"Have you seen my bus? I had a bus that I converted into a store.” Egyptian entrepreneur Hadia Ghaleb enthusiastically swipes through images of a large, holographic caravan that had been parked outside Abu Dhabi’s Yas Mall. Its interiors feature futuristic purple mirrors, pearly tiled floors and rails showcasing modest swimsuits, with coffees and sweet treats served outside on iridescent tables. This cyber-chic aesthetic is mirrored in her office, where acrylic desks and shelves are topped with quirky vases, pixelated coffee mugs, limited edition luxury fashion collectibles and mermaid-esque décor pieces. Framed self-love affirmations hang alongside colourful prints advertising tourist destinations like Ibiza, Mykonos and Miami, and a fuchsia-painted palm plant from a Galeries Lafayette pop-up is placed next to a curvy, cloud-inspired sofa.
In one corner of the office sits a large, industrial-sized safe. It has been painted a gleaming shade of silver, and a metallic plaque drilled to the top is embossed with Hadia’s name. Replicas of this will soon get shipped off to a handful of Hadia’s favourite fashion personalities in the region - each will each receive their own colossal safe fitted with drawers containing her debut sunglasses collection, which launched this week. It’s excessive and over-the-top - which is exactly how the 31-year-old entrepreneur likes to conduct her business. She has over 2.5 million followers on Instagram, and knows how to leverage them, having been at the forefront of the influencer marketing movement in Egypt.
“When I was in university in Cairo, I used to wear really funky, outrageous and eccentric stuff,” she tells MOJEH. Cairo’s fashion scene was nascent, and Hadia would wear creatively upcycled garments with oversized sunglasses on campus, often getting made fun of for her offbeat style. “Then when Instagram came into play, the bullying went from on ground, to online,” recalls Hadia. But the attention worked in her favour. Because so many users would comment and share her posts, her engagement skyrocketed, and she earned followers - and fame - very quickly, landing her on the radar of brands who would send her luxurious gifts and prestigious event invitations at just 19 years old. An economics major, Hadia saw the potential to make this newfound attention lucrative. “I did my own analytics for six months - I would see the increase in engagement, followers and sales for brands and I realised I was 1000 per cent impactful for them,” she explains.
Hadia’s big break came in 2014 - she had graduated from university and joined her father’s software company, and after a trip to San Francisco for an Oracle convention, received an email from the organisers of the Cairo Festival City fashion show. They had a budget of half a million Egyptian pounds (Dhs38,600) and wanted to hire Hadia to produce it. After explaining that flying in professional models from Dubai would be costly, she proposed herself as a model, and recruited 30 other up-and-coming influencers in the city, paying them not to simply walk the catwalk, but also to post photos of the event. “Within one week, we had everyone who was anyone on Instagram posting about it - a teaser, the build-up, the big reveal and conclusion. A month later, I was doing the influencer marketing and social media for all of the brands owned by Alshaya and Azadea,” says Hadia, who was just 20 years old at the time.
“When I started social media, I knew that eventually I would have to start my own brand - this is the only way forward for a content creator, because you cannot depend all your life on other brands,” explains Hadia. The inspiration for her focal niche came during one summer in Egypt, when a group of upper-class women were denied entry into a luxury resort because of their burkini swimsuits. It was a recurring issue: the hotels and beaches required women to wear contemporary, stylish swimwear - not drab, black designs that were deemed too religious. Hadia decided to create a brand pulsating with bold, vibrant colours and prints that would change the conversation around modest swimwear. Available with leggings and skirts and in different levels of coverage, her swimsuits feature swirly, marbled patterns, geometric colour-blocked styles and pieces adorned with chunky gold hardware.
She formulated her business plan during the pandemic, and launched in 2022. “It spread so quickly - we served 5,000 customers in year one,” says Hadia, listing Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia as her top three markets. Each set costs around Dhs1,000, but fakes are widely circulated in markets in Egypt, as well as on Chinese fast fashion sites. “They’ve even copied my name, and are selling them like Halloween costumes,” says Hadia, showing the TikTok account of a store that has stacks of her swimsuit knockoffs in packets printed with her logo.
Each year, Hadia hopes to add a new product line to her brand. Tote bags were launched in 2023, and she released her sunglasses collection in September 2024. Like her office interiors, the aesthetic of the eyewear is futuristic and intergalactic, with ornate frames flaunting stars, ski goggle shapes and even Arabic calligraphy. One style features the oversized Arabic letter ‘H’ on the temples, and another is decorated with a popular Arabic expression, al aleb ghaleb. The play on words, that incorporates Hadia’s own surname, translates to ‘the mould is a winner’ - meaning that no matter what you wear, you’re going to make it look good.
Before the samples were even complete, Hadia received interest from Magrabi, and has been in talks with the retailer regarding in-store launch events in Egypt and Saudi. Hadia had a whirlwind summer - she planned a three-month pop-up at Boulevard Riyadh City, as well as a store on the north coast of Egypt. In addition, Hadia hosted an island experience in Egypt just a short boat ride away from El Gouna, where 12 influential women were photographed for her label’s summer campaign.
Photographed by Ausra Osi
From donning outlandish outfits at university to becoming not only a bona fide trend setter but also an advocate for modestly-dressed women, it’s clear the tides for the former ‘crazy girl on campus’ have turned magnificently in her favour. Shop the collection
From the May 2024 issue of MOJEH
