The end of fashion and the return of culture: “Rawi” revives the memory of Egyptian costume

Known as the pearl of the Egyptian desert, the crystal clear waters and golden soil of Siwa have impacted and boosted the nation’s unique aesthetic culture over the years. Egyptian women in Siwa wore colorful traditional costumes. An example of the latter is the colorful Tidiri dress, which serves as symbols that communicate visually in silent language.

Fashion, or costume in the past, was akin to visual literacy: each textile carried a story that symbolized culture, class, status, land, religion or even age. It’s like reading a piece of text from the history of a community or a nation, only it means reading the symbolism of the clothes and how they are worn.

An example of this is the “Sunburst” embroidery pattern often seen in the silk threads of traditional Siwa costumes. There are many interpretations as to why this embroidery design, in particular, is seen repeatedly in Siwan costumes, one being Siwa’s well-documented connection to the ancient Egyptian sun god Amun-Ra. Another interpretation being that it was a reflection of the land they inhabited. Inspired by the colors of their land, Siwa women often wore the colors red, orange and yellow, which are also associated with the sun and the desert.

The clothes we wear tell stories about a nation’s culture and heritage – aspects that can easily be erased if not properly documented.

Local appropriation of costumed heritage

Vibrant and distinctive, the traditional costume of Siwa has fascinated designers over the years, so much so that popular and renowned English singer Adele was once seen wearing a famously traditional embroidered black wedding dress in the Egyptian oasis of Siwa. The dress sparked controversy, after Parisian fashion house Chloé announced that Adele’s dress was, in fact, their own design. Yet it also sparked a key conversation, as it exposed how local fashion ownership has diminished and been appropriated by global fashion houses who appropriate designs from communities without permission.

Due to modern ideas about fashion, embroidery or pattern is just seen as a trend, but these patterns also carry sacred meanings, unbeknownst to those who appropriated them. Many famous designs found in Siwan embroidery also have protective powers. Some of the more popular grounds for protection include khamisa and its derivatives, as well as the evil eye.

“Religion, magic and rituals were present in virtually every aspect of an Egyptian’s life. Egyptians have always been extremely religious, and so that religious aspect has always been present in their costumes as well,” Yasmine El Dorghamy, founder of Egypt’s Heritage Review, a bilingual publication devoted to Egyptian history and heritage, told Egyptian Streets. .

Rawi, in Arabic, was a term used for the Egyptian storyteller, and craftsman who makes a living by telling the country’s oral history. Without the by Rawi stories, many stories, legends and myths would have been long forgotten.

True to its tradition of producing an encyclopedic volume each year on a chosen subject, the eleventh issue of Rawi is dedicated to documenting the vast heritage of Egyptian fashion, covering an important gap in recording the history of fashion in Egypt.

The 200-page volume traces the fashion history of Egyptians from the Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, Ptolemaic period, Greco-Roman period, Byzantine period, Fatimid Caliphate, Ottoman rule to modern Egypt. Yet what is particularly distinctive about this issue is its attempt to bridge the significant cultural gap that currently exists between West and East, and to illustrate how modern fashion has lost the memory of ancient dress. , especially its relevance and impact in our world today. .

Regardless of geographic location or ethnic and religious diversity, the review illustrates how the people of Siwa and the Nile Valley were all heirs to the same heritage, and their costumes bear witness to the unity of the country and how all these communities , despite their difference, were all part of a well-integrated and multicultural nation.

Is fashion dead? Revive the memory and celebrate the garment

According to Teri Agins in her book “End of Fashion” (1999), the world is currently experiencing the end of fashion, because today a designer’s creativity is expressed through marketing rather than the actual manufacturing of clothes.

Fashion theorist Barbara Vinken, who uses the term “post fashion”, points out that today’s designers are part of a cyclical revival of forgotten fashions due to the industry’s capitalist goal of selling more clothing. Fashion critic Vanessa Friedman eloquently describes it as, “designers are effectively running on a creative treadmill that is unsustainable.”

“The world is sadly losing color,” says El Dorghamy. “It is unfortunately losing its diversity and variety. Something that broke my heart while working on this edition is reading the descriptions of travelers who would visit Egypt or Constantinople during the 7th, 16th and 17th centuries, and describing all the different ethnicities and their interesting clothes and how they could identify all the different ethnicities through the national costume, which was always distinct and unique. But today, we are all dressed the same.

Moreover, the term “fashion” is also increasingly contested, and a silent revolution is taking place globally against the “fast fashion” encapsulated in brands such as Zara and H&M. The celebration of clothes – fabrics, colors and patterns – is slowly being revived. Fashion expert Jessia Bugg questions the pre-eminence of industry-driven definitions of fashion, as it should encompass spaces that go beyond traditional catwalks and stores, and are more performance-oriented, art galleries and exhibitions.

The return of exhibitions, and of celebrating clothing through the exhibition experience, is according to fashion forecaster Lidewij Edelkort, a testimony to a “nostalgia for the golden days of design and couture”. It refers to the popular Alexander McQueen exhibition, Wild beautyas an example of the world’s transition to ‘culture’ and the ‘fashion exodus’.

As exhibitions reopen around the world, particularly after the initial phase of social distancing from COVID-19 that brought production and collaboration to a halt, artists are now exploring new ways to engage people in their work. Visitors are drawn into the whole journey of art.

This new experience is also experiencing a revival in Egypt, such as the launch of the first Egyptian gallery dedicated to contemporary design and collectibles, Le Lab. The exhibition, titled “Intermission”, presented Mohasseb’s creative process in the context of a stunning gallery, which offers a variety of settings and routes for the public to wander through different rooms.

In this context, Rawi heritage revives the celebration of culture and dress rather than “fashion”.

“We are producing this edition to help designers understand how to approach research and all the different facets of Egyptian clothing history as they work, as there is a lot of misinformation online. We hope to set the record straight. the hour on many things thanks to Rawi thanks to our experts and specialists who contributed with articles based on sound academic research,” she says.

Preserving this legacy begins with protecting the brains of the industry, which involves sharing knowledge, connecting academic experts with artists and designers, and bringing inspiration back as the cornerstone of modern fashion.

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