Egypt Fashion

A question I got asked quite a bit when  I came home to the US this past winter was, "what do you wear in Egypt?"  which is a completely different question from "what do people wear in Egypt?" but hints at that.  I think it's time to answer both on the blog, so that people get to know something they're curious about, and people thinking to travel here get a better idea of how to blend in and dress appropriately.

On the Street in Cairo
-Locals:
 
Men: Doormen, some laborers, some small shop-owners will wear a garment like a long robe or shirt called a galabeya which falls to the feet with whatever shoes.  Most Cairo guys on the street wear jeans (of the semi-not-total-ball-crushing variety) and a T-shirt or casual collared work shirt in either long or short sleeves or a full-on suit if going to work.  Young men usually stick to jeans and a T-shirt with sneakers almost unanimously.  If they're real local they LOVE their fake designer-wear. If you're wearing a suit you better have some pointy-ish black leather shoes with either squared off or truly pointy toes. Extra local points if they're dusty and turn up at the tips from a rigorous life.  Shibshib is what we call the Egyptian version of flipflops and they are considered very casual wear, mainly worn around the house, so not many men wear these outside and barely any women except in the poorer areas as it's a bit like going out in your sweatpants in the US.  Because of that you can sometimes see people going around in shibshib, but not if they're going much farther than down the street to the store.

Women *: Here there is a huge mix, which you can see if you ride the women's car on the Metro.  Many young women wear hijab here, but they also dress in often very colorful, tight clothing.  The tightness seems immodest, so I don't exactly understand it except as a way to somehow make the clothes fit in with "modern" western clothing more. Matching is very popular, down to the accessories, no matter what esoteric hue they might be, so you can often see young hijabii girls rocking an outfit in 2-3 colors around town in a very fashionable way to them, which I as a Westerner could never pull off. Colors are matched from the (often layered) headscarves, to bangles, to footwear.  Long, A-line or trumpet skirts are popular here (but not to the exclusion of pants which are usually skinny jeans on the younger girls), including in denim, which I thought was cute enough to buy a couple. Older women usually will wear simple long pants or skirts and blouses or long casual dresses like the male galabeyas, but a bit more form-fitting.  Oddly enough it's my impression that is a generation of older women present in Cairo that don't veil possibly because of the events during their lives when the veil was considered "backward" or restraining.  Few women wear complete veils, but maybe 3/4ths cover their hear.  During the winter many girls were wearing skirts at the knee with tights or pants under tucked into cute ankle or knee boots.

*Please note: The veiling issue is very complicated and women on an individual basis have many different opinions and feelings about their personal choices regarding to be veiled or not. There are many works of scholarship out there about what veiling means or doesn't mean, but I think the most important point is to try and understand what veiling means to the individual and react to it on an individual basis, not on the penalty of assigning group homogeneity.  There's my two cents!  Lots of info out there for people to check out!

-Foreigners:
Women: Women are pretty safe in most major areas wearing long jeans, pants, or a skirt which falls beneath the knees; and any shirt that has at least short-sleeves.  Sleeveless is a no-go, or at least throw a scarf or shrug on over your shoulders.  Anything that shows much cleavage is probably best left at home or to other areas to be discussing following this section. No short shorts. Ever. Sensible footwear is good as the streets can go back and forth from sidewalks to none, to an inch of sand, to rubble, to puddles.  However, Cairo is a major city, so impractical, flashy footwear and short heels will make you blend in more. 

I typically wear:  I have a certain way of dressing that I consider a baseline of modesty to go on when in Cairo or traveling in Egypt in general.  It's important to wear long pants or skirts, and keep your arms partially covered, so I usually wear jeans and a T-shirt with a 3/4 sleeve shrug over, cute ballet flats for around town, or short wooden heels if I'm going to school or getting around on my own.  If someone is driving me, I will wear heels if I know for sure we won't be walking far or taking the subway.

Men: Foreign guys pretty much wear what Egyptian men wear, with the exception that shorts are probably best left at home if you want to blend in at all, and the foreigners are usually the ones wearing more baseball caps than Egyptian guys because the latter don't like to mess up their carefully gelled hair-dos.

