You’ll typically find cowhide leather used on a sturdy pair of work boots because is it extremely durable and difficult to tear or puncture. If you searching for a bag that’s more fashionable than durable, this might be something you’ll like, but if you’re trying to find a sling that can be useful and tough, this won’t be the best option. She asked me how much is was and when I told her $350 she was like I can get a gucci bag on peachtree street for $50. Reform Studio showcases Plastex, a fabric that’s handmade from plastic bags and recycled cotton with two pieces from its Sixties-inspired Grammy’s Collection and two from its Chaotic Design Collection, which celebrates Egyptians’ ingenuity for upcycling broken street chairs. Nevin Altmann’s cushions, bags and shawls are embellished with traditional embroidery; Pheel produces handmade year planners; and Wael Azzam’s My Own People playing cards are illustrated with characters from Egyptian pop culture. The theme of upcycling continues with backpacks, totes, beach bags and passport holders made from plastic bags by Up-fuse and everyday objects painted in bright rainbow colours by Medhat Benzoher.

This theme is extended to the unrealized potential of the city’s current generation of designers. Maps by Transport for Cairo, Valerie Arif and Ghada Waly demonstrate how clever graphic design can rationalize the city’s chaotic street grid, complex bus system and metro lines, and a series of graphic posters showcase everything from political comment and art exhibitions to the preservation of fonts used on old shop signs in Downtown Cairo. Street artist Agnes Michalczyk, aka The Mozza, has created one of her signature, digital black and white collages featuring women in places normally dominated by men for the façade of the exhibition space. I have Black women, white women, and mexican women who stop to shop. Chrome tanned leather is available in wide variety of colors ranging from black to bright pink thereby giving good choices to the fashion industry where trends change quickly. Apparel spans street fashion (Studio Zafir’s T-shirts emblazoned with slang, quotes and truck signage), to accessories (traditional shell-clad boxes transformed into handbags and clutches with bejeweled stone clasps by S.A.D.A.F.A.). Photographic tomes include Noha Zayed & Basma Hamdy’s book Found Khatt which records calligraphic scripts on shop-fronts, houses, trucks, boats and schools, and Studio Meem’s Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo which archives the city’s distinctive, upcycled street furniture.

Alabaster, found extensively amongst pharaonic treasures, but nowadays associated with tacky tourist nick-nacks, is crafted into strikingly elegant coffee tables by Lina Al-Orabi. Ahwa Sada tables are inspired by institutional ‘ahwas’ (coffee houses), and the Supernatural-Deliciosa Table by the leaves of common houseplants. These are similar in appearance to regular leather gauntlet gloves. They go well with a suit as well as regular denim jeans for the dressed-down look. A small leather clutch pouch tangled with a metal chain for a lovely look. In many ways, that mid-century Ivy Look – from blazers and cords, to down jackets and denim – has been subsumed into a more generalized Americana style, which we’ve labeled above as Basic Casualwear. The most popular type is the biker jackets which are accessible in two categories, one with the buttons and the other with zipper. All our cowhide crossbody purse rugs are handpicked and selected to made all these articles. Traditional Egyptian craft is celebrated by distinctive ceramics from the Fayoum Pottery School; cement tiles from The Nile Company; clay cooking pots sporting contemporary glazes by Menn Baladha; and woolen rugs from social enterprise Kiliim.

Branding is represented by logos for Cottonball (Islam Hassan) and The Nile Company (Tandem Branding) inspired by Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Salma Shamel’s identity for alternative film centre Cimatheque in Downtown Cairo. Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, CEO of Dubai Design District, strategic partners for Dubai Design Week commented: “Following the huge success of Beirut as Iconic City in 2015, it’s a great attribute to be able to discover and explore another great Middle Eastern city, Cairo. DUBAI DESIGN WEEK 2016 ANNOUNCES ‘ICONIC CITY: CAIRO NOW! Dubai, UAE: Dubai Design Week has selected Cairo as the focus of this year’s Iconic City exhibition, a series of annual exhibitions launched in 2015 that explores the culture and design scene of individual cities within the Middle East. In addition to the exhibition, Mohamed Elshahed is Curator for the British Museum’s Modern Egypt Project, founder of local architecture and urbanism blog Cairobserver and eponymous magazine in 2011 and teacher of architectural history at the American University in Cairo.