Exclusive First Look at Jude Benhalim's Latest Collection: Urban Rebel

It’s not easy living in a metropolis; all the crime, pollution, working hours, and people ogling awkwardly at you as you walk down the street takes a toll on you. And the sad thing is, urban areas are the industrial centres of the global economy, like the world literally thrives on our misery! The silver lining, however, is that Jude Benhalim just turned our trials and tribulations in Cairo into jewellery that we can wear as we can go about the daily grind looking pretty.

Inspired by her personal experience as a big city girl, Urban Rebel, the latest collection by Benhalim’s J’s Designs, is the sartorial representation of urban life – sophisticated, practical, forward, and a little rough around the edges. “Urban Rebel is inspired by the city and designed to mirror the aesthetic of urban structures,” Benhalim tells us. “It’s inspired by cracked concrete, city maps, pipelines, all the things that make up a city.”

Like Benhalim’s previous designs, the pieces are edgy and geometric, but the sharp lines and shapes do not only speak to what makes up a city, but also to its complex human landscape. “I wanted to create a collection about breaking free from limitations, and the system that forces people into things, like limiting women to becoming housewives, and turning people into workaholics. You tend to lose sight of your individuality in a city,” the designer says.

Benhalim’s astute observations on the human condition probably resonate with every urbanite out there because the struggle is too real, but, adorned in her bijouterie, we can take on the world, armed with the knowledge that it wasn’t all for nothing – that even though we work a hundred hours a week, and breathe polluted air, and are more likely to get mugged than our rural counterparts, we sparked a rebellion inside Benhalim.  

Here's your exclusive look at Urban Rebel: