In this paper on young Emirati women’s lives, I engage with a number of broad themes. This includes theoretical work exploring the ways in which space and place influence and shape adornment and behavior patterns; historical and current research on the global “Islamic Fashion Industry”; and popular and academic perspectives on the accelerated development trajectories experienced by the Arab Gulf in recent decades, as well as on the increasing importance of international expectations in diverse areas ranging from expected roles for women in a “modern society” to how an ideal female body should look. I then situate these discussions within the specific context of the UAE. I focus on the fashion choices and performances that female Emirati students attending public university in the UAE create across different social and physical spaces, as well as the ways in which these feed into dynamic presentations of self, paying particular attention to the ways in which these self-presentations are constructed in relation to on-campus social interactions, as well as the novelty of many of these interactions and performances. The university campuses allow forms of socializing, performative interactions, and body adornment to develop that often could not be replicated in other physical spaces, off-campus. As a result, women re-craft important sociocultural values, forms of reciprocity, and ways of being in the world that dominate other areas of their lives. I highlight here the ways in which university campuses serve as pivotal sites where young women participate in particular types of social interactions constructed around specific presentations of self. Building from Butler’s work, I focus on young women’s constructions of identity via particular types of performativity and the ongoing processes by which they actively engaged in “self-making” through behaviors, speech, gestures, and fashion. I also propose that UAE universities provide a performative space in which young women are able to “try on” different types of presentation of self and identity that they would not otherwise have been able to experiment with. Universities are thus not only spaces for education but also for social performance, performances moreover that clearly reflect the contradictory forces flowing through women’s lives on- and off-campus.