Photos by Eissa Attar

Tell us about your brand’s background. How and when did you start? 

Over quarantine, I decided to teach myself something new and make use of all the extra time we had on our hands. And since I always loved embroidery and appreciated the work that gets into it, I decided to start learning how to do it myself. And once I started I couldn’t stop. I kept watching tutorials, learning new techniques and learning from my mistakes over time, until I felt I was confident enough to actually create a brand.

What inspired the name “Embano”? 

My personal style is very early 2000s and I was inspired by that aesthetic to create bandanas with my personal touch which is the embroidery. The name came from my nickname :Hano Banano. I wanted to use wordplay and my friend suggested to include my name especially that this is my personal style. She suggested Embrodiery and Bano, which after several tries she came up with Embano.

Where are your pieces made? 

At first all the pieces were made by me. Once the demand for Embano started to grow and started selling at homegrown, I started looking for someone to help. Luckily, I was able to find women who can help me but at the same time I help them. The pieces are all handmade by underprivileged women in Jeddah. This makes Embano a social enterprise as these women’s income comes from work such as embroidery. 

Are you looking to collaborate with any other emerging brands like yourself? 

I would definitely be interested in collaborating with emerging brands. I think it is very important  to support one another and there is nothing more rewarding than creative synergy.