Fashion means different things to different people, but rarely does it have the power to unify a group of diverse individuals in a common artistic endeavor.
Nevertheless, the Goethe Institute’s “You Are What You Wear Fashion Night, held recently at the Townhouse Gallery, combined fashion, design and artistic sensibility in a soulful event that brought together Egyptians and internationals of all stripes.
The small side street that leads to the Townhouse Gallery had a charmed feel as downtown locals and visitors mixed in the nearby coffee shop before the show under colored lights and silvery fringed banners.
Walking to the main event, visitors passed by a group of women washing and hanging laundry. Upon closer examination, the washerwomen were revealed to be student artists, and the clothes part of an installation piece exploring the common sight of clotheslines in crowded urban areas and what the presence of personal items in the public space means in Cairo.
Inside an emptied out garage, amidst crowds of students, diplomats and bewildered neighborhood residents, a comprehensive exploration of fashion and identity in Egypt was underway.
Fashion night was the culmination of several fashion workshops and exhibitions around the city by the Goethe Institute. The week’s events included an exhibition by Lebanese fashion designer Hudda Chukri, a street performance by Fred Meier-Menzel of the German University of Cairo (GUC), and two open workshops on fashion design held at the Townhouse Gallery.
Guests were invited to try on different fashions at an interactive “dress up installation, try their hand at the “sketching for everyone table, sample a henna tattoo, enter a tent full of embroidered textiles, and check out the fashion blog put together by German University of Cairo students in collaboration with photographer Claudia Weins.
The “dress up exhibit was the work of artist Chadi A. Salama and a group of art education students from Helwan University. At first glance, this installation looked like those ancient film projectors that you put your head in for pictures at the fair. While the concept was the same, this exhibit offered guest-participants more than a funny souvenir photo; it pushed them to take a first hand look at their own perceptions of their identity as expressed through fashion.
For one young Egyptian student, the installation just looked like fun, but as he saw himself donning different outfits, he began to understand the point of the project.
“Most people don’t think that much about how what they wear defines them. If we are students, we dress like our fellow students and the world sees us as students. Seeing myself in a suit and tie or a galabeyya really shocked me, because I looked exactly like other people who regularly wear those clothes, but I don’t define myself that way, he explained.
GUC’s Cairo Looks Fashion Blog was another interesting display. Created as an extension of projects done in European cities, GUC students and photographer Claudia Wiens roamed around Cairo interviewing and photographing the most interesting people they could find.
A Korean middle school student, Egyptian university students and adults, along with several foreigners of different backgrounds, were interviewed about their clothing choices and fashion icons. The end result was documented in a blog to allow international and local viewers the chance to draw their own conclusions about the connection between fashion and the various indemnity dimensions – culture, class, nationality, religion, language, and many more.
A large stage in the middle of the space adorned with fashionably dressed mannequins promised an entertaining evening.
Guests were not disappointed; in addition to the displays and installations, the evening’s program of performances included four on-stage exhibitions and an after-party concert with live music by Mazaher and DJ Haze.
The performances explored different areas of the complex connections between design and identity. Pieces included, “Identity Reflections, and “Jewellery, which showcased the work of students in collaboration with the Townhouse Gallery’s SAWA project; “First Sketch, created by Hudda Chukri in collaboration with GUC art students, and “Brand Identity, which challenged audience’s perceptions of the galabeyya with a presentation of different takes on the garment.
Aside from the creative student contributions, the event’s main success lay in its ability to unify normally divergent sectors of Cairo’s population in an event that held relevance for anyone remotely interested in clothes.
At the end of the night, an energized audience left the transformed garage and the eclectic downtown alley with both a better understanding of the complexities that characterize fashion and design in the context of Cairo, and with a new appreciation for the potential of local art students to interpret the complexities of life in Egypt through their work.
