Words By Allegra Salvadori | Photographs By Ahmed Waleed Samy, Tinko, Yahiya Al Ali, Yoshida Taisuke.

When Margarita Andrade arrived in Cairo in 1994, it was meant to be a visit. Instead, it became the beginning of a life’s work. A single mother at the time, she sought not only creative fulfillment but also a path that would allow her to raise her son while building something meaningful. “It felt natural to work with Egypt’s beautiful textiles,” she recalls. But discovering that the country’s finest cotton was being exported—and inaccessible to its own people—was a turning point. “That felt like a travesty to me.”

What began as a small venture soon evolved into Malaika Linens, a brand rooted in beauty, integrity, and social purpose. Its aesthetic—delicate prints of scarab beetles and donkeys, hand-pleated sheets, embroidered tassels—is quietly soulful. But its impact is anything but subtle.

Margarita founded a training centre—now the Threads of Hope social enterprise—to equip vulnerable women, especially refugees and migrants, with embroidery skills and dignified employment. “A healthy, informed mother is better able to educate her children,” she says. Literacy classes and life-skills workshops followed. Today, every factory worker at Malaika can read and write.

For Andrade, craftsmanship is an ethical act. “We could use machines,” she says, “but we don’t. Handmade connects us to nature, to humanity, to sensitivity.”

Upcoming collections draw inspiration from women artists of the early 20th century, like Sonia Delaunay—women who created with boldness in times of constraint. “They paved the way for us to reach further and achieve more.”

At Malaika, beauty is never superficial. It is, in the founder’s words, “healing.” And in a world often driven by speed and scale, Margarita’s commitment to slow, thoughtful creation is both a rare luxury and a quiet revolution.

You may find Malaika Linens on their website here and on Instagram here.