Here are some extremely cute young Cairoeans, 1 woman with head covered, the rest not.
Books By Elizabeth Kendall
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April 2008
April 28, 2008
April 26, 2008
Galabiya!
I went to Cairo (courtesy of spring break and old friend with airline points) and discovered the Galabiya. It's a one-piece thing, a fitted (to varying degrees) robe, that makes for instantaneous, stress-free getting dressed.
Before I went, I agonized. How to be respectful in Cairo? I packed shirts with sleeves, pants, long skirts - bathing suit, in case I could sit by the hotel pool in it (I could).
The hotel, the wonderful, busy Ramses Hilton, on the Nile, sitting on an overpass above highways zooming around each other, filled with tourists from the whole Middle East - thrilling to an American. Men in male galabiyas (lengthened button-down shirts, very ironed). Women with heads covered in various ways. Kuwaitis on business. Saudi female(!) medical students on holiday.
And what a city, wildly alive, though clogged with traffic, infused with traffic fumes. People on the streets: moving quickly; alive faces, like in New York. It looks great from the 26th floor - but you can hear it! even up there.
My shirts with sleeves proved to be the right thing. At the Pyramids, on horseback(!), I was commended by Guide Haisam for not exposing all kinds of skin in a manner unsuitable for Egypt, the way Russian tourists do (according to him).
My question: what clothes for streets? Young Egyptian women around town wore long, long skirts and little jackets, heads covered. One walked in city space under highway, arm in arm with a guy - she in long jeans-skirt, rose-colored jacket, headcovering in 2 shades of pink.
The two-toned veil is achieved by means of stretchy cotton band around forehead and over ears; and on top, a veil (further back from forehead) - pinned around face, like a nun's wimple. I learned this on the groundfloor of the five-story, slightly ramshackle Ramses Hilton Shopping Arcade, behind the hotel - filled with a range of everybody - everybody old & young, middle-class & lower - strolling, all evening.
I bought a cream-colored silk-wool veil, with some discreet sequins on one side, and wore it (without the ski-band-thing under, that impeded hearing) over my head to go out. Very feminine.
The Galabiyas! were on the Arcade's 2nd floor. Modlina, run by Mr. Y.M. Abu Sharkh, superbly aimiable Palestinian man with fluent English (children living in Salem Mass) - one of the great stores of the world. Not high-luxury; useful. He offered heavy patchwork silk galabiyas; light summer galabiyas; clingy, nylon va-va-voom galabiyas with sequins. A trying-on fest ensued, with the grave yet smiling Fatma picking out galabiyas for me.
In my closet now, as I write, a cream-apricot-avocado silk; a black & gold embroidered cotton; a blue swirly nylon with blue sequins. This last one is meant for some kind of nightclub, or a private venue. It's uncomfortably, beautifully, exhibitionist, with a front slit.
But what does a super-chic Egyptian woman wear, someone who wouldn't stroll with the crowds in my hotel's arcade? The answer: Ed Dukkan, in another hotel, the Semiramis Hotel. shop in Semiramis Intercontinental
Ed Dukkan contains, besides the Sheherezade galabiyas (hanging, half screened in closets, implying secret narratives), objects. A cell-phone case, with tiny white-shell buttons over brocade. Small encrusted purses. The decor: plush red carpet and striped satin chairs to sit in while shopping.
Ed Dukkan is Cairo heaven, for women & wardrobes.
