Okhtein

Aya and Mounaz Abdelraouf — Okhtein means "two sisters" — have been making bags and accessories in Cairo for eleven years. The work sits at the intersection most labels can't navigate: rigorously contemporary metalwork on the front, Egyptian craft traditions on the back, no museum-piece posturing in between. Stocked at Net-a-Porter and Harrods in earlier years; the line stayed independently owned through both retailers' contractions. The Diamond Border is the piece the brand keeps coming back to, and the reason is in the lining stitch — a detail most editors won't catch and most factories couldn't execute.