You wouldn’t normally associate Egyptian jewellery designer Azza Fahmy with British designer Matthew Williamson. But in the world of fashion, where strange bedfellows can sometimes make great business and creative sense, theirs is a match-up that’s already creating quite the buzz.
The pair recently launched their second jewellery collaboration in Dubai, coming off a successful first line launched in September last year.
“I guess the stars just aligned,” smiles Williamson, pointing to a necklace featuring a strand of stars, one of the items in the 21-piece fine jewellery collection. “We were approached by Azza’s team about a year and half ago and it was an easy decision because of what she does. I loved her skill and her expertise in a field I know little about. So it was nice to move out of my comfort zone and advise and bring my spirit to the collection.”
Created to complement Williamson’s fall-winter 2014 collection, the Azza Fahmy x Matthew Williamson range is sold exclusively at Bloomingdale’s Dubai.
The second collection, says the Manchester-born designer, is “much more thought through from start to finish.”
“This collection was about making something specific that would work with our collaboration,” he says. “So I looked at 70s interiors. I came across these beautiful black and white pictures, which looked like it could still be cool today, and in the middle of the lounge there was this tapestry rug with stars and I decided to make the clothes imagining who the woman was that lived in that home and curating the wardrobe for her. The next stage was the jewellery.”
Fahmy, a Hollywood red-carpet favourite, is no stranger to designer collaborations, having worked with Welsh designer Julien Macdonald and London label Preen. Williamson’s aesthetic of bright colours, electric prints and laid-back hippy chic was the perfect starting point for a new collection, she says.
“They showed me his work and how he designs his clothes and prints and I thought ‘this man who takes care of all this and all this research must be good,” she says. “For me it’s all about mixing the past and the future. I am very connected to culture but I’ve always tried to make things contemporary… take from the past and make it alive and wearable.
“For instance, inside some of the stars, you will find filigree work,” she explains, referring to the delicate metalwork popular in Asian jewellery-making. “It’s about successfully bridging those two worlds.”
Fahmy, who opened her first boutique in Cairo in 1981, credits her daughter Amina, who’s now the creative director, for helping keep her namesake fine jewellery brand in relevance.
“She completely changed my perspective about jewellery. How, for instance, to put these contemporary pieces and mix them with culture and art,” she says. But it was Fahmy’s rich catalogue of heritage-inspired work that caught Williamson’s attention.
“With this collection, what we were keen to do was take all that history and the craftsmanship and the skill that Azza knows so well and infuse it with something that she might not usually do,” he says.
Both designers have a strong following in the Middle East, a direct result of their creative inspirations: Williamson is known for his strong Asian references while Fahmy, who trained in the Egyptian way of making jewels, has found her fame spread beyond the Arab world.
Dubai is the perfect setting for their collaboration to blossom, they say.
“It is now the centre of fashion in the Arab world. A lot of people coming from everywhere and it makes sense for us,” says Fahmy.
“It’s a logical place for both of us. It’s the middle of the world isn’t it?” echoes Williamson.
Though non-committal on a third collection, the pair say designer collaborations need to be always properly thought through.
“You make a calculated decision, and you take each one as it comes,” says Williamson. “Sometimes it’s for purely creative reasons, sometimes it’s creative and financial and sometimes it’s the media buzz. Or it could be a mix of all three. You want there to be a sense of every perspective.
“We got something two days ago but it didn’t make sense to me. It’s was a fantastic deal but it makes no sense to collaborate with somebody that we have no synergy with.”
Known for his famous friends, the British designer says that while celebrity endorsements help, it’s not something he or his label actively pursues.
“I don’t work with [celebrities] in a way that it’s a controlled thing. And I don’t pay,” he says. “For me it’s more of a friendship thing with a girl. If it’s the right girl, the right dress, at the right place and the right time, it will work. And when it does, it’s a great brand endorsement.
“But for me it’s always been about personal interaction. I can’t compete with those big brands that have divisions and go ‘who we dressing next?’. We are a cottage industry. So we have to rely on our personal connections. Like Sienna Miller, she’s my best friend so it’s a very organic and personal process.”
Designers have had to become good business people, says Williamson, whose eponymous label has a number of flagship stores including one in Dubai.
“I had to have some understanding [of business]. I like to know,” he says. “But my favourite thing is when someone wears my pieces. I love the beginning of what I do and I love the end. To see it on someone.”
“I’m a really bad business woman,” Fahmy chimes in, laughing. “We have people to take care of that. I’d like to stick to the artistic things.”
