Vichi: Style Hunter

It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that Cairo isn’t exactly a fashion hub when compared to international places such as Italy, France, Ethiopia, Botswana… just kidding. We're defos more fashionable than Botswana. Anyway, despite this, thanks to people who are finally paying attention to fashion here, like Islam Ahmed, we are starting to gradually move towards actually having some semblance of a fashion scene in the country. Originally a stylist, Ahmed recently launched a brand-spanking new fashion blog, Vichi, the fashionable Egyptian human's wet dream of a site, filled to the brim with inspirations, street style shots, interviews with prominent designers, stylists, photographers, and loads more. The name, in case you're wondering is an amalgamation of Louis Vuitton and Gucci.  

It all started with an Instagram account. Ahmed wanted to bring the idea of (virtually non-existent) street style to Cairo. "People here are not really familiar with the idea of street style, so I wanted to introduce a new idea. I wanted to take photos of well-dressed people in the street" he says. But alas, being the unfashionable city that we are, he couldn’t find many of those. "The only actual real, street-style shot I took was of an Italian guy!" So instead he got resourceful, using photos of his own well-dressed friends, and reposting other Instagrammers' stylish photos. As the account gained popularity, people instead began sending him their fashionable photos to post. "After there was so much positive feedback, I wanted to use the same concept but on a bigger scale". Hence the birth of the online blog of the same name. "The idea of the blog is to cover the whole fashion scene in Egypt. In addition to street style shots in Cairo, we also do interviews with local designers, photographers, stylists, etc. And of course, there's also posts about international fashion as well." They'll also cover fashion shows around the city, such as the recent Amina K show at Amuse concept store. The whole blog is really intended "to make people more aware of the fashion scene in Egypt."  There's also an upcoming section that will feature street style inspirations from France, Italy, and the UK, three countries whose capitals are known for their sartorial savvy.

"The fashion scene in Egypt in growing, slowly, but it's definitely improving," says Ahmed. Vichi will be covering the upcoming Cairo Fashion Festival, and if you want to be featured on either their Instagram account or the site itself, just tag the brand on Instagram @Vichi__in your stylish pics! Check out the blog here.