Liina Mustonen

Dr., Postdoctoral researcher
University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)

Within the highly unequal and stratified social context in Egypt, different markets exist for different segments of society and social classes. This also applies to the fashion industry. A multitude of actors and companies produce different products, trends, and ideas of beauty that translate into various expectations on women’s lives and bodies. The content produced by these companies targets a specific clientele or a group of people defined according to their purchasing power as different classes of customers. This paper takes a closer look at the production of what is often called high-end fashion targeting a segment of upper-middle class women in Egypt. This particular niche of the fashion industry operates by using different linguistic codes and registers and it distinguishes itself from other Egypt-based markets of fashion by producing a specific taste with an outlook towards the “West” (which stands for Western Europe and the United States). Against this background, this paper analyses the meanings that the industry attaches to specific female bodies and points to the “Western” orientation of this market of high-end fashion. This Western orientation is related to ideas of liberal and emancipated women. Yet, the paper shows how the “Western” orientation is not free of racism(s) and colonial legacies, but shaped by social hierarchies that posit whiteness on top. The paper is based on material collected during several months of ethnographic fieldwork among producers and consumers of high-end fashion in Egypt as well as an analysis of visual productions such as lifestyle magazines targeting upper-middle class women.

Liina, Mustonen (PhD, EUI) is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Her work has recently appeared in the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and the Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies.