Amy Pugsley Many things in life are complicated but your bag shouldn’t be. Egyptian minimalist brand—Minilet—is bringing vegan bags to the market that are fun, versatile, minimalist, and chic. Iman Adly founded the company in October 2020 after extensive market research; realizing that there was a desire for bags with a functional minimalist style at a reasonable price. Flair Magazine sat down with Iman to learn more about Minilet.
What does Minilet stand for and what sets you apart from other handbag brands in the region?
Minilet means minimal & sleek. The name Minilet is divided into two parts; mini + ilet. Mini stands for minimal which is the core of our brand and (ilet =eyelet) is a ring-shaped piece that is an integral part of most bags. We combined both of these ideas together to be minimal but at the same time give you a sleek and sophisticated look. We make multi-use minimal bags that can be tailored for different occasions yet make you feel elegant. The freshness of our minimal and elegant designs, the top quality of our materials, and the practicality of our products, catered to the market at a reasonable price was a huge gap we are now proudly serving.
Describe the Minilet woman. Is there a specific type of woman you have in mind when designing?
A strong, confident, elegant woman simply a WOMAN who does it all! Our minimal designs are timeless, you can wear them confidently everytime and everywhere for that elegantly simple look you always wanted, and most importantly guilt free, no animals are ever hurt in the production of our products, because they are all vegan. We use sustainable packaging and we are also aiming in the future to use vegan leather that are made of pineapple, mushroom, or apple only and to be 100% eco-friendly yet maintaining the use of the high-quality leather.
Why did you decide to create your handbags to be vegan and leather-free?
The first victims of genuine leather are the animals, there’s always a misconception that genuine leather is only coming from what is remaining from that meat industry which is not true at all. Actually, in a lot of countries (if not all of them), animals that are killed for getting their skin are different from the ones killed for their meat.
Based on this fact, we made our own equation. Most people who go for genuine leather do so because of its high quality, and that’s what we did when we chose vegan leather. We didn’t just pick any leather, we did our research and tested it and picked high-quality vegan leather that a lot of our customers confused for genuine leather because of its exceptional quality.
Do you think becoming more ethical and sustainable is important in the fashion industry in general with so much fast fashion?
It has been said that the fashion industry is the world’s second most polluting industry. With so much fast fashion, you don’t only hurt the environment, you also hurt the workers. Fast fashion plays a role in making you always want to buy more and more which you should consider before doing more shopping. Do you really need that piece? How many pieces are in your wardrobe? How many times have you worn them? It’s a part of our vision, with minimal designs that can be worn every day, everywhere and you will always look elegant, you can wear them on everything and it will always add to your look.
The designs of your bags indicate that you aren’t preoccupied with trends. That’s a very refreshing change. How do you achieve that?
There’s elegance in simplicity—what makes minimal designs special is that they never look dated and they never go out of fashion. You can wear our bags in the morning or at night, at work, or when you go shopping. Our goal is to make all of our bags to be multi-use bags so you can wear them in different ways. Minimalism and practicalism are the core of our design language, the freshness of the minimal look, the elegantly simple and timeless style of our products is what defines our designs.
Can you tell Flair readers more about your product line?
Multi-use Belt Bag: you can wear it in 4 different ways; as a waist bag, shoulder bag, crossbody bag or you can simply detach the bag and wear the belt alone. The belt consists of 12 eyelets which makes it look elegant and yet simple.
Mini Backpack: a practical elegant backpack, while almost all backpacks on the market come with a width of 9cm ours is at 12cm of width making it an incredibly practical yet an elegant and timeless piece to own and wear.
Envelope Laptop Sleeve: we use thick high quality leather for a slim and elegant look and maximum protection.
Up Next: in mid-January, we will release two new bags; a practical work bag, and a new minimal multi-use bag!
