EGYPT ON OUR MINDS
Egypt seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. With the long-awaited opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum this November, and Egyptian-focused exhibitions in Rome, at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, and at one of our favourite museums in London—the Soane Museum—there is a renewed curiosity toward this place we call home.
We were honoured to be invited to participate in the Soane Museum’s exhibition, Egypt: Influencing British Design 1776–2025, as an Egyptian brand championing millennia-old craftsmanship in a contemporary world. For the occasion, we created a textile diptych celebrating the excellence, endurance, and poetry of Egyptian craft. The pieces are a true meeting of hands and histories: master khayameya artisan Mohamed Abdelwahab, whose knowledge has been passed down through generations; and Gehan, Maha, and Marina, master embroiderers and teachers at the Anūt training centre, who brought every detail to life stitch by stitch.
Some of the fabrics were hand-woven in Akhmīm, a centre of Egyptian textile making since antiquity. Others were hand-dyed with natural pigments using ancient techniques researched and carried out by @studio_earthtop, a small but brilliant enterprise in Alexandria.
This spirit of collaboration is at the heart of Anūt Cairo—craftspeople, researchers, and artists in dialogue, adding our thread to a story thousands of years in the making.
A COSMIC NIGHT
To mark the opening, we hosted an intimate dinner and private candlelit tour of the museum. It was a night of wonder. We began with the exhibition itself (not to be missed if you’re in London), then wandered by candlelight through the jewel-box halls of the Soane. We paused at the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I for a haunting live reading by Egyptian artist Sara Sallam, who gave voice to the goddess Nut longing to return home. It was moving, unforgettable—thank you, Sara, for such beauty.
The magic continued in Sir John Soane’s scarlet dining room, where the table was dressed in a ten metre embroidered tablecloth created by the brilliant women of the Anūt atelier in Cairo. Down the centre ran hand-dyed indigo fabric, setting the stage for a breathtaking installation by Georgina Sleap, an English artist and sculptor based in Faggala. She conjured a convoy of boats that travelled through time—from a pot in Naqada, to the carvings on Seti I’s sarcophagus—bridging this life and the next. Gates shifted, serpents coiled, and waves danced; her work invited us not only to look, but to touch, play, and imagine.
The result was pure magic: lively conversations, new plans, new friends, and the warmth of old ones. A night that reminded us why we do what we do—and why Egypt continues to inspire the world.