01 The Overview
Bag of Bones is a Dubai streetwear label with a split personality: skulls and rebellion on the surface, soft, premium, everyday comfort underneath. The brand came to COM8 STUDIO to redesign and build its online store, a place that could sell its oversized, garment-dyed tees and carry the attitude behind them at the same time. Getting there was not a straight line. It took two full design directions, one loud and one quiet, and the one that shipped was not the one we started with.
02 The Challenge
On paper it was one website. In practice it was three competing demands, each pulling in a different direction:
- Sell with clarity. Shoppers had to find a product, understand the fabric and price, and check out without friction.
- Carry a loud personality. The skull identity and streetwear attitude had to be felt, not filed away.
- Feel genuinely premium. With tees at AED 149, above fast fashion, the store had to look worth it.
Those three do not naturally live together. Personality wants noise. Selling wants clarity. Premium wants space. So the real brief was a balancing act. The store had to be:
- Bold without being noisy
- Premium without feeling cold
- Minimal without looking generic
Every decision was measured against one question: Does this add to the brand, or just add noise?
One asset made the balance easier. Bag of Bones makes its own product, in its own knitting mill, dye house and sewing floor, so craftsmanship could become part of the shopping experience rather than a line in the footer.
03 The First Direction: Bold
COM8 STUDIO's first concept leaned all the way into the brand's rebellious side. It used:
- A black and blood-red palette
- Spray-paint skull graphics and a recurring red skull tag
- Crumpled-paper and torn-edge textures
- Stamped, graffiti-style type, with headlines like "Fresh fits, just for you" and "Premium athleisure for the fearless. For the bold."
It worked as a statement. A first-time visitor felt the brand's pulse before they saw a price. But loud has a cost: it asks a lot of the eye, and it can pull attention away from the one thing a shopper came to do, which is shop.
04 The Pivot: Choosing Restraint
The client looked at the bold route and wanted the opposite. Calmer, more premium, more minimal, closer to a considered fashion house than a street drop. For a brand aiming at the higher end of the market, it was a fair call.
Design is a conversation, not a monologue. So COM8 STUDIO started again, not by softening the first idea, but by rebuilding from a sharper brief: keep the brand's confidence, move the noise out of the way, and let the product lead.
05 The Solution: A Minimalist, Product-Led Store
A new visual system. The redesign began with the foundation, not the decoration. A light cream-and-white canvas replaced the black, making garments and photography feel considered and expensive. Muted, editorial photography, shot around Dubai's coastline and skyline, carried the mood that graphics used to. The type stayed monospaced and utilitarian, a quiet nod to streetwear, and red was cut back to a single accent used only where it earns attention. The result is a system, not a set of screens: every page shares the same spacing, type and restraint.
A product-first homepage. The homepage leads with the product, not a slogan. A full-width hero, "The Essential Fit Set," puts the tees on screen immediately with one clear path to shop, then opens into a clean grid. The old instinct, sell with attitude, became a simpler one: show the clothes well and let them sell themselves.
Effortless product discovery. The grid was built for fast, low-friction browsing:
- Large, uncluttered product images in an even grid
- Plain labelling: name, fabric ("Premium 240 GSM Cotton") and price (AED 149)
- Colour swatches on each card, so shoppers compare colours without opening every product
A wayfinding system that fits the brand. Navigation had to be obvious without going corporate, so COM8 STUDIO built a running "//" label system (//Skull-Inspired Streetwear, //Best Seller, //All Products). It marks each section clearly and adds a subtle, code-like texture that keeps streetwear identity running through a calm design.
Selling the craft. The brand's most under-used asset was how the clothes are made, so it earned its own section built around three steps:
- Knitting Mill, high-grade cotton blends chosen for softness and durability
- Dye House, the signature washed, lived-in finish
- Sewing Floor, reinforced, hand-checked seams
Most streetwear brands cannot tell this story, because they do not own the process. Bag of Bones can, so the store turns it into a reason to buy rather than a claim to skim past.
Trust and social proof. A premium price needs proof, placed where hesitation happens: clear trust markers (free delivery, cash on delivery, easy returns) and a "Words from Our Community" wall led by a five-star quote, "Quality That Speaks for Itself."
Turning visitors into a club. Email capture is framed as membership, not a mailing list: "Join the Bag of Bones Club," with 15% off a first order and early access to new drops and restocks. The brand's own story sits alongside it, built for those who don't follow trends, they set them.
Built for mobile. Streetwear sells on phones, so the store was designed and built mobile-first. The same system reflows into a tall, thumb-friendly layout where imagery leads and text stays out of the way, without losing the calm of the desktop design.
06 The Build: Development, Structure and SEO
A store is only as good as the experience behind the design, so COM8 STUDIO handled the build as well as the look. Four things decide whether an ecommerce site actually performs, and each was part of the work:
- Development. The approved designs were built into a fast, responsive, working store, not just a set of screens.
- Product structure. The catalogue was organised so the range is easy to browse and simple to expand, from collections down to individual product pages.
- A smoother path to checkout. The journey from product discovery to cart to checkout was tightened, so shoppers move from browsing to buying with less friction.
- SEO foundations. Clean structure, sensible page setup and fast load times give the store a base to be found on search, not only to look good.
07 What We Delivered
The final build included:
- A minimalist, product-led design system (spacing, type, colour, photography)
- A fully developed, responsive storefront, built mobile-first
- Reusable page components: product grid, "//" section labels, story and production modules
- A structured, scalable product catalogue (collections and product pages)
- A dedicated craftsmanship and production section
- Trust markers and a community testimonial wall
- Email capture ("Join the Bag of Bones Club")
- SEO foundations for search visibility
- Two complete design directions explored, bold then minimalist, before landing the final
08 The Result
Bag of Bones went live with a store that reads premium and shops easily, while keeping the edge that makes the brand itself. The rebellion did not disappear. It moved off the surface and into the details, the skeleton mark, the monospaced type, the "//" labels and the copy, so the personality is there for anyone who looks, without ever crowding the product. The brand got the clean, confident storefront it asked for, and a reusable system it can grow into.
09 In the Founder's Words
Taking Bag of Bones online properly was the part where I needed the right support. From the first discussion, COM8 STUDIO understood what we needed, not just as a website, but as a brand. Now our customers can explore the range, read reviews and shop with real confidence. For us, that made a real difference.
Saif, Founder, Bag of Bones
10 Closing Thought
The strongest version of this store was not the first bold idea, or the client's first reaction to it. It was the third thing, the one that came from listening and rebuilding. Bold earned the brand's attention. Restraint earned it a store worth keeping.
