Duha Bukadi
2025
This world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily, but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.
— Sarah Kay
I have stuck my tongue out time and time again, even when my world crumbled in front of my very eyes, even when I stood among the ruins of what once was. I tasted the sweetness in the breaking. I carved new shapes from the fragments. And in every crack, I found a story worth telling. Mine, yours, theirs, ours.
Duha is built on this spirit of optimism, on the belief that beauty doesn’t only rise as a result of breaking, but because of it. This brand is a tribute to every woman that inspires me —women who dare, who rise, who rebuild. Women who know that power is not just in standing tall but in knowing how to fall and rise again, stronger, wilder, wiser.
Duha is not just as a brand but as a love letter—to you, to them, to all of us.
A shoe is a step forward, a promise, a foundation upon which we walk towards the life we chose to build. And this is only the beginning, our world is expanding soon to a lot more than only shoes, we’re building more. New bridges that will certainly never break.
So here’s to breaking and building, to dancing through the dust, to writing our own stories. Welcome to Duha. Welcome to a world where we make the cracks shimmer.
At DUHA, we design for the turning point, that quiet, powerful moment when everything changes, and you choose to move forward anyway.
Born in Dubai by Tunisian architect-turned-designer Duha Bukadi, DUHA emerged from the love for vintage shoes, sparked by her grandmother’s bold Charles Jourdan collection; more than just shoes, they were stories of grace, grit, and individuality.
With no formal training in fashion but a fierce vision, Duha leapt from blueprints to soles, crafting footwear for transformation.
DUHA isn’t just about style; it’s about standing in your truth. Our shoes are modern-day ruby slippers: radiant, soulful, and unapologetically bold. Each pair is made to reflect your story, not to help you fit in, but to help you walk powerfully in your own direction.
So whatever path you're on—uncertain, winding, or brand new:
walk it in DUHA.
Collection Oasis in the city > story
I have lived in Tunisia my whole life and now for two years in the UAE, but I have never been to the desert. People still ask me as a designer, "How do your origins influence your work?"
And I've never gotten a clear answer.
The colors I saw as a child, the warmth of the light, and how impossibly stylish my grandmother looked in her Charles Jourdan heels might have something to do with it.
It could be the books I read, the Egyptian movies we watched, or the French classes I took at school. It could be a charm that hangs from the rearview mirror of a taxi.
The green sour almonds I ate, the fun of making a cake out of sand, and the guilt of eating it.
Later in life, it might be all the incredible people I have met, all the buildings I've created, all the travel and connections I've made, and all the connections I’ve lost.
Maybe it's all of it: bits of memory and culture that quietly and powerfully shaped my imagination.
More than any one place, my origins live in my mind.
I thought of the desert not as it is, but as it is in my mind for DUHA City Oasis.
Not a word-for-word translation, but a picture—playful, dreamlike, and full of questions about who I am and where I fit in.
It was less about geography and more about telling tales. Tales of all of us linked by one fantastic tie: Imagination.
A conversation with myself about where I come from — and what that even means.
Love,
Duha Bukadi
