Born in Alexandria, Aya Anwar Akel says her entrepreneurial impulse is rooted in her family’s textile business. As a youngster she spent three summers working in textile stores in the United States. But realizing that she was less than enthusiastic about fashion design, she decided to work instead on designing home textiles: bed sheets, bed covers, towels and table cloths.
Her vision consists of presenting linens made from 100 percent pure Egyptian cotton to those searching for home comfort in a less-is-more design.
“I don’t do prints or floral work. It’s all about patch work and playing with color, she tells Daily News Egypt. “Vintage is so in now, in clothes, housing designs, interior designs. Among our best sellers are chequered and striped patterns with a stitched hem.
Sitting in the Parisian café at Loulou’s Gallery in Zamalek – where a selection of her products are on display -26-year-old Akel says that most people are seeking modernity but her target market is looking for simplicity in their modern style homes.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, English embroidery would have been considered dated. “Now, machines and technology can produce the same effect with excellent quality, she explains.
Inspired by many brands – Frette, Zara Home and Macy’s – Akel’s collection is a combination of 14 designs with eight to 10 color assortments. Summer requires lighter and brighter colors, while darker tones are more suited for winter, even though they weren t favored much in the past.
Quality is of prime importance to Akel, and the higher the thread count in cotton sheets, the better the quality it is.
“Two-hundred thread counts per centimeter isn’t such good quality; we can go up to 600 or 800, she says. Despite the potential for good quality cotton products from Egypt, the industry is still held back by distribution, marketing and production problems.
“A lot of people don’t find sheets on sale here, she says. “They end up buying sheets from London and the States that were made in Egypt. We are the country of one hundred percent cotton and it upsets me that we have such a great thing, but that we don’t know how to promote it well.
“I used to work with Ghazl El-Mahalla. It’s such a huge factory. It used to supply to the Royal Caribbean and all those hotels abroad . They export a lot but it’s a factory that is riddled with bureaucracy.
“People are not paid that well and that’s why a lot of protests happen in Mahalla. Prices are affected by high demand and low supply, she explains.
She adds that the cotton price increases every two weeks, and from time to time, factories tell her: “We don’t have enough cotton to make towels.
Despite the hurdles Akel has had to tackle, she urges people who have new ideas not to be put off by a lack of funds. She points to investors and funding organizations such as The Social Fund for Development, which offer not just cash, but also computers and a five-year tax exemption.
But most of all, says Akel, what’s required is the drive to succeed, and believing in yourself.
“If you truly have an idea and believe in it, I think you should go for it. You have to really, really want to do it, she says.
Akel can be contacted at: www.ayahometextiles.com or [email protected]