Nightlife and Clubbing in Cairo
There is no distinction between foreigner/local wear at clubs in Cairo, because the kind of Cairenes who go out to clubs are usually pretty westernized, international, and not conservative.  I think most of my Cairo friends are conservative enough to not go clubbing, or they keep it to mainly dance-themed things like Salsa nights which are a bit more fun and innocent in a way than a hip-hop club or a belly dance cabaret.

Women:  Hiiiigh heels, skinny jeans, mini-skirts, skanky earthquake-inducing tops--pretty much the same as the US.  You will probably never see a Hijab while out clubbing, or if you do the girl wearing it is probably not going to be flouncing around like she owns the place as the truly outrageous Cairo girls do.  I have seen Hijabii women out salsa dancing though, but not much in hip hop clubs or some of the racier venues.  Egyptian ladies certainly like to dress it up, and then some though.  And hey, why not?  Egyptian girls are gorgeous!  Us foreigners just drag out one of the two clubbing tops we brought "on the off chance I would be on the Red Sea or something.." and jeans.  The key to getting in and out without being ogled to death on the street? Shrugs, scarves, jackets, getting rides from a friend or jumping into a taxi promptly after exiting any building, and large purses in which to stash a change of clothes to switch into in the bathroom!

Guys: Um...not much new here, jeans and T-shirts.  Big watches.

Weddings in Cairo:
Guys: Suits, many suits.  I've seen shiny platinum-colored ones, but most are basic black or navy with a tie that goes with it nicely.

Ladies:  Huuuge variety here. Weddings are a bit of a chance for people to let their hair down as they're just around family and friends usually, which shows in women's outfits.  You can see sleeveless and strapless dresses here on non-hijabii women from the mid-thigh to full-length ballgowns.  It's always good to bring a scarf or shrug though in case you get a bit self-conscious and for walking to/from the car. The hijabii ladies just throw on a mesh long-sleeved turtleneck undershirt and are good to go! The bride will usually wear the hugest cupcake dress she can manage while still being able to actually dance, with a slightly-less-huge veil.  It's adorable in a "awww, I fantasized about that as a little girl!" way.  Usually the sisters of the couple will be in full-on gowns hovering around offering tissues and carrying stuff for the bride, while the mothers of the couple stalk around in pant suits beaming and joking for some reason.  I don't get the pantsuits, not the beaming and joking of course.

At AUC:
Boys (there are no men at AUC except professors):  The foreign guys obviously wear whatever they would wear at their home college.  Egyptian guys like their designer shades, their brightly-colored T-shirts over carefully worked abs and biceps of a size that makes them walk around with their arms always slightly bent, designer jeans, designer sneakers.  Huge, expensive, imported watches. They can afford it because this is the most expensive college in Egypt. Even the more modest guys are usually a bit better dressed than in the US, sticking to smart short-sleeve, button-down shirts and designer glasses.  There is definitely a uniquely AUC fashion trend that's hard to put your finger on until you come here.  Oh, also Egyptian guys wouldn't be caught dead carrying more than one single notebook at a time, if that.

Girls:  Again, the foreigner girls wear whatever they would at their home college. The Egyptian girls at AUC are usually decked out in a way that makes foreign male tongues wag and foreign females roll their eyes.  There is a specific co-ed group called the "Guccis" that everyone refers to as the absolute consumer-whoreist group of students at AUC and who are the butt of every joke, but besides them the girls in AUC generally make me wish I: a) had Egyptian genes, b) a lot of money, c) could actually justify buying skinny jeans, d) had more time in the morning to look like something other than a colossal wreck e) a driver so I could wear whatever I wanted without worrying about the gauntlet of the open street.  Skinny jeans are prevalent.  Everyone carries large purses instead of backpacks. They can afford to get their hair "did" regularly and stuff waxed and plucked to perfection.  They look fabulous, and that sucks because Egypt hates my skin and my body generally.

On the Red Sea:
The Red Sea is home to many major tourist towns, and I think they've pretty much seen it all.  Women can wear bikinis on the beach or in the club (which is also on the beach), or a mini-skirt, or tank-top.  No one cares enough to give you crap or really say much about it, although expect the Egyptian males around to give you "a look" in a certain way at times.  Again, guys pretty much wear...yep, jeans and a T-shirt or a T-shirt and swim trunks on the beach or even in the club.

