UNTY: Fashion brand fuses art, film and music into designs

Spring is looking promising for t-shirt illustration brand "UNTY" (pronounced “unity"). Founders Omar Mobarek and Mostafa Tarek have big plans for this collaborative project, which seeks to incorporate art, film, music and fashion.

The idea was born almost a year ago when Mobarek and Tarek were both in their final year at AUC, each with a dream to work on a project that actually meant something.

Mobarek’s background is in architecture and Tarek's in engineering, but both share a thirst for inspiration and the get-go to make something happen.

Since then it’s been a “learning experience,” Mobarek’s says. The pair started with a standard men’s crew cut shirt emblazoned with Mobarek’s AUC illustrations; a collection they dubbed “Rebirth." Feedback was mixed, and both were surprised that just as many women were picking up their shirts as men.

As the collections kept coming — the second titled “Faux Pas," and the third “Novocaine” — Mobarek and Tarek introduced a female cut and sweatshirts, choosing illustrations that were more universal.

Most recently, the two are planning for the launch of their spring/summer collection, which, as of mid-March, remains unnamed. Mobarek has spent the past three months working on a 2x1 meter canvas and each of the t-shirts will feature a piece of it.

“The canvas is a unity of male and female,” explains Mobarek, “and the t-shirts are its offspring, each featuring a piece of the whole — in some cases a coherent image, in others, just a line.”

The collection will be released over two separate dates — March 14 and another in June.

Mobarek and Tarek hope to feature other items soon, including backpacks this summer, and blazers and caps in the near future, but their vision doesn't stop there.

“My background is in architecture and I’ve always been into different mediums,” explains Mobarek, who hopes to integrate music and video into his existing illustration-based fashion brand. “We want to be involved in musical performances and I have already edited a movie from a trip I took to the Sinai that I plan to feature on the site.”

Mobarek also hopes to develop into a strong Egyptian fashion brand. Between Tarek’s work on the production side of things, and Mobarek’s evolving illustrations, they have a good formula for success. The pair do their best to be involved in every fashion-related event and were recently featured at downtown's new bar-art space Vent, on March 5.

UNTY t-shirts from the Novocaine collection are currently available on eniGma Shopping and will be featured at ABNG, a new store opening in Zamalek next week.

While plenty of fashion designers in Cairo have the talent, few have UNTY's mixture of discipline and determination.