CAIRO BELLY DANCE FASHION TRENDS

CAIRO BELLY DANCE FASHION TRENDS REPORT

Though certain looks are classic for belly dance costumes and never seem to go out of style, like voluminous chiffon skirts worn with a beautiful bedlah, many belly dance costume designs are downright trendy, and appear, peak and vanish just the way trends in street clothes do. Many costume designers have a signature look, and these designs get copied and knocked off just as quickly as Forever 21 churns out affordable designs replicated from the world of high fashion.

                      

Back when the legendary Egyptian designer Madam Abla was alive, I remember seeing her costume collections when I first started dancing, and each year she had a specific look. One season she would feature rhinestone bows on every costume she made, another season it was seashells. Fringed shoulder epaulettes were standard one year, and the next it was skirts cut on the bias with sequin-trimmed shredded hems. It got to the point that I could spot a Madame Abla from a mile away…and also be able to tell which year the specific costume came from!

Below are some of the costuming trends I noticed in Cairo, this past July 2011:

PRINTS

Everything from color-blocked abstract prints to faux animal prints in Lycra as well as a lot of chiffon and silk floral prints were big this year, and used across the board.

JEWELTONES & CHUNKY CHINESE RHINESTONE BROOCHES

Though it’s not entirely clear who originated this trend, I myself think that Crazy Move (known in the USA as “Rising Stars”) can take the credit… if not for starting the trend, then at least for perpetrating it!

This year many designers featured sleek, jewel-toned Lycra costumes with no fringe whatsoever, but loaded down with Chinese rhinestone brooches in the shape of stars, flowers, hearts, and geometric designs. The use of these broaches was everywhere, to the point where there were costumes that were knockoffs of knock-offs!

CLEAR STRAPS

Like the Chinese broaches, clear vinyl straps were seen on costumes made by…everyone! When they initially appeared a few years ago, many dancers seemed on the fence about this trend, but it’s become a standard and is still growing.

ASYMMETRICAL CUPS

Bras featuring asymmetrical cups- such as one plain, and one scalloped or with cutouts, have been around for a while, and are still very, very popular. Many new costumes shown had one cup done plain, or embellished with rhinestone chain or beads just along the edge, while the other cup was fully covered with work, or draped with fabric. This trend shows no sign of going away; it’s only getting bigger.

                         

BURLESQUE/SHOWGIRL ELEMENTS

Many Cairo designers are embracing a trend towards using burlesque and showgirl influenced elements on their designs, and I even saw some costumes that were seriously lingerie-like. Popular themes included sheer netting with overlays of lace, feathers splashed across bra cups and as hip accents, feather boas on hems and and tiny satin bows that would normally be seen on “intimate apparel”.

In the Ahlan Wa Sahlan Opening Gala, Dina wore a Sahar Okasha that was a bright tomato red, with huge red lace roses overlaid on the bra cups. The top of the skirt was a V-shaped ( panty shaped!) patch of black lace over the red lycra, complete with four garters dangling as though from a vintage garter belt!

But Sahar wasn’t alone in this trend: Hallah Moustapha made a custom costume that looked like a 1950’s merry widow, complete with strategically placed working zippers, and Eman Zaki showed a stunning dress with a lace-up front that looked very saloon-girlish.

GIANT PAILLETTE SEQUIN DISCS

These were spotted in 2010 being worn by Soraya Zaed, Egyptian Aziza and Dina, but this year, they are everywhere! Big, over-sized paillette sequin accents are ubiquitous on everything from hip scarves to Saidi dresses and full Oriental costumes. You can see Leila Farid raqqin’ the giant paillettes on the cover of her new CD, “Tarab” (great music, by the way!) or watch her in action here, looking like a gorgeous human disco ball:

BELLA KNOCK-OFFS

A lot of lesser-known Cairo designers were doing knock-offs of Turkish designer Bella. Her signature elements such as princess sleeves, sequin-bordered chiffon leaves trailing down circle skirts and bra cups with racy cut-outs backed by mesh almost-but not quite- are being successfully translated onto Egyptian costumes. While Bella’s designs are light and airy, the Egyptian knock-offs are clunky and not quite there yet- for example, one designer tried to do Bella’s leaves, but instead of constructing them out of chiffon, so they floated, the leaves were made like heavy, dangling appliqués, and just dragged the costume down.

CHUNKY PLASTIC BEADED NECKLACES USED AS ACCENTS

Obviously inspired by Sahar Okasha’s chunky bead draping on her costumes for Dina, I saw a lot of costumes with big dangly geometric plastic beads being used as accents.

