Our Stories Are Yours — featuring the women in our world who build with intention.
There are stores you walk into and immediately feel something shift. The air is different. You slow down. You start noticing things — a texture, a label you’ve never seen before, a scent you can’t quite name. Ayoon Brooklyn is one of those places.
Founded by Afradh Althaibani at 331 Smith Street in Brooklyn, Ayoon — meaning “eyes” in Arabic — is a destination store unlike most. Yemeni-born, former humanitarian, Brooklyn-rooted, Afradh has built something that defies easy categorization. It’s part gallery, part neighborhood anchor, part window onto the world. She carries brands rarely found elsewhere in the U.S., curated with the kind of discernment that only comes from someone who has seen a lot, lived a lot, and learned to trust her eye completely.
We’ve been lucky enough to call her a friend and a partner.
How we found each other
OSAY came to Ayoon through our Coastal Clay edit — a curated selection of OSAY shoes and objects rooted in Tunisian and Southern Mediterranean craftsmanship. It felt like a natural fit from the start. Afradh understood immediately what we were doing and why. She didn’t need a long explanation of provenance or slow fashion or artisan co-creation. She just got it.
What we found at Ayoon was the same thing our customers find: a room built by someone who genuinely cares about what lives in it. Every object has been chosen. Every brand has a story. Nothing is there by accident.
Building community
Our partnership didn’t stop at retail. Together we hosted two community evenings at Ayoon — an olive oil tasting led by the brilliant sommelier Soraya Hosni, and a conversation about women’s health and perimenopause in partnership with Get Libré and Dr. Sohaib Imtiaz, CMO at People Inc. (@people, @health, @byrdie, @eatingwell, @parents). Two very different evenings, held in the same spirit: bringing people into a room around something real.
That’s what Ayoon is. Not just a store. A place of gatherings and connection.
On wearing things with meaning
We asked Afradh a few questions. One answer stopped us:
“Knowing the people behind a piece changes how you wear it. When I receive a compliment, I love being able to share where it’s from and who made it. Those are the pieces I truly cherish.”
This is exactly what we believe at OSAY. The shoe is the shoe. But the story of Moez choosing the leather, of Olfa overseeing every stitch in the atelier in Tunisia — that’s what makes it irreplaceable. Afradh understands this not as a marketing idea but as a lived value. It’s why her store feels the way it does.
On building while mothering
Afradh is also a mother. And like many of the women we admire most, she holds both things — the business and the family — with honesty about how hard that actually is.
“I want to be fully present at work and fully present at home — something I’ve found incredibly challenging as both a mother and a business owner.”
There’s no clean answer to that tension. But there’s something powerful about naming it out loud, without pretending it’s solved. We see the same honesty in how she runs Ayoon: nothing performative, nothing for show. Just real choices made with care.
On being gentler with yourself
When we asked her what she’d tell other women building something, she said:
“Remember to be gentle to yourself. No one knows what they’re doing half the time anyway. We are our own worst critics, so remember that. And at the end of the day, this is your life and no one else’s.”
And when we asked what success looks like:
“Success is being able to sleep at night knowing all your loved ones are safe.”
Not follower counts. Not revenue targets. Just: everyone safe. Everyone okay.
We’ve been thinking about that one since she said it.
Come find her
OSAY shoes are available at Ayoon exclusively in store. Come find us at Ayoon Brooklyn, 331 Smith Street, Brooklyn.
Follow Afradh at @ayoonbrooklyn.
She keeps dreaming. She keeps building. So do we.
With love,
Kenza
