AUSTIN, Texas — Getting recognized globally is any fashion designer’s dream. A program in Austin is making those dreams come true.

The ATX+EGYPT Entrepreneurship Program was created by Austin’s Economic Development Department and the United States Embassy in Cairo. The year-long exchange program has benefited fashion designers in Austin and Egypt. It was fully funded by the embassy so the creatives incurred no costs.

The program helped 10 Egyptian designers and six Austin designers learn about business management and understand different cultures and markets. It also gave them prime real estate in Austin to sell their clothes.

You can shop their clothing on 225 West 2nd Street until Dec. 20. In February, the shop will open in Cairo, giving the Austin designers a chance to expand globally, too.

Hend Akid is a designer from Nubia, a region in the southern part of Egypt. She is the owner of Orkaddi, a scarf company.

“Each scarf has a story,” Akid said. “We usually inspire all the designs and sketches from this heritage and try to show it to all the world.”

Last week, Akid signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an Austin-based fashion brand, League of Rebels. She’s creating an exclusive scarf for the company and plans to come back to Texas this summer.

“Happy to be in this program,” she said. “Useful for me, and I hope to be useful for someone else.”

Kydd Jones is an Austin-based designer. He created a line of streetwear called Onyx D’or All-Terrain.

“I started hiking during the pandemic,” he said. “Me and my family started going to national parks, definitely around here and the greenbelt areas, so I was really inspired by just being outside.”

Jones says his brand will evolve as he does.

“As I grow as a human and as an artist, it’s going to be moving with me, nostalgically and purposefully through the community, through the culture of the city and everything around me,” he said. “All that’s going into the design and how my brain works.”

Abdallah Mahmoud, a project manager with Austin’s Economic Development Department, said he wants to do more international collaborations in the future. Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa are all at the top of his list.

“One at a time,” he said. “It takes a lot to do these programs.” 

For now, you can enjoy the work of designers from Texas and Egypt in the heart of the Lone Star State: Austin.

Follow Charlotte Scott on Twitter.