She has achieved her goals by returning to the beauty of the Egyptian woman through a unique line of clothing that is unprecedented in its loyalty to the traditional Egyptian garb. Haggag has utilized the texture, colors, materials and prints of the Arish (North Sinai) national dress to create a modern casual chic line of clothing.

The word ‘Baheya’ embodies beauty and radiance, and that is what Egyptian fashion should be about.

“I have strived to strike a balance between modernity and our identity as Egyptians, whose national dress in Sinai is black and embroidered with colorful thread. This can be easily noticed in my designs,” tells Haggag.

She adds, “Working as a designer is a glamorous yet hectic job.  Having a private business in the first place is very new for me. It requests a very well rounded person with good judgment and a good eye.”

As a designer, Haggag spends plenty of time doing research on the fashion front to be updated with international upcoming lines, and on the cultural front to find her inspiration.

“Both job requirements are very interesting for me; I love fashion and appreciate the international advanced designers. However, the most special part for me is to tour Egypt hunting for what is new and special and awaiting me to modernize it and make it more wearable.”

Being interested to spot light on the beauty of Egyptian women doesn’t mean that Baheya is not following international trends.

“I follow international lines as closely as possible. For example, for the ‘fallaha’ collection, I used the loose lines of summer dresses, the ‘sherwals.’ For the winter collection, I introduced a long vest that was inspired by international lines.”

Haggag presented her summer collection during her first fashion show in Cairo and Dubai.

“My summer collection was a big success both in Cairo and Dubai.  The mix of colors and fabric that I used was very well received by the market,” she says.

She continues, “I used black and white viscose fabric, the traditional ‘mindil’ – a small bandana, still used by Fallahin (peasants) to cover their head – with very colorful and big flowers, in addition to plain colorful cotton satin fabric. The output was very modern and catchy, yet with a Fellah twist.”

Her aim is to come up with collections that are inspired by various cultures to show the world the diverse cultures that Egypt offers.

Haggag made an initiative to spot light on the ‘Sinai Bedouin’ collection, which was cross-stitching, to be integrated with the modern wear.

“Some people prefer to wear traditional inspired stuff as an accessory, so I started introducing different types of shawls and scarfs as well.”

Haggag will present her new collection to spot light on the Arish fashion.

“My new collection is pretty, striking and colorful embroidery made of small crosses and endless motifs, highlighting the look of Arish fashion. For example, I used the long black dress with bright colorful embroidery on the chest, skirt and sleeves of the dress,” she says.

“It will also contain a silky dress that women wear under the black thick dress, under which the collar usually shows.”

Part of the collection will be head covers and accessories. Haggag chose to display head covers with the iconic embroidery, beads, seashells and buttons, in addition to traditional face covers, embellished with metal coins.

“Although this collection looks very traditional, I decided to renovate the look of the dress to make it more modern and wearable, taking into consideration the current international fashion,” she explains.

The Baheya Fall/Winter 2011 collection is all in black and navy blue, offering a dress, a hooded wrapper, a jacket and a top. 

“All items are made of thin Italian wool and hand embroidered in Bir Al-Abd, a town 100 km away from Al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai. I cooperated with Bedouin women in their small houses, where they did the hand cross stitching,” says Haggag.

The only item made of an Egyptian rare material, called ‘Ikhmim,’ is the blouse. It is silky and comes from Asyut (Upper Egypt). It is inspired by the blouse Bedouin women wear under their black embroidered dress, adds Haggag.

Baheya’s goal is to design for women who are comfortable with their own body and personality, and are self-expressive in their aura and sense of dress.

“I target women who are interested in culture and art and have a sense of elegance that is approachable and very friendly,” she says.

Baheya has never presented any collection for veiled women, although she believes that veiled women nowadays have become very trendy.

“I don’t design things for veiled women, but they buy my pieces and layer it with bodies and other layers to make it as decent as they wish,” Baheya tells.

Baheya has not presented any pharaonic costumes yet, but she sees that the Egyptian drama is different from what she might do.

“In drama, they use the actual national dress as it is. Designers, on the other hand, do a lot of work to modernize it.  If I present a pharaonic collection, I will take the soul of the dress and turn it into something else,” she states.

Baheya further plans to cooperate with Egyptian actresses. She already enjoyed designing for some of them; actress Menna Shalaby is one of her customers.

Baheya believes that there is a variation in the Egyptian society, which allows her to deal with different categories.

“The A/B classes in Egypt are mostly not veiled and they look gorgeous – very similar to Europeans. These are my customers. In fact, they are very fashion-oriented and wear a lot of international designers’ clothes.” she says.