Theoretically, this might sound scary, but when you see it in real life, it’s actually very cute. A costume made entirely with chunky plastic beads would probably appear cheap, but when they are used judiciously, combined with higher-end embellishments like rhinestones, lots of beading and sequins, it’s fresh and pretty- see the above picture of Argentine dancer Magda Monti, now living and working in Cairo, wearing a bronze costume with over-sized white plastic bead accents. The beads move well in performance and add a touch of whimsy.

FRINGE 

Though many minimalist designs with little or no fringe were still plentiful on off-the-rack costumes, quite a few pro dancers in Cairo were wearing costumes with fringe, in everything from small accents to lush amounts trimming their bedlah. Leila Farid appeared at the Ahlan Wa Sahlan closing gala in a dazzling costume made of material that resembled a Navajo blanket print in shades of vibrant navy and royal blue, white, orange and yellow, with pointed geometric fringe to match! I believe Hallah Moustapha made this, but I’m not 100% sure. It was stunning!

NEW WORK FROM OLD FAVORITES:

HANNAN MAHMOUD

Hannan’s costumes are well constructed, fit beautifully, and covered with intricate bead and sequin work. Her new baby son Ahmed apparently didn’t stop her from bringing out a new collection! This year she unleashed her wild side, showing costumes featuring metallic Lycra in two or more colors mixed with animal print or snakeskin lycra. Always up on worldwide dance community trends, Hannan also offered many tribal-inspired practice skirts, and tiny metallic mini-skirts meant to be worn over class-wear.

EMAN ZAKI

Always elegant and cut beautifully, Eman’s 2011 offerings include a line of dreamy romantic costumes done in floral prints made of real silk with Spanish-inspired ruffles around the hem & large fabric faux- flowers as accents on the hip and bust, armbands & wristbands.

HODA ZAKI 

Like her sister Eman, Hoda’s costumes are classic and gorgeous. She also showed many floral prints. My favorite of this year’s “crop” was a cute yet soignée handkerchief-hem costumes featuring yellow and black daisies, with jeweled daisies and minimal black fringe decorating the bra and belt-line.

HALLAH MOUSTAPHA

An American designer, my friend Hallah is a former dancer who has been living and working in Cairo for years. She not only makes belly dance costumes, but also has a roaring business in the Middle East doing couture gowns that have been featured on television and in movies.

Hallah’s intricate and beautifully draped dance costumes have been seen on many Bellydance Superstars past and present, including Jillina, Sabah, Sonia, and Cairo-based dancers Leila Farid and Liza La Ziza. She used to only do custom work, but this year, Hallah has expanded into an affordable ready-to-wear line, featuring her trademark use of exotic Sari fabrics and her incredible draping and shaping. See-and order- her new work here: http://www.hallahmoustafa.com/#!readymade 

RAQIA HASSAN

The atelier of Madame Raqia Hassan makes bright, affordable costumes that range from extremely pretty to…so quirky and crazy that you’d have to live in Cairo for wearing it to make any sense! This year, her costumes featured a lot of mirrors, metal chains, and the afore-mentioned plastic beads.

One innovation she introduced this year ( which, for once, nobody else was doing! ) was in her accessories, which come with every costume. She featured large, blinged out wrist, arm and leg pieces in terrific geometric shapes, and dotted with crystals, not unlike those worn by Samba dancers. They were truly amazing and very unique.

AZIZ

Aziz is one of the few costumers that still uses a lot of "old-school" beading, which encrusts the bras, belts and skirts of his costumes. This year, he showed a lot of animal print, including some cat-print costumes that had pom-poms of real mink hanging as embellishments. Not PETA friendly, but they were pretty cute!

MAMDOUH SALAMA

In my opinion, Mamdouh is hands-down the designer whose work is most original. He always thinks outside the box: his costumes are cute, playful, and very sexy... and even from far away, can be readily identified. He seems to take his cues from pop culture; a lot of his designs incorporate elements that look like American or European rock and roll club-wear, without losing their Oriental essence. 

Some of his fashion foreword innovations- that are now being widely copied - are the use of handbag hardware (like metal snap-clasp hooks and D-rings for fasteners) over-sized prints, raw, un-hemmed metallic lace, scatter-work rhinestones, and extensive use of criss-crossed straps. This year, he featured detachable straps that wrapped up and down either or both leg- see photo- or dangling, embellished straps that started at the hip and attached at the ankle, like a glamorous, embellished leash! Aziza of Cairo wore two of his costumes in her Ahlan WA Salan Opening Gala show.

