Fertile Waters: Azza Fahmy and Julien Macdonald

With a soft techno beat throbbing in the background, waiters glide about the room offering canapés with champagne or, for the pious, glasses of orange juice. Men in business suits or jeans mix with women, some wearing above-the-knee skirts, some in long dresses and head scarves. It’s a typical soirée for Cairo’s well-heeled set, yet tonight there’s more than the usual Middle East-meets-West twist. The revelers are here to toast an 
 unlikely creative marriage, between Egyptian artist Azza Fahmy, who has spent decades reviving Arab jewelry traditions, and British designer Julien Macdonald, whose dresses are worn by London’s party crowd.

The pair could be a poster couple for cross-cultural understanding. The motherly Fahmy is passionate about Cairo’s old souk and its Islamic motifs. In his white jacket, satin shirt and suede shoes, Macdonald looks ready for a night of clubbing. Eager to push herself as an artist, Fahmy approached Macdonald with the idea of working together in 2006. Macdonald jumped at the chance. Since then, Fahmy has released two Azza Fahmy for Julien Macdonald collections in London and the pair are discussing further collaborations. “It was ambition,” Fahmy explains above the music. “For me, jewelry is a love affair. I never thought of it as a business. But each time I visited Europe, I thought my work was better than what I found there.” Macdonald nods. “All of a sudden, Western girls are attracted to this brand from the middle of the desert,” he says. “They’re saying, ‘My God, I have to have that!’ “

Both say the partnership has helped stretch their creative abilities. Macdonald has learned to appreciate a tradition he knew little about, while Fahmy says that working with Macdonald has forced her to think in new ways. “I am challenged to design something that fits in Europe but has our touch in it,” she says.

Fahmy’s ambitious plan is to establish a top international jewelry brand. Since expanding outside Egypt in 2002, eight Azza Fahmy outlets have opened from Dubai to Jordan, where Queen Rania is a fan, as well as in London. Fahmy now employs 180 designers, artisans, marketers and consultants. Pieces sell for between $100 and $20,000.

Fahmy’s jewelry catches the spirit of Arab traditions. The pieces in what she calls her culture line, the heart of her work since she began designing nearly 40 years ago, are inspired by everything from the hammered silver of peasant wedding jewelry and the repetitive patterns of Islamic architecture to symbols of Arab folklore such as wolf fangs and chili peppers. Trademark touches include blending gold and silver together for an effect that echoes the inlaid brassware found in Middle Eastern bazaars, and echoing the calligraphy used for Koranic verses and Arabic poetry. “Everything I see around me, I turn into jewelry,” she explains.

For her fashion line with Macdonald, Fahmy scales back the ethnic touches and concentrates instead on large and flashy pieces. Macdonald says the jewelry is the perfect accompaniment to his silky, sparkly dresses. “It’s the taste of the unexpected that people want,” he says. “The women who wear my clothes are the stars of the party.” For last year’s collaboration, Macdonald asked Fahmy if she could design a glamorous bangle in the form of a common nail. The result: a gold-encrusted hybrid between a village wedding armlet and a biker bracelet.

Originally, Fahmy had no plans to go into fashion. The daughter of a cotton trader, she became an illustrator for Egyptian government publications after graduating from art school. At a book fair in Cairo in 1969, she came across a volume on medieval European jewelry. The book sparked a painful memory of Fahmy’s widowed mother, who once had to sell her wedding jewelry to make ends meet. That memory prompted Fahmy to turn her skills to jewelry, and she set out to learn the trade from a craftsman in a cramped and dirty workshop of the Cairo souk. Macdonald’s road to fame was more straightforward. After leaving his native Wales for design school, Macdonald began working for Chanel and at 28 was appointed Givenchy’s chief designer.

Global downturn notwithstanding, Fahmy plans to move into New York and elsewhere in the U.S. market by 2010. It’s not just money she’s after. Fahmy wants her emerging brand to help change the world’s image of the Middle East. “The West has not understood us well,” Fahmy says. “We didn’t sell ourselves and gave them the façade of terrorism instead. Those of us involved in culture have a duty to help repair misunderstandings.” And she and Macdonald are doing just that, one accessory at a time.