When I was young we used to visit my father's grandmother " she was a very old lady, who died at the age of 101 when I was 16 years old". Teta Sayeda "as I used to call her " lived by one of Cairo's oldest neighborhoods, that had a lot of history happening in, her spacious historic mansion was a piece of art,it originally belonged to my grandfather's grandfather or may be it had an old previous owner that no one knows of, its ceilings were so high and hand painted, the windows were one and half meter long with brass surrounding it, the tiles oh the tiles were the master piece at that ancient house that the 1992 earthquake had affected badly, but surprisingly this ancient collapsing house is still standing strong and has some inhabitants till our day. At that house there was a room, a room that I feared the most, a room that I couldn't enter alone, a room that I shiver now when I remember, that room had a window, a window that overlooked another house, a house that had an apartment, an apartment where scary Zaar parties used to happened regularly. Every weekend some of the top society women used to come disguised to the house, so no one would know them. The police had eventually fed up from catching those Zaar people and closing down that house, but with some way someone managed to re-opened it again. Well that was so many years ago, I haven't been to that place since I was 10 and I don't have any reason to go now, because after that earthquake my grand grandmother left to stay with my grandfather's brother, and died there.
As some of you may not know what Zaar is, I will try to explain it here. The Zaar is an old aesthetic Egyptian tradition, that was usually performed by creepy women who are known by witch-crafting and the likes. It's like a spiritual ceremony aiming to pacify the demons inside the one and excoriating them by playing live loud music, Bukhur and there has to be a chicken slaughtering included, I really don't know why, actually my info regarding that Zaar thing is coming straight from the old Egyptian movies and an old story I once read. But I know that long time ago, some desperate and ignorant women used to attend such things, if they had some difficulty solving personal problems.
Anyway it was a long introduction to day's post. Two years ago one of my favorite Arab photographers Toufic Araman, shot an outstanding editorial for ELLE Arabia magazine, the editorial was titled Zaar for Kenzo. It was done to celebrate forty years of fashion for Kenzo. Usually I don't like the oriental fashion editorials because most of them are just an imitation for the international ones, or when art directors want to do something with an Arabian twits they go to the desert, oh come on people the Arab world has a lot to offer to the fashion world than its hot deserts. I loved everything about that editorial, the amazing photography, the model choice (Arwa Gouda and Tara Emad), the makeup, the location and I praise the outfits choice..just brilliant.
It's somehow an old editorial but definitely one of my all time favorites that will remain engraved in my memory.Don't forget to like our Facebook Fan Page Click Here
*All photos belong to Toufic Araman, check his site for other amazing photos http://www.aramanstudio.com/http://www.aramanstudio.com/
As some of you may not know what Zaar is, I will try to explain it here. The Zaar is an old aesthetic Egyptian tradition, that was usually performed by creepy women who are known by witch-crafting and the likes. It's like a spiritual ceremony aiming to pacify the demons inside the one and excoriating them by playing live loud music, Bukhur and there has to be a chicken slaughtering included, I really don't know why, actually my info regarding that Zaar thing is coming straight from the old Egyptian movies and an old story I once read. But I know that long time ago, some desperate and ignorant women used to attend such things, if they had some difficulty solving personal problems.
Anyway it was a long introduction to day's post. Two years ago one of my favorite Arab photographers Toufic Araman, shot an outstanding editorial for ELLE Arabia magazine, the editorial was titled Zaar for Kenzo. It was done to celebrate forty years of fashion for Kenzo. Usually I don't like the oriental fashion editorials because most of them are just an imitation for the international ones, or when art directors want to do something with an Arabian twits they go to the desert, oh come on people the Arab world has a lot to offer to the fashion world than its hot deserts. I loved everything about that editorial, the amazing photography, the model choice (Arwa Gouda and Tara Emad), the makeup, the location and I praise the outfits choice..just brilliant.
It's somehow an old editorial but definitely one of my all time favorites that will remain engraved in my memory.Don't forget to like our Facebook Fan Page Click Here
*All photos belong to Toufic Araman, check his site for other amazing photos http://www.aramanstudio.com/http://www.aramanstudio.com/
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