Lifestyle

Few faces are as familiar to readers of Emirates Woman as Sarah Jessica Parker’s. Over the years, she has graced the cover several times, including the magazine’s 30th anniversary issue, and as the title marks its 45th year, she returns to these pages speaking about the UAE with the warmth of an old friend. It is an affection that has deepened with every visit, and one that began, fittingly, with a pair of shoes.

A decade ago, Parker brought her satin shoes to Dubai for a round of personal appearances, carrying an argument she had been losing for some time with her American retail partners, who kept insisting that women would only buy her designs in black or brown. “We had really struggled to convince our US retail partners that women wanted to wear colour, so we came to Dubai with all of these colours and the women here went crazy for them,” she recalls. “Suddenly the retailers back home were saying, ‘Oh, we want colour,’ and I was saying, ‘Yes, because Dubai said so.’ ”

What stayed with her was the confidence behind that response. “I came to understand that women here were making decisions based on their own ideas and what made them feel good, and those rules about wearing only a black or a brown shoe if you want to be taken seriously in the office were simply tossed aside,” she says.

The same visit took her to Old Dubai, where blue-painted cargo ships lined the water and silver was laid out in stalls in the manner of a souk. “Calling it Old Dubai is kind of funny to me, because the city is really rather youthful, but it is gorgeous,” she says. “I really hope that doesn’t change, because it anchors a city of modernity and innovation in families and a history that I think cities should never let disappear.” That curiosity extends to her wardrobe. When Parker returned to Dubai last December, she chose to wear designer Dima Ayad throughout her visit. “Every time I travel and I have the time in advance, I always reach out to look for local designers, because it is so much more exciting and you learn so much,” she says. “I could wear her pieces every single day of my life, they are so comfortable and flattering, and they look good on everybody.”

The reason for her visit was the opening of Astrea London’s flagship at the Mandarin Oriental Jumeira on 8 December 2025. Parker is global creative director of the lab-grown diamond house, which former private banker Nathalie Morrison founded in 2023, and has been a shareholder from the start. Parker admits she first arrived with the common assumption that lab-grown stones existed mainly to offer a cheaper alternative. “I had to take the time to better understand lab-grown diamonds, because my idea of them was based on what people were doing with them in their own business interests,” she explains. “It’s the exact same seed from the earth, and we just grow it differently.”

She is hands-on with the jewellery – “I am 100 per cent involved in all of the design,” she says – and the UAE has found its way into the work. On landing in New York after one trip, she texted Morrison about the beautiful napkin rings on her Emirates flight. The message became the starting point for a bracelet. It’s also worth noting that around half of the house’s current stock is produced in Dubai, and its head of design has relocated to Abu Dhabi and regularly works from the Mandarin Oriental Jumeira in Dubai, creating one-of-a-kind pieces with regional clients. Pearls, another of Parker’s loves and a material with deep roots in the UAE’s history, will shape several designs still in development. “Pearls are such good companions, and they look good with everything,” she says.

With filming about to begin on a sequel to The Family Stone, which her own production company is making for Searchlight Pictures, Parker’s calendar is full. “I’m certainly busy enough now, and I’m not looking to find another responsibility that I can’t fulfil properly,” she says. Yet for a woman who credits Dubai with proving her right about colour, the city and the country seem sure to keep drawing her back for motivation and inspiration.