By Ashraf Sadek For years, a black and plain abbaya, or cloak, was the traditional dress code for any poor Egyptian woman when she went out. But now, ordinary and rich women are buying a streak of modern abbayas that boast a galaxy of vibrant colour and prints from the racks of swanky Cairo shops to wear them in public and social gatherings. These days, the loose old black abbayas, which conformed to the standards of balady (folk) women, have been replaced with new flashy ones. Shop owners and fashion designers, who say women and girls are snapping up the new abbaya models, complained that they were under pressure to produce more styles to meet the rising demand. "We in Cairo are fashion conscious," said Egyptian abbaya shop owner Hassan Wagih. "I try to add up new models every ten days or so because of the high demand," Wagih said, adding that today's abbayas were "no longer just abbayas". "Today, the new abbaya reflects a woman's taste and personality," said Wagih, whose abbaya sell between LE250 to LE2500. A Syrian designer working in Cairo, has said that glitter started adorning wrists or sprinkled on the edges of this long dress. "Then vivid colours began creeping on the black cloth and the loose shapeless cloaks became tighter. The cumbersome panels, which were hooked to the shoulders to ensure that nothing peeked from underneath the abbaya as a woman walks, have slowly disappeared. "Today, the new abbayas are without the panels and close straight down like a long dress," Mazen, who came from Alleppo, told The Egyptian Gazette. Cairo shops boast the most daring abbayas. In one store, there were abbayas with red lace hanging down from the black sleeves, some with crystal sprinkled around the collar and waist and a few double-layered ones with bold reds, greens and yellows underneath a sheer black chiffon top. The best-seller among these was one with an Islamic pattern underneath the top cover.But not everyone in fashionable Cairo likes the new abbayas. A father of two daughters is one of them. He entered one shop in Emad Eddin Street to buy abbayas for his daughters and later said: "I don't like the new styles but my daughters love them." "You look around you and you find very tight abbays that are embroidered, ornamented with glitter and daring patterns. Most of today's tight abbayas now need another abbya to cover them," he said. "I feel they attract too much attention," he added. The two girls, however, said that they loved wearing the new abbayas in public places, weddings and family reunions. "They're more like dresses, so I wear them to places where young men will see me in them," one of the girls said.
