer, and Nakheel, have both announced investments this year worth millions of dirhams in new retail infrastructure.

A total of 260,000 sq metres of retail space is expected to be completed this year in Abu Dhabi on top of 1.67 million sq metres currently available in the capital, according to the property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle. More info

DUBAI // Residents in the parts of Dubailand that have opened say they have been left in the dark by the master developer, which has not switched on traffic or street lights throughout the giant development.

Once the signals and lights are operating to the RTA's satisfaction, it will take over maintenance and operations. Mike Young / The National

Dubai Holdings has tried to improve the situation by putting barriers around a particularly dangerous junction that has experienced a rise in traffic since the Skycourt towers, with 2,300 apartments, opened more than six months ago.

Cars must make a U-turn instead of coming in from the left, which residents say has created a hazard.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said it worked with Dubai Holdings to erect the concrete barriers, which keep traffic flowing one way. But they have already been moved aside to allow cars through.

“People are going the wrong way,” said Haseeb Shaikh, a resident. “The barrier has been removed from the last lane so cars are squeezing in and out from one lane.”

At night it is hard to see the barriers, which residents approach at speed, because of the lack of lights. “I have counted and seen the carnage from four terrible accidents there in the last six months,” said Mr Shaikh, 36. More info

DUBAI // After two-and-a-half years of operation, Metro officials are looking at ways to improve the Dh28 billion system.

Dubai commuters enjoy far greater freedom of movement thanks to the Metro. The rail service has also been responsible for reducing road traffic. Above, people ride the Metro's Green Line. Jaime Puebla / The National

Transport chiefs are considering opening both the Green and Red lines earlier on Fridays next year and setting up an out-of-hours shuttle to the airport, said Ahmad Al Hammadi, the chief executive of the Roads and Transport Authority’s rail agency.

“We have to collect all our operations and maintenance records and see how the system performs,” he said. “Once we get the records broken down we [will] know exactly how the system performs. Depending on the findings, we can add more services and add more hours.”

Commuters could see the changes take effect from next year.

The Metro runs daily from 6am until 1am except on Fridays, when the first train leaves Al Rashidiya Station at 1pm.

“It is a very sophisticated system,” Mr Al Hammadi said. “It requires a lot of attention. Everything we do has to go through a change management procedure to make sure everything is in place: the operations, maintenance and manpower required.”

More than 3,000 people are involved in the running of the 74.6-kilometre system.

The RTA opened the 22.5km Green Line in September 2011, two years after the inaugural Red Line opened.

“The Red Line was a very good exercise for the Green Line opening,” Mr Al Hammadi said. “Some of the staff who trained on the Red Line were transferred to the Green Line opening, offering their previous experience. It minimised the learning curve.”

When the Red Line opened, it recorded 1.2 million passengers a month with only 10 stations open. Now all 47 stations on both lines are open and the RTA has averaged 8.6m passengers a month.

The most successful destinations, he said, were the shopping malls.

One of the goals of the Metro was to encourage residents to use public transport to reduce road traffic. More info