Fashion... Reincarnated?

Erm, yeah, maybe not so much.

In all fairness, I may have been predisposed to being utterly annoyed by everything due to the burgeoning migraine I had, and that was in no way alleviated by Jazz-Fusion drummer Ahmed Rabei’s sound checks prior to the event. Another quite disappointing aspect: no wine. No wine? How inhumane of them. Upon entering the exhibition, however, I must say that some of the works had me raising an eyebrow, especially Kegham Djeghalian’s designs, which focused on fashion using recycled materials, along with an accompanying photo shoot. While making a dress out of newspapers or garbage bags isn’t exactly a groundbreaking, innovative idea, it was pretty. I’ll give him that.

Much of the exhibited works of the Swedish workshop followed the same suite. For example, Salma Khalil’s piece (entitled Nostalgia) involved a dress purely made out of newspaper, with a flower bodice and a fanned, ruffled neckline. When asked about the concept behind her dress, she stated that she was trying to correlate her design with her actual wedding dress. By taking one of the flower design motifs found on her dress, she gave the most classic of embellishments a new meaning when recreated in paper. 

Contemporary artist Noura Abouloyoun’s piece, The Consumer Being, was a purely abstract piece demonstrating how fashion connects the two sexes and how androgyny can be found in the brands that we wear, and not the type of clothing itself. For example, Converse shoes have become an essential part of the modern wardrobe, whether it’s owned by a male or a female. By combining these elements in a cardboard sculpture (for lack of a better term), she created The Consumer Being, one that is not affected by gender roles, only by fashion. A riveting concept that I fell instantly in love with, though I feel like it could have been finished better.

Another really interesting installation was May El Hossamy’s Z Dropbox. An open trunk and its contents (a pile of clothing and accessories), scattered across the floor, constituted the piece. Her concept was rooted in the fact that fashion involves a recycling process where clothes are handed down through generations, between siblings and even between parent and child (think hipster vintage, but with less pretentiousness). It showcased a mix between the past and the present, and how fashion linked those two time periods. The best part about that installation was how interactive it was; anyone can simply either add to the pile of discarded clothes, or take whatever they wish. I was promised an interactive installation when I headed to Darb, and this was an ingenious way to do it.

Concluding this piece (I was asked to limit it to 600 words, so I’m getting my ass handed to me), I like the initiative. I think it’s absolutely wonderful that budding Egyptian designers are being educated and sought out by foreign artists, and that we’re taking the proper steps into ensuring that the fashion industry in Cairo gets a kick start. However, making dresses out of recycled materials is something the Fashion Design freshmen at my college (“my minions”, as I not-so-lovingly dub them) do for their end-of-semester project. I was expecting more out of the box thinking, fresher ideas and deeper representations of the androgyny concept. Alas, I was slightly disappointed. However, I commend the artists that took part in this, congratulate them on their work and hope to see much more (or actually join them) in the future.