Cairo Fashion Design

Contrasts do not always imply conflict. Discovering the creative powers latent in the charged field between Islam and the West, the fashion designer Susanne K mper has established a 'Fashion Design Department' at Helwan University in Cairo. Collaborating with the men and women she teaches there, she has been working since 1999 on casual wear geared to the Western taste, as well as fashions that cater for the need to veil the body as prescribed by contemporary Islam.. This is not at all a contradiction in terms for her female students who often wear the veil but an enrichment, as Susanne K mper is the first to amit. Studying fashion design gives graduates a chance to succeed in the international fashion trade. Supporeted by textile firms such as Olsen, the German embassy in Cairo and the German co-operative development agency CIM, the design students' work is presented to the public on the catwalk and at exhibitions. In addition, Bedouin women from the valleys of the Sinai do traditional embroid