Alexandria:
I wouldn't say Alexandria is much more conservative than Cairo per-say, but I haven't spent much time there.  There are certain beaches you can wear bikinis, but beware strong surf causing boob-escapage (seriously, been there). When in doubt, throw on a long T-shirt over your suit and you're good to go! I'm not even going to mention guys this time, too boring.  Otherwise I would say just do as you do in Cairo, although somehow I got away with wearing a tank-top one night, but I was accompanied by an Egyptian guy friend.

Back to School

Here I am at AUC again, and currently I have a long break between classes so I figured I would hope online and write a blog entry!  There's some new stuff up at NicoleInCairo.Wordpress.com but I wanted to write something different here on a more dance/personal note.  It's been a crazy few weeks since I returned to Egypt, quite the rollercoaster of emotions, and has made me reassess what I want in my next six months of being here.

AUC
School is going okay, I'm figuring out what I want to do and which class I will drop as I want to hit the minimum credit hours to still be full time.  Let's just say my priorities lie outside AUC at this point.  People ask me about school all the time, are so curious what is up with being an American student at an Egyptian college.  The fact of the matter is though that AUC is the AMERICAN University in Cairo.  The curriculum is set up like a liberal arts college, not the usual standard here in Egypt, and the students who go here are not your average Egyptian by any means.  Usually in Egypt, your exit test scores for high school determine what faculty or department you will go into, what you will study in college, and thus what your life path will be.  The highest scorers go into medicine, engineering, and law, while the other faculties lie in various positions below that, art being one of the lowest priorities of the educaitonal system.

However, here at AUC there is the freedom to choose your major just like at an American college.  There's flexibility in the curriculum, a focus on core classes as well as specialization classes, and the departments are set up like any other American institution.  The difference?  The Egyptian kids that go here are filthy rich.  It didn't exactly hit me until I was in a Macroecon course last semester (in which I was one of two foreign students) and the professor mentioned while giving an example that, "all of you here are probably in the top 5% income bracket."  I glanced around, feeling weirded out because I am not wealthy person by US standards, and sort of looking to see if anyone else was shaking their heads like, "ha ha, yeah right."  No reaction, vague nodding.  I am sitting around amongst the richest kids in Egypt apparently, so then evidentially if you can afford to go to AUC, you can afford freedom of choice about your life path and career.

When the campus moved from Tahrir (smack-dab in the middle of downtown) out to Al-Rehab (smack dab in the middle of the desert, a 45 minute drive in non-Cairo traffic from downtown) I remember reading an article back at home while I was going through my study abroad application process.  The article discussed not the beautiful new campus, nor the expansion of the school, not even the new technology involved in designing the campus.  The article I read focused on the income gap in Egypt, and how by moving the school to such an isolated location the college was isolating itself from the real Egyptian populace.  Having just paid about 15 minutes ago over $300 for a bus pass for the semester, I can understand in a very concrete way what they mean. 1740LE is more than many people probably make in Cairo per month, or two months, or possibly even a year.  There is a lot of poverty here, and a lot of people living on practically nothing, so this amount simply to GET to school becomes insurmountable simply because of shifting the campus.

The other issue is symbolic.  Al-Rehab is a place that my middle-class Egyptian friends think of as "a slice of heaven" and my American friends squirm and feel uncomfortable about.  It's a cushy, palatial wonderland of unreality.  The villas with their gilded columns, the BMWs in the driveways...it's not the Cairo I know.  It's green, because the water is always running, to the point where you will see artificial waterfalls and ponds at the tip of an fake oasis in the desert.  Yet, as soon as a patch goes unwatered for a few days, it starts to slowly go brown, a reminder that this place exists merely through the labor of people too poor to ever live there. It somehow looks so fake, such an man-made fantasy concocted of concrete, delusion, and a willingness to ignore the intense poverty a 30-minute drive away.

The facade is not finished yet though, and so we can all still see the dirty sweat and labor holding up those ridiculous fantastical creations.  Most of the people coming in and out of Al-Rehab right are workers, toiling all day on homes they will never have the slightest hope of moving into, and who spend their days watering or constructing.  Going in and out of AUC via the bus we see them on the side of the road every day, this strange community of hard workers in cheap jeans and jackets, waiting for the microbus or their friend in his beat up old car to drive up so they can cram in to an already overloaded car heading back to civilization.  It feels strange because we are not supposed to see these people, we are supposed to look at the final product and go "wow, this is beautiful! I want to buy a house here!"  Seeing these people ruins the fantasy, which I find good because I don't understand why these housing projects and developments are even happening.  Yes, Cairo needs room to expand--it's more than overcrowded, but what is needed is affordable housing for the middle and lower classes to get out of the city too, not just the rich.  At the moment though, it's the rich that get the option to leave Cairo, leave the real Egypt, and live in a fantasyland.

By moving AUC out into this strange new world, is the college deserting the real spirit of Egypt?  Is it placing itself firmly into the realm of the elite, to the exclusion of everyone else?  That doesn't seem like something an American college would strive for, in my opinion.


Planning Ahead
I have this scholarship now, which gives me the ability to do some traveling, so I think I will definitely see Luxor and Aswan now.  I wanted to before, but lacked the finances to say for sure it would happen.  That's great, so now I have to figure out whom I'm going to travel with, because it can be beyond exasperating to travel here alone as a foreign female.  I'm also hesitant to use a tour company, that may be the way to go.  On the other hand I could just go to Sharm and party for spring break, which is tempting.  Definitely I will be going to Alexandria soon--probably this month--because I hear it's great in the winter and it's only a quick trip away by bus or microbus.  I'm finding myself missing the white, sandy beaches there, and  I realize the first time I was too busy just enjoying my time to see much of what makes Alexandria famous and special.

It's definitely easy to think of beaches when the weather is this cold, I thought I would never say it, but I can't wait for the weather to get warmer again.  The problem is that most  buildings here (except of course AUC) don't have indoor central heat, so you basically spend your time in a concrete icebox.  Today is beautiful and sunny, thank god, so it's not so bad.  People are out there in jackets lounging on the unfurled grass put down last semester and carefully tended to, and others sun themselves on the plaza while eating the overpriced, fattening food that is offered here.

Well, after this point I actually had a great post drafted up about how Cairo is so beautiful and contradictory, and looks so different to me this time around, but blogspot ate it somehow.  Very sad, as that was actually a good piece of writing, but hopefully I will generate something again soon of that ilk.  It's rare I'm inspired to write in an artistic sense, so I'm sad the post got eaten by cyberspace before anyone could see it.

Dance Stuff
I need to start belly dancing more again, it's not doing it for me to just dabble right now and be a dilettante in other forms of dance, so I'm striving for a way to get all hard-core on it again.  I'm a racehorse when it comes to dance, if I don't get pushed and challenged to keep going and given things to learn I start to lose my mind.  I need to find a couple teachers I can really get into and access on a regular basis.  I need to get back on it really bad, because I'm doing all new technique work right now while neglecting things I already understand and need to work on like musical interpretation, combinations, over all performance.  I'm focusing so hard on isolating muscle groups and learning how to do the same moves in different ways that I'm starting to lose the bigger picture, and I'm freaked out that the next time I end up on stage I will be woefully underprepared.  It wouldn't scare me so much except that I was once upon a time quite seasoned and comfortable in front of an audience, so I feel like I've lost something.

I think I also need to diversify my teachers.  When I get into a teacher's style or way of teaching I tend to narrow my focus down to them and concentrate on mastering the style they want me to do, and the things they think I should be doing.  At this point in my career I should be looking to the bigger picture and fusing different elements from different teachers to create a style and technique that incorporates everything I have learned.  Also, in Egypt I need to start taking from everyone--as long as they're good!

Costumes and Alexandria

Alexandria:
I ran away to the beach again this week, which I'm sure is hardly a big surprise by now. I don't think I've managed to stay in Cairo for more than about 2 weeks solid here, but this time was great! I spent the days on the beaches, the nights in cafes, and lots of time just hanging out with my friend who dragged me along. It was a lovely little vacation!

The beaches were a little crowded and it was definitely boiling out during the day, but the sea was perfect and at night it was great to just walk along the shore when things were more quiet. Apparently this time of year is popular with Egyptians looking to go on vacation somewhere nice. It IS nice too, the beaches have lovely white sand and the water is perfect if a bit choppy. If you like seafood, I also hear the best thing is to kick back on the beach with some Alexandrian fish...but for me I was sticking to chicken as I'm "just not a fish person," as I had to explain over and over to different people.

The train back was a good idea too, I definitely recommend it! Air conditioned, kinda quiet, and I was actually able to nap even. This is a major point to note as normally anything that moves over like 10 miles an hour renders me sleepless! When we were at the station it looked like there were trains going back to cairo every hour give or take, so even if you miss one you can hit up a cafe across the street for a little bit while you wait.

