Spanish entrepreneurship in Dubai: Montroi

Invited by the Dubai Fashion Week organisers, FashionUnited travelled to the most cosmopolitan emirate of the United Arab Emirates. We wanted to discover how fashion is experienced there and to understand the social, business, commercial and economic realities attracting a growing number of foreigners and international brands. These brands and individuals are making Dubai their new home. Among them is Spanish entrepreneur Enrique Hormigo, founder of Montroi.

Having settled in the emirate since the early 2010s, when he moved to Dubai to head Chanel’s marketing department in the region, Hormigo confesses to being truly enamoured with this small but vibrant state. “It captures you,” he confided during our meeting last February, which coincided with our visit to the emirate for the latest Dubai Fashion Week. His words echoed those of all the foreign individuals we asked about their experiences in the emirate. They agreed that Dubai is “the place of opportunities”.

These “opportunities” vary depending on individual perspectives. Hormigo clarified that the Dubai where people went to do business, “make money” and then return to their home countries has faded. A new Dubai has emerged, one that people now see as a place for permanent residence. This observation is undeniable considering his own story. Not only has he not returned to Europe or Spain, but he is firmly settled in Dubai. It is from this emirate that he manages and, in 2014, co-founded Montroi with his partner Samir Aghera.

Montroi is a truly inspiring lifestyle brand with products ranging from fragrances and homeware to leather fashion accessories. Hormigo, Aghera, and a growing team of collaborators and artisans have shaped a contemporary version of the historic Silk Road. Valencia once played a prominent role in this trade network, and the Valencian town of Montroi lent its name to this evocative brand.

A key turning point in its development was the opening of its first boutique in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, earlier this year. Contrary to its name, Alserkal Avenue is not an avenue but a flourishing alternative district. Art galleries and “purpose-driven” brands are concentrated here. Montroi occupies a prime position within Alserkal Avenue with this first shop, which we had the opportunity to tour with the brand’s co-founders. We now delve deeper into this with an interview with Hormigo. He not only presents the most interesting aspects of Montroi and its development but also reveals another side of Dubai. This is a Dubai that not only imports talent but also promotes and enhances it from within its own borders.

How and where exactly was Montroi born?

Montroi was born over a decade ago from a shared vision. We wanted to create an authentic brand that we could identify with and that would create a community of “nomads”. We intended to create a brand for those who, like us, understand travel as a way of life, a cultural bridge, an educational tool, and a channel for transformation through dialogue and shared experience.

What led you to the decision to start this project?

What drove us to launch Montroi was a desire to return to the old ways of doing things. We wanted to create perfumes that leave a lasting impression, bags that age beautifully while retaining their quality, timeless products that last a lifetime, and products with a story. In the era of the Silk Road, from whose essence this project was born, travellers would go to key cities to meet the best artisans. Today, at Montroi, we do precisely that. We travel in search of knowledge passed down through generations, collaborating with those who still create with soul and craftsmanship.

Is it from this “journey” that you shape the brand’s offering?

Indeed. Inspired by the ancient Silk Road, we travel the world in search of stories. Each of our products reflects the savoir-faire of artisans who have honed their craft over generations.

Why did you decide to create Montroi based in Dubai?

We chose Dubai as our base because it represents a contemporary crossroads, a truly key point on our modern Silk Road. From here, we can move between East and West, connecting cultures, discovering unique workshops, and shaping a global community of nomads who share our vision.

“There is a clear consumer appetite for brands like ours; niche brands with solid values and a real commitment to quality.”

What have been the biggest challenges and difficulties you have encountered, both in launching the brand and in trying to drive its growth?

As with any business, there are difficulties along the way. In our particular case, the main difficulty was self-imposed by deciding that Montroi would be a self-funded project. To this day, we continue without any external investors. This was important to us to build a real brand story, and that foundation can only be formed when you grow organically. The price to pay has been that we probably could have grown faster with external investment. However, our decision gave us a lot of freedom in the construction and growth of the brand, and we remain convinced that we made the best possible decision.

We know the philosophy behind Montroi’s birth and why and how it started in Dubai. But what were the exact objectives when launching the brand?

Based on that brand “philosophy”, as you say, our objective has always been to work with as many artisans as possible who still exist and who have dedicated their lives to a craft passed down through generations. We want to do this not simply to showcase this savoir-faire, which in itself is more than positive, but also to contribute to keeping this tradition alive. We aim to highlight authenticity and support those who create artisanally and with heart.

