REFORM STUDIO, EGYPT
It all started with a plastic bag. Or, rather, the multitude of plastic bags that litter the landscape in parts of Egypt. After graduating from college in 2012, Hend Riad and Mariam Hazem co-founded the Cairo design studio Reform, with the aim of harnessing the power of design to affect social change. “We believe that design can solve stubborn problems and so we started with a major issue in Egypt – waste,” says Riad, “We want to design products for a better life.”
After much experimentation, the duo came up with its first product, a fabric woven from used plastic bags on traditional Egyptian handlooms, which has won several design awards. “The idea is to prolong their life-cycle before they get labelled as trash,” she adds, “By looking at plastic bags as a raw material rather than waste, we’ve turned them into a durable, handmade fabric.”
Dubbed Plastex, it comes in four pattern options - plain, striped, zebra and plaid - with more in the pipeline. The studio also wants to help revive the dwindling weaving industry in Egypt and empower local communities in the process - a worthy cause that’s one step closer to being realised after Reform was selected by South Africa’s Design Indaba to collaborate with Ikea along with 10 other rising African design talents. The result of that pairing is a woven textile combining hemp with metallic threads courtesy of recycled crisp packets, that has been transformed into pretty tote bags, cushions and rugs that are in stores now. reformstudio.net