Our Story
Finding Home Between Two Worlds: France & Arabia
The Quiet Beginning
Before badaï was born, there was a quiet search — for identity, for connection, for something that felt like home.
I grew up abroad, Saudi by blood, shaped by a French backdrop. Two cultures that couldn’t be more different on the surface, yet somehow kept calling each other within me. This inner dialogue became the seed of my creative process.
Stories from My Mother
It was shaped, too, by conversations with my mother. She would tell me stories about her life in Saudi Arabia, the traditions that shaped her experiences, would describe landscapes she was able to witness, and the way life used to be. I would find myself repeating those stories in my high school classrooms, to friends, to teachers… with a kind of pride that surprised me. That moment of sharing became a turning point. It pushed me to learn more, to look deeper into my culture’s past.
The Birth of an Archive
And so I turned to archives. I began searching for visuals, fragments of history that spoke to the culture I had inherited but never fully seen. To honor these findings, I started @archivesaudiarabia, a space to collect and share the visual history of Saudi Arabia, as discovered through my personal lens. It was like stepping into a memory I never knew I had. It nourished not just my curiosity, but also my creativity. I wanted to create visual memories and preserve them, not just admire them.
Memory Through Objects
Around the same time, my surf trips became more than just escapes, they were portals. I’d wander into thrift stores and vintage shops, looking for pieces of clothes that felt like memory: sun-faded, nostalgic, full of texture and time. That feeling of discovering something old yet deeply meaningful — it stayed with me.
Slowly but surely, that feeling became badaï.
The Image That Moved Me
One of my very first Instagram posts on @archivesaudiarabia, shows a vintage French magazine cover featuring one of the former kings of Saudi Arabia. I remember pausing when I first found it, struck by how this image carried the weight of both my worlds. A Saudi figure, framed by a French publication, somehow felt like a reflection of me. It wasn’t just a piece of media; it was a quiet reminder that the threads of my identity, so often blurred or questioned, have always been intertwined. This image moved me in a way I didn’t expect. It gave me permission to claim all the pieces of myself, and it pushed me to go deeper, to search for more of these quiet connections across time and place.
Inspiration from Simplicity
This archive finding in particular that I posted, captured me — the oversized wool coats, the quiet strength of the faces, the simplicity of life lived in texture. It reminded me that heritage doesn’t have to be ornate or distant. It can be raw, lived-in, and deeply personal.
The Soul of badaï
Through these discoveries, badaï started to take shape. Not just as a brand, but as a reflection of a generation that exists in-between: between geographies, between eras, between languages. We find beauty in contrast. We stitch it into cotton, into linen, into everyday rituals.
Through badaï, I give shape to the echoes of my past and offer them forward, reimagined, for those who live in-between like I do.