Inside Okhtein's Charming Cairo Studio | Me & My Studio

Hi AD, I'm Aya.

And I'm Mounaz

and we are the creative directors of OKHTEIN.

We wanna welcome you to our Cairo studio, please come in.

[gentle bright music]

This villa was built in the '50s by an Italian architect.

The designer we worked with

for transforming the space was Engi Jaouda

owner of Form Studio here in Cairo.

And Engi was helping us style the house by adding fun,

playful, futuristic pieces I feel like could blend well

with the then versus now element of the house together.

Our three non-negotiables when we were renting

and looking for a space I would say a garden

Natural light, definitely. A kitchen.

And it was very important to choose a place

that gave less of a corporate feel

and more of like an artsy, soulful feel.

[gentle bright music]

Furniture plays a very important role in general

when filling up a space.

We wanted a warm palette for the furniture pieces

and we wanted to add color with styling, like accessories.

This is why we chose these pieces

from Nineteen furniture here in Egypt.

Aya and I really wanted to work with the outdoors area

and keep the palette indoors very earthy

and, at the same time,

compliment the greenery on the outside.

This carpet for instance, tells a beautiful story.

It was gifted by our local tannery here

and it's a patchwork of different types of leather

we've used over the past year.

And we like mixing like classic warm colors

with a pop of like something eccentric a bit.

So these mirrors in there.

Also, these really fun side tables

that have like emojis on them.

The metal mirrors or the metallic finish of the mirrors

really compliment our bags

and the brass that we use constantly in our designs.

A common mistake I feel with designing an office space,

making it very corporate.

Function is very important,

but I feel having like a nice aesthetic to it

can inspire and fuel creativity.

I think a second mistake is the lighting.

Most offices go for white light

'cause they say it helps you focus more or better at work.

I personally think warm light is better.

I think it gives the space more warmth rather than

making it feel like you're walking into-

Hospital. A hospital. [chuckles]

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[Aya] We have large white walls in the space

and we wanted to add art by showcasing our products

and our favorite campaigns shot by Mous Lamrabat,

featuring our iconic bags.

This was shot by Elliot James Kennedy.

They work as art pieces,

but at the same time they're OKHTEIN stories.

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Working with creatives from the region

is very important for Aya and I.

We also work with photographers outside of the region,

but we always choose them based on the storytelling part

and how they would view our culture,

our heritage, the new perspective basically.

My favorite art piece is this one,

just because it fits really well with the space.

So the staircase, the colors,

I feel it's very playful and I just love it.

I don't know, it works perfectly here.

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So my favorite piece is this hung carpet.

Kahhal 1871 is a fifth-generation carpet makers in Egypt.

The collaborated with a Argentinian designer,

Pilar Zeta, on this piece.

She's inspired by the cosmology of ancient Egypt.

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So this is our shared office space.

We chose this room because of all the windows,

so there's so much sunlight.

I think the design of this room is very important.

It's a major reflection of our characters.

I would describe it maybe as a beautiful mess.

Sometimes it's very tidy and sometimes it's very chaotic.

A lot of inspiration, a lot of ideas are shared.

We have this massive mood board

and we always have like new pieces of cutouts

and we'd always stick them together here.

And this is where the magic happens, basically.

Aya and I started our inspiration

from Muizz Street, Old Cairo or Khan el-Kahlili Street

because the architecture there is just stunning.

A brass workshop caught our attention

and we wanted to incorporate this brass technique

in most of our bags.

And we wanted to preserve this skilled art

or craft by producing it into a modern piece of luxury.

So that's why our bags are very identifiable,

because they're very original to who we are,

what we believe in

and architectural elements from our hometown.

[gentle bright music]

Thank you so much for coming.

But it's time to get back to work now.

See you later.

[gentle bright music]

[birds chirping]