Egyptian Costume History: 7000 Years of Changing Fashions and Identities

A year ago, Yasmine El Dorghamy embarked on an odyssey to investigate the history of Egyptian costume for Rawi Magazine’s latest encyclopaedic edition. The undertaking was much more challenging than she expected and soon turned into a much bigger project dubbed The Egyptian Fashion History Project. One of the stumbling blocks was that almost everything on Egyptian costume history is limited to the ancient Egyptian era, and there is little visual evidence on dresses for over 1000 years following the Byzantine Era. In particular, there is almost nothing left of the lavish costumes of the Mamluks who were famous for their extravagance and luxurious fabrics. In spite of this, with the help of textile and costume history scholars and collectors from Egypt and around the world, together with illustrators and artists, El Dorghamy was able to piece together a fascinating picture of Egypt’s evolving fashions, influences, and identities over its entire 7000-year history.

Speaker: Yasmine El Dorghamy is the founder and editor of Rawi – Egypt’s Heritage Review. Established in 2009, Rawi is an annual, bilingual (En/Ar) publication focused on Egyptian history and cultural heritage and distributed in Egypt and internationally. El Dorghamy is also an adjunct professor of visual culture at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from AUC and a master’s degree in International Education Policy from Stockholm University’s Institute of International Education.