Amina Galal

Egyptian traditional garments and way of dressing has undergone a long process of deculturation. Globalization has introduced many different elements that came to clash with the existing traditions, creating hybrids of elements that now coexist in the most improbable ways. We often look at this evolution that Egyptian culture has undergone as a negative phenomenon, criticizing it and viewing it as a showcase of crudeness and tastelessness.

The collection “IN OUR ALLEYS” is an image of the heterotopia that Egyptian culture has become, a home of cultures that evolve, combine, and contradict in the most seamless of ways. This collection is “of other spaces” It is a world of its own yet strikingly mirroring a world we live in where cultures are mere faint images of the past. The Collection “IN OUR ALLEYS” twists the narrative; it looks at this process of deculturation as a source of inspiration, by studying those peculiar hybrids in order to extract beauty from what is viewed as vulgar and ostentatious. It showcases this process to note on the idea of classicism in Egyptian society, evoke what was once our traditional garment, celebrate what it has evolved to, and question globalization and culture as heterotopic concepts.