Egypt & its Designers

This is the part three of an interview with Mostafa Makhlouf of the Egyptian menswear magazine Uomo Moda, for which I also write. Please refer to articles one and two for additional reading.

As I have already mentioned, Mostafa franchises 40 Italian brands in Egypt and, thus, has a lot of knowledge of the fashion scene in his country.

First of all, does Egypt have a large apparel manufacturing industry?
Yes, sure.

I hear a lot about Egyptian cotton…
Oh yeah, you sure do. Egyptian cotton continues to be the best quality as a raw material, but I guess you don’t hear a lot about Egyptian products of the Egyptian cotton, due to the lack of the quality production, especially concerning finishing.

Could you name me some notable Egyptian menswear designers?
This question is very hard to answer because, in Egypt, most manufacturers work on European designs. But we have many names for women who are well known in the fashion scene for ladies like Mohamed Dagher, Hany EL Behairy, and others.

Please refer to article one and two for additional reading.


Photo top Copyright Hany EL Behairy.
Photo bottom Copyright Mohamed Dagher.

Egypt: the Men and their Fashion

This is the second part of an interview with Mostafa Makhlouf of the Egyptian menswear magazine Uomo Moda, for which I also write.

Mostafa franchises 40 Italian brands in Egypt and, thus, has a lot of knowledge of the fashion scene in his country.

What can you tell me about Egyptian men and fashion?
Lately the scene is different as men have started to take more care about what they wear, whether in the look or in the brands. Globalization, the trade exchange agreements, and the financial crises have urged the world to exchange knowledge and products to widen the market. All has resulted in competition between manufacturers in different disciplines, which resulted in the benefit of the consumer.

How fashion conscious are Egyptian men?
Well, for the Egyptian market it depends on the social standard, which reflects the financial capability of buying brands. As fashion is luxury, for the high standards, yes, it does matter to wear brands not just high quality products.

Do Egyptian men prefer casual or formal styles?
I guess all people around the world prefer the casual, for the comfort it offers, but when formal is a need, they know how to wear it.

What trends are popular at the moment?
The American baggy style is much more used by young youth, age from 12 to 20 maximum.

Do Egyptian men look to a certain country for trends?
From my observation I believe that men look to Italy as the main country of setting trends for men and France for women.

What matters more, the brand name or the look?
Well, if the price is out of consideration, it’s much easier to convince the customer with a prestigious name like D&G, even it’s more expensive than other unknown labels. However, whoever prefers to wear D&G will continue to wear D&G. As people who can afford it easily look at it as a masterpiece not just an apparel.

What other menswear magazines are available to men in Egypt?
None, only Uomo Moda that is dedicated to menswear from cover to cover. It’s very funny that after we started to publish Uomo Moda some women fashion magazines started to give men a couple of pages within.

Please refer to article one and three for additional reading.

Photo Al-Azhar Park by Arab League GNU Free Documentation License at Wikipedia.

Rubia Pigmenta Naturalia

After posting my 2-part interview with sustainable designer and artist John Patrick, I received an email from his Dutch friend, Anco Sneep, director of Rubia Pigmenta Naturalia, which produces a natural red dye that dates back to over two millenia:

"A world without colour is barely conceivable for us. Nature provides for colour all around and anything we create, we create in colour. And–we’ve been doing so for thousands of years. Primeval human beings already used colours to outline drawings or illustrations, and all generations thereafter carried on doing so. These colours were made from natural resources. One of the most important materials was–and still is–madder.

The roots of the madder plant produce a genuine red colour. The ancient Egyptians had already discovered the incomparable madder tint: a belt dyed with madder root was found in the tomb of Tutankhamen. But the ancient Greeks and Romans also used this unique colour as a dye, which in the later Byzantium Empire was given the name Turkish Red. Famous artists like El Greco, Velasquez, and Vermeer used madder as a base for particular red tints in their paintings.

In the 18th century, madder–or by its scientific name Rubia Tinctorum –became a popular dye for textiles. Particularly in the southern Netherlands, in West Brabant and Zeeland, the plant was cultivated on a large scale. Madder became an important economic factor in this area.

After the German chemists Graebe and Liebermann discovered in 1868 how the red madder dye could be produced synthetically, cultivation of madder quickly declined and finally vanished.

Rubia® has developed a totally new process to extract the genuine madder dye very efficiently in an ecologically friendly manner. Elements of the system are specially selected madder under license.

The highest priority in the Rubia® research laboratories is continuous process control and optimization aligned with quality enhancement. In addition, the colour agent content of the different root batches is determined to permit fair compensation for the growers.

In the factory, the colour agent is extracted from the roots by means of a special Rubia® process. As market leader, Rubia Pigmenta Naturalia® comes from the only industrial installation worldwide to produce the authentic Turkish Red.

Rubia® red is the ideal dye for companies seeking to differentiate themselves through the use of authentic and brilliant colours, produced entirely on a natural basis. Rubia®–a new dimension in colour!

Highly praised Dutch designer Rianne de Witte has decided to work with natural dyes of Rubia Pigmenta Naturalia®!

Photos and Slide Show Copyright by Rubia Pigmenta Naturalia.