Based on these intentions, would you say you have achieved the objectives you set for yourselves as a project when you launched?

The truth is that the project has evolved and grown beyond our own expectations. This shows us that there is a clear consumer appetite for brands like ours; niche brands with solid values and a real commitment to quality.

And from everything you have already achieved?

Our next step is to bring the craftsmanship we discover in the places we visit to more people. One of our key objectives is to open new shops in strategic cities. This will allow us to directly share our universe, our values, and, above all, the stories behind each of our pieces.

Is this the only initiative you are considering implementing to further develop and boost the brand’s growth?

We have several areas of focus for developing the brand. The main one is strengthening our physical presence by opening new shops in key destinations. This will allow us to connect directly with our current and potential community. At the same time, we will seek to strengthen our relationships with more artisans around the world. Our focus is on continuing to build a coherent, authentic, valuable, interesting and unique offering.

Where, or rather, how far would you like to take Montroi?

We will take Montroi as far as those who value quality, craftsmanship and handmade products allow us to. They are our driving force and our horizon.

“Having undertaken the project from Dubai has allowed us to travel easily both east and west, and that has been key to discovering and collaborating with artisans from different key points around the world.”

How would you say that the project being born and having its base of operations in Dubai has positively and less positively influenced Montroi’s development to date?

The most positive aspect of having undertaken the project from Dubai is that, as I mentioned, it has allowed us to travel easily both east and west. This has been key to discovering and collaborating with artisans from different key points around the world, building the foundations of this new modern Silk Road that we are shaping from Montroi.

Who currently participates in the new “Silk Road”?

From Jaipur to Ubrique, we currently collaborate with more than 20 workshops in different countries, selected for their excellence, authenticity and cultural roots. In Grasse, the world capital of perfumery, our master perfumers create fragrances that evoke places, memories and landscapes. In the Jebel Akhdar mountains of Oman, we participate every spring in the harvesting and artisanal distillation of Damask roses, in close collaboration with local communities, preserving the essence of an ancestral ritual. In Jaipur, the “Pink City”, we artisanally produce our incenses, inspired by the tones of its architecture and traditional recipes that honour the spirituality of the gesture. In Ubrique, Marrakech, and Bergamo, we design our leather goods, always with noble materials and centuries-old techniques, thinking of each piece to withstand the passage of time and accompany our “nomadic travellers” at every stage of their journey.

These items certainly contain very high poetic, artisanal and aspirational notes, but where are they currently sold?

Since our inception, we have been expanding our network of collaborators, consolidating an international presence. Our main points of contact with customers are currently our e-commerce platform and our new boutique in Alserkal Avenue, here in Dubai. This space exudes creativity and exploration. It goes far beyond the display and sale of our products, presenting itself as a meeting place between artisans and nomads where passions, knowledge and new ways of travelling are shared. We try to provoke the same emotions from the different points of sale where our products are already sold, and we will try to generate them in our future shops.

We have talked about the positive side of having started in Dubai, but what about the less positive side? How would you say that deciding to launch the project from here, and not from another point on this new “Silk Road” that you are building and that is the backbone of this project, has affected Montroi’s development?

I wouldn’t say it has contributed negatively, but the biggest difficulty we have had is that Dubai, being a relatively young hub, does not yet have a long history of high-quality brands that share a similar philosophy to ours. This has made it more difficult to find synergies and local benchmarks with which to “build community” from here.

“We want to continue working with our feet on the ground and from where authenticity is born.”

Bearing in mind the multicultural background on which you are building Montroi, do you envision the project developing at some point from somewhere other than Dubai?

Well, today, many decisions are no longer made solely from Dubai. Part of the project is developed from places like Jaipur, Oman, or Tunisia, and the idea is to increase these dynamics. In fact, precisely because of what you point out, we have never aimed to centralise everything or operate from a single headquarters. We seek to be close to where things happen; where the artisans and the essence of each product are. Therefore, we do not aspire to have a large office in a big city, much less to manufacture far from that reality. We want to continue working with our feet on the ground and from where authenticity is born.

With these particularities that Montroi presents, we would be looking at a project that was born with a marked focus on the local, but is it aimed at very specific and equally local markets or at a much more international audience?

Our target is global, but we don’t create thinking of adapting what the artisan does to appeal to a specific country. We remain true to their way of working. Today, we have perfumes that sell better in some countries than in others, and the same goes for the rest of our products, and that is okay. Our goal is not to have a global bestseller. We do what is authentic and maintains the brand’s values, then we will see where it works best.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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