Building a Brand from the Heart: A Conversation with N.A STUDIO
- Nada Armanious
- Features
Founded by sisters Noran and Soad Ageel, N.A STUDIO is a contemporary fashion house where emotion, colour, and cultural memory converge. Rooted in Libyan heritage yet shaped by a distinctly global lens, the brand channels a rare balance of instinct and intellect—where colour becomes a form of communication and garments feel like lived-in stories. After graduating from Parsons Paris and returning to Cairo in late 2024, Noran began building the world of N.A STUDIO, later joined by her sister Soad, whose background in marketing and PR now anchors the brand’s vision from the inside out. Together, they craft pieces that reject perfection in favour of feeling, embracing intuition, imperfection, and boldness as design principles.
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
In this conversation, Founder and Creative Director Noran Ageel reflects on the obsessions, memories, and Mediterranean echoes that inform her work—and on how N.A STUDIO continues to evolve as a space for freedom, identity, and colour-led storytelling.
Did your Libyan heritage shape the choices you made for the brand?
When I first started designing for N.A STUDIO, I was (and still am) obsessed with mixing different coloured stripes. What many people might not know is that these stripes are inspired by the rde, a traditional Libyan textile. I’m deeply connected to our heritage, but in my work, I prefer my research not to be too literal. I like things to feel fresh, contemporary, and layered with meaning—the kind you only notice when you intentionally look twice. So, I think our identity shows up in small cues, in the feeling, and in our storytelling more than in the silhouettes themselves.
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
Your Fall/Winter 2025 collection is bright, timeless, and masterfully crafted. What inspired this collection?
Our FW25 collection was imagined through an array of obsessions I was fixated on at the time. The colour red—I always come back to it. I was also drawn to Casa Lana, designed in 1965 by Ettore Sottsass in Milan, a cocoon-like living room wrapped in warm wood and grounded by a dreamlike magenta carpet. I became fascinated by how Sottsass could create an atmosphere purely through colour. Around the same time, I was looking at the work of Ulla von Brandenburg, whose use of fabric and saturated tones turns colour into a language of its own.
I’m often inspired by art. I’ll fixate on a certain space, object, or piece of furniture until I find a new one to get lost in—and the cycle continues. These obsessions become little worlds I dive into. I study them, experiment with them, and let them take over my thoughts for a while. So when you see a final piece, you’re really seeing a memory of that moment—a snapshot of something I was deeply drawn to. Each collection becomes a capsule of those obsessions.
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
You describe the brand as dressing a woman “who isn’t afraid to be remembered, who leads with instinct, and who lives in colour.” How do you define that woman today, and how do you hope she evolves with the brand?
The woman I design for is, honestly, my alter ego. Subconsciously, every woman who wears our pieces, I instantly imagine has a huge personality. Our brand isn’t for those who shy away with their style. I personally don’t wear that much colour—I used to live in neutrals and black. But my sketchbooks were always bursting with colour; it’s how my sister and I see the world. It’s how we see women. Designing with colour feels like a way of honouring that energy.
She’s bold, and she doesn’t care to own the room. I think that’s who she is today, and who she’ll continue to become with every collection from the brand.
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
How do you balance perfection and expression in your designs?
I don’t really believe in perfection. Frankly, I find it boring. I care more about feeling. If something moves me and is well considered, I’m instantly drawn to it. I don’t like that sterile feeling—when it becomes too serious. I think that’s a big reason we keep going back to creating a selection of handmade pieces; they will never be perfect, and no piece will ever be identical to another.
I think perfection can kill emotion, and that’s a pity because that’s usually where the magic happens.
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
Are there particular collaborations, materials, or manufacturing techniques you’re eager to explore that you haven’t yet?
I’m always curious about working with artisans, especially from this region. Learning about different crafts that have been passed down generationally is really precious. When we work with artisans, there’s this beautiful tension. For generations, they’ve created pieces, preserving a language of making that rarely shifts. When we show them an idea they can’t quite place, it challenges both of us, stretching their techniques and our vision in new directions.
Their mastery grounds us, but once the pieces reach our studio, they start to shift. We pull them into our world of experimentation, colour, and play. The designs become louder, freer—sometimes almost unrecognisable to the craft.
Photo provided by N.A STUDIO
Finally, what legacy do you hope N.A STUDIO will leave for emerging designers in North Africa?
We hope N.A STUDIO shows that building something meaningful doesn’t need a formula. Design can be emotional, intuitive, and human, yet still powerful. For us, our legacy lies in proving that what’s built from the heart can become something real—something that moves people. It started with intuition, a feeling we chose to trust and build on.
Along the way, we’ve learned that purpose and creativity can coexist with structure and devotion—that a brand can have both heart and direction. Growth for us doesn’t rush; it’s intentional, and has always been about becoming.