A celebration of age-old traditions, this Sudanese wedding was a dream come true for Eilaf Osman. Photo: Anastasia Panjinskaya As the winner of the 2022 Fashion Trust Arabia Prize in the accessories category, Eilaf Osman loves few things more than her work. Serendipitously, it was an urgent trip for her luxury handbag brand, Eilaf , that brought the Sudan-born designer face-to-face with her future husband: geophysics engineer Saddam Mahamat Moussa Hileo.
“I went to Chad after the current war in Sudan destroyed the supply chain for my brand’s popular DOM Basket Bag,” the creative tells Vogue Arabia in a post-wedding interview. “The bag features a rare basket weaving technique indigenous to the Brno Tribe of Darfur, and unfortunately most of the weavers I worked with were displaced for months. I decided to fly over to help them move across the border, resettle in N’Djamena, and continue basket weaving.
” Photo: Anastasia Panjinskaya There, during a visit with her mother’s friend, Eilaf found a love like no other. “On my first day visiting them, I saw Saddam for a few seconds as he brought in a cake with a picture of me on it as a welcome gift, but he quickly had to go out after. Over the next few weeks, we would lock eyes in passing, but he was always too busy going out on field work, and I was too busy with my main mission, which was resettling the weavers from Sudan.
” Finally, a common wedding brought the two together. “We ended up laughing the night away a.
