Dena Rashed goes to great lengths to annoy her peers For each gender there are indispensable interests. They help pass free time and overcome stress: football for men, shopping for women. For many young women, indeed, the latter is almost sacred. It's one of the best, if most expensive stress treatments; and while some shop because they really do require commodities, others shop to feel better. Clothes shopping, in particular, will more often than not fall under the latter category. According to Elsa Schiparelli, a famous fashion designer of the 1930s , indeed, women all over the world dress for one reason only: to annoy other women. Motives aside, however, the right clothes are always an issue; and women have learned to deal with it by going on shopping trips abroad, then selling some of what they buy at their houses. A phenomenon of the late 1980s and 1990s, the "open day" -- as such events are called -- has persisted, with the tager shanta (literally "suitcase merchant") of yesteryear replaced by the middle- to upper- class society lady of the present. They have the time and energy, not to mention the inclination, to plan and carry out a small business to which they can be wholeheartedly devoted. Maha (not her real name), has been in the open day trade for eight years. Married, with two kids, she uses a small apartment in the building where she lives to display her wares: "I started out mainly to entertain myself. Before I got married I had a chandelier shop and that took up all my time, so after my marriage I had to have an alternative." The open day, she goes on, give women more of a chance to shop at a leisurely pace -- and find exactly what they want. Nor is it undifferentiated clothing as such: there are open days for scarves, swimsuits, jeans... Though Cairo boasts over 10 shopping malls and hundreds of clothes shops, the open day seems to beat them all. "I never seem to find what I want when I go shopping in Egypt," Mayan Fawaz, 25, pouts. Shops don't seem to cater to "our taste", she says, "and when they do, they don't offer diversity". An open day will quickly replace that heartrending pout with a smile, thankfully: "Those who go are mostly the same age and they have the same taste." An open-day aficionado, Fawaz once sold a suitcase full of swimsuits at a profit -- as a favour to a (male) friend of hers. Fun and easy as it is as one off, the open day can be a demanding job, too. "I always go to Turkey with a group of friends who also buy clothes to sell at their houses," says Zeinab, another small-time businesswoman whose surname is withheld, "but since we go for a maximum of four days we spend the whole time shopping. It's difficult, because you want the best for a good price." The mother of two boys, Zeinab allows females into her apartment to look at the clothes, but exercises discrimination to avoid trouble: "Only friends or people recommended by friends can come in. There has to be a certain degree of trust, you understand." The open day had acquired a negative association following the arrest of two well- known actresses at one house of disrepute, one of whom claimed to be there to buy clothes. Many aficionados have since been discouraged. As Maha explains, however, following a few suspicious experiences of her own, "it is always better to sell to a small circle of people whom you know." Trust is important also because much is bought on credit. As Zeinab puts it, "credit speeds it all up but certain people will give you trouble paying. I found it very embarrassing to keep calling to ask for money, so I've since avoided selling to people who only pay when they feel like it -- or, more rarely, people who disappear on you." An altogether profitable idea, the open day has its risks. Nagwa El-Lithi, who sold clothes for over 20 years without making a name, argues that opening a shop is the sounder approach: besides the fact that it took her longer to establish a reputation, El-Lithi's open-day apartment was visited by the police, clothes and records confiscated for tax evasion; such a visit remains the open-day- er's worst nightmare. If suspected of bringing clothes into the country to sell, the women in question are charged extremely high duties on pain of confiscation. To avoid this, Zeinab has the clothes shipped to herself from Turkey -- followed by France, the USA and China, Turkey remains the open-day-er's supplier of choice -- then waits for them back home. For her part, Maha only buys abroad while she is in the company of her husband; otherwise she simply deals with a wholesale vendor in Port Said. But business is business, and tax evasion -- with some, less than honourable practitioners reporting their competitors to the police to increase market share -- will remain the thorn of these shopping maniacs. Perhaps the newcomers have it right: they rent a furnished apartment to use as an open-day venue for a few days, then leave it for good.