My only complaint about his work is that he uses acrylic rhinestones… which is ok for his smaller scatter-work, but just looks cheap on the bigger stones. My friend Aleya, an American dancer working in Cairo, assured me she’d already mentioned that to him. His costumes are already amazing, but if he used real stones as opposed to plastic, the worldwide dance community would be fighting each other for a chance to wear his stuff!

KING OF THE NILE

The Giza-based King Of The Nile has long been known for their intricate bead and sequin work, custom costumes and pretty hip scarves, as well as the fact that they actually ship their orders out on "Western Time"! This year, the King Of The Nile atelier has been hard at work on some new designs...stay tuned to find out more about them!

Dances of the Muslim Peoples

The following excerpts are from: Dance Scope 76/77. "Dances of the Muslim Peoples", By Lois Ibsen Al Faruqi.

Although there has been considerable literary production on dance as a religious practice, there is amazingly little information available discussing dance as an aesthetic expression or entertainment. Reports by Western travelers to Middle Eastern countries have occasionally included short descriptions of a particular dance or dancer; but, even among non-Western writers, systematic discussions of the dance are singularly rare.

Danse Orientale has been known over a long period of time in history. This dance is usually labeled derogatorily in the West as the "belly dance" or "danse du ventre." In the East such names are never used. They would be considered indecent and offensive. Instead, the dance is known as "Oriental Dance" (raqs sharqi) in Arabic. A dance of this kind was known in the Mediterranean areas as early as the Roman Empire, and it has been described by various writers in the intervening centuries. The dance has no fixed choreography, no fixed sequence of steps or floor patterns, and no predetermined time length. It is an improvised combination of movements which are repeated and varied according to the improvisatory skill and technique of the dancer.

As a professional dance, raqs sharqi is most often a solo performed by a woman in the family or community festive gathering. There are recognizable individualized movements which recur wherever this dance is done. These include head moving in a straight line from shoulder to shoulder, undulating movements of the hands and arms, shoulder shaking or jerks, trembling or horizontal movement of the breasts or the chest, trembling or flexing of the abdominal muscles, shaking or jerks with the hips, rolls by one or both hips, swirling turns, backbends, with or without shoulder or breast shaking, manipulation of flowing scarf or handkerchief, tapping of tiny metal cymbals worn on the thumb and middle finger of both hands. These movements require strict and individualized control over the muscles of the whole body.

Clothes for the raqs sharqi vary greatly depending on the occasion. When done for a cabaret audience, the female soloist sometimes wears an abbreviated bikini-type outfit augmented with sheer veils, skirt or harem trousers. More common however is thebaladi (village) dress. This is a straight, long-sleeved full-length Arabian dress decorated with heavy embroidery. The dancer adds a hip sash to emphasize the movements of that portion of the body.

Not only the costume of the soloist varies for these dances when done in different situations, the movements are also altered to emphasize different qualities. The cabaret performer, for example, will make a display of sex and sensuality. On the other hand, when performed in family groups to celebrate circumcisions, weddings, harvest or national holidays, the soloist will instead stress its abstract, non-descriptive rhythmic intricacies.

In the United States the raqs sharqi has been known since a promoter by the name of Sol Bloom brought the first "Oriental dancer" to the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The people who visited the show were fascinated. Some, however, shocked by the scantily clad dancer and her sensuously exciting number, protested against its alleged damage to morals. By 1903, the fad of "Oriental dancing" among native-born Americans seemed to be over, only to be revived in recent years with the rebirth of interest in ethnic dance and ethnic arts.

Issues Related to Gender, Religion, and Social Roles

It will be helpful to consider issues of gender and religion that directly impact dancers and their place in society.  

Traditionally and historically, Egyptian dance has served a variety of social functions as ritual,²³ entertainment, celebration, social dance, healing and courtship. Depending on the context, dancing is considered more or less shameful. Spontaneous unpaid performances, such as in segregated wedding parties, are seen as appropriate expressions of joy on a happy occasion.²⁴ Professional dancers performing in the commercialised setting of a nightclub are accorded the highest disapprobation.²⁵

To better understand the stigma associated with professional dancers, it is important to gain insight into Islamic cultural attitudes. Back in 1902, Stanley Lane-Poole, professor of Arabic, condemned Islamic attitudes towards women:

