Egyptian Artist Zeina Soliman Is 'Reconstructing' Your Designer Pieces

To Zeina Soliman, nothing stays blank for long - not a pair of shoes, not a bag, not even a surfboard. Her paint strokes pour out beyond the frames of canvases onto the world around her, and she has made a career out of turning pre-loved items into bespoke masterpieces.

The idea for her brand, Reconstructed, began in middle school, when Soliman painted her first pair of Stan Smiths. In a sea of identical white sneakers with green heels, hers were impossible to miss. The idea behind her own pair circulated through friends, families, and wider circles, and marked the beginning of what would become her brand.

Now a graduate of the University of Arts London, she has transformed this childhood spark into ‘Reconstructed by Zeina Soliman’, a studio where high fashion meets fine art.Reconstructed is best known for its detailed customisations of bags and shoes. “For some, this process can be really sentimental,” Soliman explains. “People want something that represents their kids, or maybe a parent who passed away.” One piece features a dove delicately painted with a hidden name inside – a quiet act of memorialisation only understood by the art and its owner.

“The flowers are my favourite,” says Soliman. Painted across the faces of bags and the heels of shoes are flowers of every kind. For many clients, these botanical details serve as subtle tributes to people they’ve loved and lost. “There is so much meaning behind every flower,” Soliman explains, “I had a client who wanted magnolias because they were her late dad’s favourite. These personalisations can be really special.”

At the heart of each commission lies a quiet exchange of trust in both memory and maker. Clients entrust Soliman with both their personal stories and with treasured Chanel, Fendi or Louis Vuitton pieces, allowing the artist to reimagine them.Other times, her work is restorative. “You can bring so much back to life by painting it,” she says. For a scratched designer bag or one with a stained surface, this philosophy offers damaged items a second chance at life. “It’s quite a sustainable way to keep things in use for longer,” she says. “How many designer bags is a person really going to buy a year? You might as well fix the ones you have.” Small imperfections go blissfully unnoticed under Soliman’s detailed flowers or loving pet portraits.

This blend of the personal and the sustainable is where Reconstructed gets its name; taking existing objects and transforming them into spaces of memory and reuse.

A recent fan-favourite are Reconstructed’s signature bag charms. Painted with hyperrealism, clients can add any charm of their choosing to painted chains ‘hanging’ off the bag’s straps; be it a small croissant, some mandarins, or metallic initials.Deciding on designs in this way is a process Soliman compares to a puzzle. “Someone tells me they want this or that, and my job is to figure out how to put all their ideas together and make it something wearable.” The result is often maximalist yet cohesive as Soliman strings together elements of someone’s personality into something you can wear. To Soliman, this is part of a broader cultural shift, “Maximalism is coming back in a colourful way, which is so nice because it makes so much room for creative personalisation,” she tells Scene Styled.

This desire for maximalism extends beyond bags onto people’s shoes. While being one of Reconstructed’s earliest unconventional surfaces, Soliman has recently collaborated with Egyptian shoe brand Sole.22 to customise loafers and ballet flats with her iconic floral patterns.

While customising bags or shoes, Soliman is seldom seen using a paintbrush larger than a fingernail. And while she masters these fine and minuscule details, she is equally as comfortable painting on a larger scale.
“I think I like painting on walls the most. There's something about painting on a big scale that is really rewarding; it feels like you’re claiming space.” Her work as a muralist and interior artist allows her to transfer these skills of personalisation and customisation onto people’s walls and home spaces. In one home, she has transformed a kitchenette in Katameya Heights into a jungle with larger-than-life tropical plants dominating the walls. In another, Soliman transformed the four walls of a simple Zamalek bathroom into an ancient world of pharaonic symbols and rolling desert.

Early last year, her work as a muralist brought her to Abu Dhabi, where she worked to touch up an existing De Gournay hand-painted wallpaper for a Cartier boutique. Since then, she has painted motorbikes, hotel walls, and even surfboards.

“I’ve never had any other career path in mind,” says Soliman, “I’ve always known I was going to paint.” From this certainty is Reconstructed; a practice that feels equally as instinctive as it is intentional, as it occupies the space between art, fashion, and design. Her cosy studio in Maadi is a realisation of this dream. From her childhood bedroom to her new office, she has built a business that merges her artistry with her drive for entrepreneurship.

Throughout all this, her approach remains simple: “I don't say no to almost any project. Anything is first a yes, and then we'll think.” Her open-minded philosophy has dissolved the boundaries of her art practice entirely – rendering the world itself a canvas where every surface is yet another opportunity for personal expression.