Of course when I got back to Cairo I was definitely getting antsy to get some stuff done!


Mamdouh:
Finally I have been not too sick and not too lazy to go visit one of my favorite designers: Mamdouh Salama!

I made friends with one of the designers that works with Mamdouh at Nile Group, which was forever ago, and had been kicking around the idea of trying to go find their workshop for awhile. I had the address (12 Ahmed El-Melehy St. in Dokki) and Hathem's phone # but had just somehow gotten too tied up with traveling and getting into a new relationship to get off my lazy butt and go visit them. Out of the blue Hathem texted me to see if I was still interested in coming by, which was enough to make me jump up the next day and head over to Dokki!

Just to forewarn everyone, the place is freaking hard for taxis to find. I jumped in a cab and got Hathem to give directions, but the poor cabbie still got lost along the way and then I got a bit lost trying to find the building. Definitely call ahead to get directions (Hathem speaks some English and is super helpful) before you go!

The shop is really nice, and definitely has more of a showroom feel than places like Eman Zaki's that feel like more like a factory. Hathem got us drinks and we hung out in the living room (most costumers take over an entire flat, so you end up with all the ammenities of a house) and chatted about their new collection and getting me a dance contract. Yes, I am starting to search now, but that's for a post all of itself I think! I viewed their current line that they were showing at Nile Group and AWS, but I had told Hathem before that I really don't like wearing costumes that other people own copies of. I have to be in love with a costume to buy it and I want it to feel unique and special. It's part of my very limited funds that I can't just throw around money buying costumes that don't feel completely right. So I showed him some of my own designs and he said I should just design something myeslf and they would make it happen! Since then I've been pawing through their collection online and the designs up on Belly Dance Store trying to figure out exactly what I want and get an idea of how I can get the most out of their style.

In an interesting coincidence, when I got home I saw that Ozma of Japan had posted on her blog saying she had traded a costume to Amber (a dancer I'm pretty sure I've met before in Seattle, but that's another story) in exchange for a Mamdouh. I don't think the post is public, but she is saying that while she likes some things about the Mamdouh she has now, the workmanship leaves something to be desired, and that Mamdouh produces the type of costumes that are fun to wear a few times but don't hold up over time. I can't say myself per say since I haven't owned a Mamdouh before, but it raised an interesting dialogue in my head about costuming in general.

I am so, so sick and tired of classically beautiful "princessy" costumes right now. Maybe it's just the phase I'm at in life and in dancing but I want something really kind of sassy and ghetto at the moment--maybe I'm missing oakland! I've always been a little more flash over function I guess, but Ozma's comment made me think about what I'm looking for in costumes lately. Which is great as I'm probably going to buy more costumes in my time in Egypt than I have since I started dancing, so I want to know what I want. Yes, I am a working dancer, but I don't find myself caring too much how long a costume is going to last as much as how larger-than-life I feel in it when I'm doing a performance. For crying out loud I made a costume out of stark WHITE lyra with gold and white FEATHERS sticking out of it...clearly it's not durability and longevity I'm looking for in my costumes! Why am I willing to sacrifice durability for looks? Because costumes are obviously an essential part of making ourselves into a dancer, but also because if you want to be a larger-than-life dancer you have to look the part and chances are you don't want people to see you in that same over-the-top costume more than a couple times anyway. Plus, sometimes durability and longevity ARE mutually exclusive if you really want something unique--not always, and it's great when they coincide, but still. Not only that, but I know that I personally use costumes to support myself in creating a performance...without a unique, crazy costume I don't quite feel the part. It's a crutch for me still in my dance life, because I'll admit that sometimes I still feel like someone pretending to be a pro dancer even though I've been doing this for several years now. Again, what's going on in my head about dance could probably take up an entire extra post, so I'll stop there.

In Egypt I have seen the most ghetto-fabulous-off-the-hook-out-there costumes ever! These girls are NOT wearing bellas, let me tell you! That's something I love about the dancers here, their costumes are unusual, just check out the ones I saw at Nile Goup. fresh, unique, and almost a little too crazy is just how I like my costumes! Get a load of the 3 foot fringe on that black costume of Asmahan's...I mean come on!