The Egyptian ladies . . . suffer from the low opinion which all Mohammedans entertain of the fair sex. The unalterable iniquity of womankind is an incontrovertible fact among the men of the East; it is a part of their religion. Did not the blessed Prophet say, ‘I stood at the gate of Paradise, and lo! most of its inhabitants were the poor: and I stood at the gates of Hell, and lo! most of its inhabitants were women?’ . . . Following in the steps of this pious Father, the Muslims have always treated women as an inferior order of beings, necessary indeed, and ornamental, but certainly not entitled to respect or deference. Hence they rarely educate their daughters; hence they seek in their wives beauty and docility, and treat them as pretty toys, either to be played with and broken and cast away, or as useful links in the social economy, good to bear children and order a household.²⁶

      The following information is a summary on women’s social roles and obligations according to Islamic Arabic culture, drawn from a number of researchers. Although Arabic women may enjoy sex for pleasure, a woman’s body is not her own but belongs to her family, and the honour of the family rests in her body.²⁷ Women must be married so that their sexuality can be controlled and thus not pose a threat to men or society. A wife’s primary duty is to provide sex for husband. Her next most important role is to produce and raise children. Women should be obedient and loyal to their fathers and husbands. Women must know how to please their husbands in order to ensure their husband’s attention and support for themselves and to prevent their husband’s being tempted by other women. Men are warned against the seductive power of women, which distracts men from their more important relationship with God. Single women in public are thus seen as capable of creating fitna, social chaos resulting from sexual disorder.

Islamic doctrine promotes an understanding of “body” that sees women’s bodies as only sexual, in contrast to men’s bodies which are primarily productive and political and incapable of inspiring desire. Consequently, a woman “working in the male public space is generally perceived as an erotic invasion.”²⁸ Because women’s bodies are sexual in nature and capable of driving men to do things against the social good (for example tipping a dancer with money that should be spent to feed the family), a woman’s body is by definition shameful. Furthermore, “female entertainers differ from ‘decent’ women because they publicly use their bodies instead of hiding their shame as much as possible. They publicly employ the power of their bodies. . .[to] tempt male customers in public.”²⁹ It follows then that for a woman to perform in public is shameful (whether singing or dancing), as she openly displays her body and uses her seductive powers for material gain. According to this rationale, professional female performers are considered “fallen women,” functionally indistinguishable from prostitutes.³⁰ The stigma applied to working dancers thus has several aspects. A woman “on-the-loose” (i.e. not controlled or protected by a husband, father or brother)—not honourably occupied with the domestic duties of wife and mother—is seen as a threat to the order of society and an intrusion on the male public sphere.

By Marilee Nugent

The law of attraction

On a special edition of CNN's Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of "mind experts" about how the thoughts you think literally turn into the events you experience, the material things you possess... AND even the health of your body.

 

For years, "positive thinking" and goal-setting were often criticized as "pollyanna" and "the law of attraction" was relegated into the category of "new age" fluff. Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and to filter out those things that are unimportant.

The RAS is activated by "programming" goals into our sub-conscious minds. Our sub-conscious mind is the "power center" and THIS is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.

Here's the kicker - the sub-conscious is completely neutral and impartial - it will carry out any instructions you give it.

Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative thinking.

As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our "mental computer" is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behaviour.

To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming into your sub-conscious. This can be achieved through techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization).

You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your "mind's eye" not as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be).

These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non-conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on "automatic pilot." The Old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been playing the "old records" over and over again.

If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the same way again. The old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over. Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new neural patterns.

Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.

Is this easy? For most people, no it's not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you started.
You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by changing your mental pictures.

So is there something to this whole "positive thinking" thing?

The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: "As you think, so shall you be."

But... if you are the left-brained, "prove-it-to-me" type, you dont have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are powerful things.

So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this power locked up inside your mind?

Guess what? You're already using this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is on its way to you already, so it's simply a matter of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it.

What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, "I am becoming a great belly dancer, I am feeling fitter and healthier?"... or do you say "I can’t dance or do any movements – I’ve tried everything, nothing ever works?"

The fact is - you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. You can think yourself into becoming a great belly dancer or the belly dancer you want to be or you can think yourself not being able to. Maybe not in the literal sense...but most certainly as the critical part in the chain of causation...

You see, there's a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization and of course positive thinking
Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of this, many people will simply remain sceptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect a mystical "law of attraction" to kick in and then "poof!" a great belly dancer materializes out of thin air... along with the perfect relationship, a nice bank account and career success.

What really happens is "Positive thinking" and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviours that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.

So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing... attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue to struggle... often against nothing but yourself.

If you want to transform yourself or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else will follow.

Train hard and expect success…