Following the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922 came an explosion of archeological findings, which generated a massive impact on the world of fashion.
Many major fashion houses including Dior, Chanel and Balmain found inspiration in Egyptian imagery or fused certain motifs with contemporary concepts.
The Cleveland Museum of Art currently highlights Egyptian-inspired fashion in its limited exhibit, Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession, which will be on view until Jan. 28.
The term “Egyptomania” refers to the influence of Egyptian culture—but are European and American societies appreciating or appropriating this culture by using it in the fashion world?
It is typical in art and fashion to reference past works or to reimagine motifs. However, appropriation results from “using a pre-existing item—most commonly, a found object, commercial image or someone else’s art—to make something new,” according to Suzanne Hudson in her book, “Contemporary Painting.”
Artist Hank Willis Thomas is noted in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s special exhibit for his “Unbranded” series, which evaluates representations in advertisements from past decades. In an advertisement from 1956, Thomas removes the text to allow the viewer to focus on what is being shown—white women imitating ancient Egyptian representations of people, clothed in bathing suits and headdresses.
“It’s the European adaptation of Egypt,” Thomas said in a Chicago Reader article. “There’s an erasure of the African-ness. A hand is coming out of the sarcophagus, but the skin color of the person who’s supposed to be in it is totally different.”
This advertisement is nonetheless controversial as critics argue that it is an example of exploiting another culture for profit. On the other hand, some designers seek to unite culture under fashion, maintaining a level of respect and admiration.
This dress, from the Balmain Spring 2018-19 collection by Olivier Rousteing, draws inspiration from a traditional Nemes headdress, which incorporates striped linen with flaps that cover the shoulders. The polyamide, piping and sequins of the dress create a striped pattern while the fringed sleeves mimic the flaps of the Nemes.
This white Chanel gown, designed by Karl Lagerfeld for the “Paris-New-York” Métiers d’art Collection 2018-19, incorporates linen texture as a direct call to the commonly undyed and bleached linen clothing of ancient Egyptians, as well as the column-like silhouette.
Throughout the history of Egypt, women wore garments called kalasiris, which are long dresses held up by two knitted straps inspired by a typical ancient bead-net gown.
While Egyptomania took the West by storm, there can be a fine line between appropriating another culture and drawing inspiration from it. It is our duty as consumers and creators to familiarize ourselves with the world around us out of respect for one another. Today’s Egyptian designers are gaining prominence in the fashion industry, bringing forth a new surge of diversity that will expand the community for the better.
