The fashion scene in Egypt has evolved in the past few years. After only having a few big names in the industry, today, we proudly have a decent amount of designers that aren’t just successful within the borders of the country, but worldwide as well. The best part of it is that most of them are young aspiring designers with fresh new ideas. With the industry flourishing day after another, we’re not surprised to find new talents along the way. One of them is 20 year-old Alexandrian Raghad Korayem, founder of Raghad Haute Couture.
“Fashion designing is not to about covering the body, it’s about highlighting it,” Korayem told us when she revealed the concept behind her new brand. The brand’s mission is to show the feminine side of every woman while making her feel limitless, unstoppable and empowered with great self-confidence. As a child, Korayem hated shopping and the available options. That’s why her urge to create her own designs was born. She always believed in her talent but she didn’t know how to start executing what’s in her head due to lack of required classes or workshops in her hometown. At the age of 19, she finally decided to take a step forward towards her dream, that was when she started learning sewing. Then everything fell into place from there, she dove into the world of embroidery techniques, patron drawings, sketching and tatting. Working with beads and embellishments became her thing, she’s a fan of anything that is handmade and believes it has its own uniqueness.
Project after another, she started getting endless feedback from friends and family urging her to take this to the next level. Korayem then joined forces with Youssef Hazzi, her marketing manager and co-founder who pushed her to start the brand. This was where Raghad Haute Couture came to life.
Her belief that every woman is free to decide what to wear whenever she wants to, was what inspired her to launch her first collection. She wanted to do something basic that could be worn anywhere and would fit anything, and what’s more basic than basics themselves? Basics could be worn casually, at work or during a fun night out with the girls. It all depends on how to wear them and how you finish off your look. The collection of basics consists of seven garments that reflect the femininity of a woman inside out.
Korayem has no particular muse to pinpoint, she’s inspired by almost anything and everything. Be it color, shape, objects, you name it. What she loves the most is transforming an old object of barely any value to it, into a wearable piece of art. That kind of love for innovation and creativity is what drives her to overcome the market barriers. She believes that the market is swamped with a lot of competitors but with repeated style and direction, and with her brand, she hopes she could add fresh innovative insight to the scene. She wants to prove to Egyptians that one doesn’t necessarily need lots of connections to penetrate the fashion industry, but talent and passion along with learning and growing can make anything possible.
Korayem and her team have future plans that they don’t want to spoil, but we could exclusively tell you that dresses and gowns are coming along the way!