Creative Direction: Camille Macawili
Photographer: Ziga Mihelcic
Makeup & Hair: Mauro Hernan
Fashion Assistant: Ale Platz
Videographer: Ahmed Abdelwahab
Cover Star: Alia Al Khafajy
Special thanks to 1309 Studios & Mauzan
Alia Al Khafajy, Emirati founder and CEO of O K T A, wears Tiffany & Co.’s iconic and designer collections that make for precious investments.
The Emirati founder and CEO of O K T A – a multi-brand clean beauty and wellness platform dedicated to consciously-made products that puts authenticity first – shares her precious learnings and moments that have shifted and shaped her perspective, professionally and personally.
What is a pivotal moment that served as a catalyst to launching O K T A?
O K T A was born from a personal journey to find skincare solutions that were missing here in our market. Having sensitive skin myself, I constantly reacted to many products on the market. This led me to want to discover more gentle solutions for my skin. Sourcing new brands through travels, and online researching started a new passion of finding new products, ingredients and learning insights from the global beauty industry. Realising the gap in the market, I had decided to bring clean non-toxic, effective beauty solutions into the region through O K T A. Curating beauty and wellness brands that aligned with my values of sustainability, transparency, and efficacy, especially after my own struggles to find holistic, mindful skincare is what drove me toward creating O K TA and it is what still drives me today.
The beauty industry is ever-evolving. How do you think the narrative is changing and how do you tackle that as a business owner in this space?
I believe that we are now seeing a greater shift towards a focus on sustainability, transparency, and mindful consumption within the beauty industry; as we see this behaviour and shift across the board in all other industries including fashion, lifestyle and more. Our way of addressing these global shifts through O K T A is by sourcing and selecting brands that not only deliver results but are conscious of their environmental and ethical impacts. Beginning with ingredient transparency, ethical sourcing of natural and raw ingredients, sustainable packaging and manufacturing are all crucial factors and prerequisites that play a role in our decision making, along with, of course, the importance of their efficacy and proven results as skincare and beauty solutions. It’s about offering consumers products they can trust.
What are key moments in your life that have defined or influenced your taste?
I would have to say that the biggest influences would have to be my mother and perhaps being a child of the late 80s and 90s era had a bit of an influence on me. My mother always advocated the notion and idea of embracing our own natural beauty. Always so elegant and classic, she is someone who never wore makeup and if she did it was always a lipstick and some mascara. Watching that growing up embedded in me the idea of the beauty and elegance found in simplicity, nature and skin first. She did, however, allow me to have my own identity and personality in my style, building my own sense of taste and essentially what I gravitate towards within my personality. I’m always attracted to anything that looks and feels clean, simple, timeless and elegant but with something unqiue to offer. From a fashion sense this is very much influenced by examples of late Carolyn Bessette K., 90s blue jeans and white tee, classic slip dress era. However, I also have adopted and adapted new learnings from my travels exploring new cultures and experiences. This has created a core base in prioritising authenticity, quality and the use of nature-inspired ingredients in beauty lifestyle and in fashion.
How would you style the Tiffany & Co. pieces from day-to-night?
Oh, this is a difficult choice, because there’s so much to play with here and fun styling. I’d most probably go for the pieces from the collections that I gravitate towards. For example the Schlumberger collection gives a slightly mid-century vintage feel which I love. I’d either style it with a pair of well fitted blue jeans, white base and a blazer for a more casual yet put-together look. For a more feminine style, I’d go for a maxi column white or cream silk skirt, or slip dress with a well-tailored matching coloured blazer and a pair of neutral heels that can transcend from day-to-night, but for this look I’d probably go for the pieces from the Hardware collection which I see myself wearing often to add modernity to the outfit, or the Knot collection pieces for a more classic look adding a bright red lip for the evening.
This is The Precious Issue – within your career, what is some precious advice that has been imparted to you that has served you well?
I once read a somewhere a quote that read, “Don’t compromise on your values, especially when it comes to integrity.” And that is something that stuck with me as it’s something I truly believe in. Navigating through life, be it from a personal scale or professional one, this is something fundamental to have and abide by to continue through your journey.
