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Nut, the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky, was often depicted as a slender naked woman covered with stars and arched over the earth in a protective downward dog-like stance. She appears in a similar form on the label of the new Cairo-based brand Anut, which offers home goods such as palm tree-embroidered linen tablecloths, wicker place mats and animal-shaped ceramic candle holders inspired by traditional Egyptian crafts and produced by local artisans.
The line’s founder, Goya Gallagher, 54, and creative director, Cruz Maria Wyndham, 40, were drawn to the goddess in part because of their commitment to hiring and training women. “We want to help our artisans go to the next level if that’s what they want,” said the brand’s managing director, Nevine Ramzy, 35, adding that the team will even help negotiate micro loans for their employees so that they can build their own businesses. The company is intent, too, on providing a platform for rising Egyptian creative talents.
In November, the brand opened a boutique in Cairo’s leafy Zamalek neighborhood, but it officially launched this month. To celebrate, Gallagher, who splits her time between Cairo and London, invited friends and collaborators to a decadent costume party at the Egyptian Museum, built at the turn of the 20th century in downtown Cairo. She chose the idea of “offerings” for the gathering’s theme, a reference to ancient Egyptian rituals and also an acknowledgment of her gratitude to the country.
To oversee the food for the event, Gallagher asked the Egyptian-born, New York-based artist and designer Laila Gohar, 36, to create a series of tableaus around the museum. “It was the greatest honor of my career to be allowed to create an installation in this iconic monument filled with Egyptian history,” said Gohar.
The attendees included the Egyptian environmentalist Mounir Neamatalla, 77; the Egyptologist Salima Ikram, 59; Gallagher’s daughter Talia Sawiris, 23; and many of Gallagher’s friends from Cairo and London. Gohar’s family was there too, including her mother, Nevin Elgendy, 60, a leadership coach, and her grandmother, Nabila Riad, 80. More guests, including the anthropologist and curator Farah Hallaba, 28, and Egypt’s former assistant minister of tourism, Lamia Kamel, 47, arrived later for drinks and dancing.
The decor was designed to bring the mundane and everyday into the grand colonial space, said Wyndham. They draped both sides of the entrance with blue striped khayamiya fabric, a type of appliquéd Egyptian cotton canvas that was traditionally used to adorn the insides of tents. Gohar also commissioned artisans to create two fountains from plaster and positioned them on either side of the museum’s entrance, filling one with jewel-like pomegranate seeds and the other with husk cherries.
Gohar served flavorful traditional dishes, including a freekeh salad with dates and walnuts; pickled turnips and cucumbers; bissara, a dip of blended fava beans; and koshary, an Egyptian staple of rice, vermicelli, brown lentils and pasta topped with tomato sauce and a garlic vinegar dressing. Dessert was a selection of Egyptian pastries like baklava and kunafa (spun pastry dough layered with cheese and soaked in syrup), arranged in tall towers around the courtyard.
A team of mixologists created bespoke drinks, including the Anut Elixir, a green juice made of parsley, lime and cucumber with a splash of gin, and the Vine Offering, which tasted like a spicy margarita with a hit of coriander and green chili. After dinner, the New York-based D.J. Jade Croo spun crowd-pleasing dance hits ranging from “Law Laffeina El Ard” by the ’70s Egyptian singer Maha to Cher’s “Believe”.
The conversation ranged from exploring Cairo to celebrating Egyptian craft. Elgendy was pleased that the event was taking place in such an iconic building in downtown Cairo, despite all the recent attention given to the city’s newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum. “There are some of us who believe we should be investing in and renovating Cairo’s beautiful historic architecture, and extending that rich heritage to the new Cairo,” she said, referring to an ambitious urban planning project that’s rising east of the current city center.
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