Thursday March 28th, 2024
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How This Egyptian-Canadian Brand is Reviving Egyptian Cotton

One of those rare occasions in which a store has both pretty fashion and sexy values.

Staff Writer

We are all for great initiatives, all the more so when they are made of everything Egyptian. Kotn, a Canada-based store, reserves its materials used for the line of clothes made by 100% Egyptian cotton. In case you’re not from this earth and haven’t heard, Egyptian cotton—also dubbed as white gold—is known for its soft texture, pleasant to the touch, and generally reputed as finer than any other cotton in the world.

The founders Rami Helali, Benjamin Sehl, and Mackenzie Yeates wanted to utilize Egyptian farms by producing high quality material cotton. Helali, grandson of an Egyptian farmer, was able to reduce business costs by personally meeting with cotton farmers and negotiating deals. With this step eliminated, Kotn can ensure higher wages for their staff. Their procedures are transparent, and they are confident in the cause they are fighting for.

"The core of our business is to create an amazing product that benefits both our customers and the communities who are making it," Kotn's correspondent told us in an interview. "We've been working in the Nile Delta for four years now, and one of our biggest takeaways from the farming communities we're working in was that they needed better and more convenient access to education for their children. "

Kotn opened its first school as a move to improve education in Egypt in 2017. The school, opened in Alexandria, was a move to create “more convenient access to education” for the children of the farmers in the Nile Delta area, Kotn said. The school was solely funded by Kotn’s business revenue, all the way from the build-out to the salaries and school supplies. Their aim is to build a totally of 50 schools by 2025 across the Nile Delta, to compensate the education of the 456,000 children in Egypt who don’t receive education. They are now working on building the second Kotn school.

Their stores are currently in Toronto, Vancouver and New York, the brand is planning on expanding to Egypt in as early as 2019. The clothing line consists of simple colors and designs, accentuating the soft-to-the-touch appeal of the clothes and the cool tones which remind us of an light and easy breeze. The new collection includes dresses and new tank tops for the summer, as well as t-shirts and breathable hoodies for those chilly summer nights that we here in Egypt yearn for.

Egypt’s cotton industry has always been a significant factor contributing to the Egyptian economy. With 2019 half a year away, we’re excited to see what Kotn will offer the Egyptian market, but word of a retail concept space with clothes to help us cool down for the summer sounds just about good enough.

Check out their Facebook page here and their Instagram page here.

Main image taken from Retail Insider.