Popyrus|Profile
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| Dr. Shahira Mehrez |
Dr. Shahira Mehrez, or the Guardian of Heritage, is an Egyptian woman who loves Egypt's heritage and is passionate about traditional Egyptian attire. She began gathering traditional Egyptian garments from 12 various Egyptian regions and wore them when she was 16. As she knew that her country's civilization was one of the oldest in the world, she wondered why we dress like French or American females and why our homes are furnished with European-style furnishings. All these inquiries drove her to delve deeper into the Egyptian heritage and become a pioneer in it. So, let's delve deeper and discover Dr. Shahira Mehrez’s life.
Early life and education
In 1943, Shahira was born. She is an Islamic art expert, fashion designer, and owns a chain store that sells artifacts inspired by Egyptian heritage. At first, she decided to study chemistry at the American University in Cairo, AUC, as at that time, the era of women's empowerment had begun, and she dreamed of becoming like Marie Curie.
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| Shahira Mehrez with her family |
However, over time, she discovered her love and interest in Egyptian heritage and folklore, so she shifted her career path and decided to study Islamic art and architecture at the AUC, and then she holds an MA in this field.
After that, she decided to enrich her knowledge by earning a PhD from Oxford University in 1974. By the end of 1978, she finished her PhD and returned to Egypt. After that, she had to be an instructor at Helwan University, as her marriage had collapsed. However, she left this career and went back to gathering traditional Egyptian garments.
A new chance and direction
Back in the late 50s, she started acquiring traditional
costumes, initially for enjoyment, and later as she grew older and developed an
art historian approach, becoming a serious collector. Regarding discovering
anything that had survived the great traditions of the past, she had to canvass
the countryside and the oases.
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| Dress from Kharga, from Egypt's Costumes, owned by Shahira Mehrez |
Then she decided to launch her craft store, making accessible to other women the dresses. Moreover, in her store in Dokki, you will find a huge collection of authentic traditional Egyptian garments, besides the inspired pieces she’s created especially for this store.
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| Some traditional Egyptian attire from different governorates |
One day in 1979, two American women, Elaine Strite and
Jayme Spencer, came to Mehrez’s shop to show her the embroideries from “Al
Arish Needlework Project,” a Mennonite Central Committee-sponsored
income-generating project established in Sinai to increase women’s income. Which
is a developmental, not a profitable project.
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| Corner of a cloth produced by Al-Arish women for the Al-Arish Needlework Project |
After that, in 1981, she was asked to manage this project. Initially, she had enormous hesitations, but eventually, she accepted this position, and after multiple years the project grew as a cottage industry giving work to hundreds of Bedouin women.
Documenting Egyptian Attire
Mehrez believes that traditional attire reduces class tensions by simplifying social
class inequalities. In her words, fashion was created in the West to obliterate
our heritage and entice us into a never-ending cycle of consumption.
Nevertheless, traditional attire will endure as it will be handed down
through the generations.
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| Some traditional Egyptian attire |
Regarding
this, she decided to write a series of books that cover decades of research and offer
unprecedented documentation of traditional Egyptian attire. The first edition
is The Costumes of Egypt: The Lost Legacies, which showcases the garments
of Nubians, Nile Valley peasants, Bedouins, and oasis dwellers. This book edition was published by the French Institute of Oriental Archeology.
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| The Costumes of Egypt: The Lost Legacies book |
The other editions will discuss a different phase of Egypt’s heritage fashion. The second edition’s aspect is about Bedouin and Traveler Attire, the third edition is about Furniture Accessories, and the fourth edition is about Egyptian Women's Jewelry.
Shahira Mehrez’s unknown side
Dr. Shahira was not only a researcher in Islamic art and architecture but also a supportive and loving wife. Her second husband, Renaldo Tommas, was dreaming of owning his olive orchard and launching his own olive oil. So, they bought an orchard to plant the olive trees, as she wanted to achieve the dream of her love of life, as she called it.
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| Shahira's husband, Renaldo Tommas |
Then, after the reclamation of the land, the trees started to flower, and it appeared that they had been given a group of different olive kinds, each displaying a different stage of maturity. Mehrez had to draw charts for the 520 acres to harvest, which took her three years to finish the task, but ultimately enabled them to harvest effortlessly and rapidly. And within a few years, despite all the difficulties, their orchard became one of the greatest in Egypt.
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| An olive orchard |