The Shaika’s Carriage, a mirage, glimpsed from afar, travelling across the desert under the magnificent jewellessence blue of the vast sky, glistens in the hazy heat. This lavish royal train moving slowly into focus is adorned with luxurious creations bestowed on her by the Shaik, her beloved Prince of the desert. A bounty of perfume, silks, leather and precious jewellery, extravagantly hand crafted for his Princess in the making, her beauty entrusted to his passion for creating individual and exquisite gifts.

 B Entrepreneur Magazine sat down with Mohammed Alasfoor of Designer Shaik to talk about creative entrepreneurship, the virtues of hard work and the passions of the Desert Prince.

Designer Shaik actually represents the romantic jewel of Arabia. He is the superman of the Middle East. His personality represents the colorful and passionate side of Arabia. While using the latest technology to develop products, he is still imbued with the tradition and care for the history of the nation.

The story of Arabia is a lovely story that has captured the imagination of people around the world… even in Hollywood, Valentino was the Shaikh of Arabia, and he captivated many with his renditions of the Desert Prince. And so the Shaik is the personification of everything good that has happened to Arabia.

Nowadays, with the prevalence of social media, it is hard to find creativity, mystery and beauty in the everyday but the Shaik works to weave all these things into everyday life.

Looking back to the history of Arabia, the region has benefited from people from far-away lands passing through it and bringing back beautiful things. So Arabia has been a hub, a melting pot from ages back, and because of this it was able to fuse the best of the East and the West into its culture.

At the magical hour of sunset, the colour of the desert sky becomes intensified. Blue mellows into pink, reminiscent of the rose petals that give the finest floral notes to the Shaik’s fragrances, aspiring to transform every man into a Prince, and every woman a Princess. As the day melts into night the Shaika’s Carriage comes to rest, billowing Bedouin tents alive with romance and desire. The magical night sky brings a glittering array of starry jewels, like the diamonds that stud the Shaik’s most precious perfume flacons, inspiring the creation of even more beautiful gifts from Designer Shaik Palaces. These are treasured gifts the Prince is now sharing with discerning women of elegance and style the world over.

 So the Shaik is really a man who is cosmopolitan, well-versed in politics, warfare, art and diplomacy.

We have tried to spread the culture of Designer Shaik everywhere, and incidentally also the story of Arabia because the two are intertwined. When we went to Russia, nobody knows who I, Mohammed Alasfoor, am; but when they ask me what perfume I am using and I say “Designer Shaik”, they know. The name of the Shaik has spread far and wide.

Recently I had the pleasure to be with His Highness Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa in Russia. We were having a meeting with different governors and ministers of the country. We met as the Bahrain delegation with each governor and minister representatives of various government organizations. And whenever I give my card as part of the delegation, the assembly members would say “Oh yes, the Designer Shaik”. And then I will learn that around 4 or 5 ministers have started using Designer Shaik.

Imagine how the product can influence their feelings deeply.

People from other countries imagine us—Arabs–as a lovely story from far away.

And this brings a lot of positive hype.

We hope to continue this, we want to keep the Shaikh in the mind of the people.

We want to contribute to the positivity, and to the bright future of Bahrainis.

So what’s next, after perfumes, watches… what will you do next?

Of course there’ll be more. But it’s never going to be easy. These days when we create a new product, we are inundated with ideas coming to us from different sectors. There’s always something happening somewhere in the world, there’s always something beginning. We also look at the retail sector, and the trends in retail shape our ideas. We are overachievers and we never stop until a product is perfect. (pull-out text)

We believe in always moving forward because when you stay still, especially in this business, you’re dead.