Original Story Published by: Menna A. Forouk for Al-Monitor
Photo courtesy of: Facebook/Amna El-Shandaweely.
(Above) Young fashion designer, Amna El-Shandaweely, believes Egypt’s African heritage is just as important as its Middle Eastern orientation aims to bring the international Afropunk Festival to Egypt.
Amna El-Shandaweely, an award-winning fashion designer who has trained with Elie Saab, launched last December a collection called “Cairo Punk” that is inspired by the Afropunk Festival, an annual international art festival that showcases African culture through music, art, film and fashion.
“I really would like to bring this festival to Egypt, but I will need sponsors and organizers who can help me bring it to life,” Shandaweely told Al-Monitor.
The Afropunk Festival, held for the first time in New York in 2005, was launched by people of African descent who felt that they were marginalized. Last month, the first festival took place on the African continent, in the South African city of Johannesburg, and was attended by thousands of visitors.
Shandaweely’s “Cairo Punk” collection, launched on Dec. 20, showed photos of amateur models with a variety of skin colors and builds. The photos were taken in the impoverished neighborhood of Imbaba in northern Giza.
“What I wanted to promote through the collection and the photos is that we must accept one another regardless of our looks and our background,” she said.
She noted that the collection aims to show Cairo in a different way. “The capital is perceived as a tense and crowded city filled with traffic. The collection shows a different side of the city where the people are diversified with different looks and features.”
The young designer will display her collection in South Africa next month.
