Style from the Nile: Egyptomania in Fashion From the 19th Century to the Present Day

By Isabella Campagnol

A compelling look at the influence of ancient Egypt on modern fashion, by a dress, textile, and decorative arts historian—includes illustrations.

In November 1922, when the combined efforts of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon revealed to the world the “wonderful things” buried in Tutankhamen’s tomb, Egypt had already been a source for new trends in fashion for quite some time. In the early nineteenth century, for example, Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign contributed to the popularization of Kashmir shawls, while the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869 stimulated “Egyptianizing” trends in gowns, jewelry, and textiles.

But post-1922, a veritable Egyptomania craze invested all artistic fields, quickly becoming a dominant Art Deco motif. That included fashion. “Flapper-style” dresses were elaborately embroidered with beaded “Egyptian” patterns; evening bags were decorated with hieroglyphics; brooches nonchalantly sported ancient scarabs; and the sleek black bobs favored by the admired icons of the time, Louise Brooks and Clara Bow, looked up to the fabled Egyptian beauty of Nefertiti and Cleopatra.

Egyptomania continues to influence twenty-first-century fashion as well: the awe-inspiring John Galliano’s designs for Dior Spring-Summer 2004 brought back pharaonic crowns in lieu of headdresses in a triumph of gold-encrusted creations; the ancient practice of mummification was referenced by Iris van Herpen’s Fall 2009 collection; and Egyptian vibes resonated in Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2018/2019 collection. Through the combination of rigorous fashion history research, intriguing images, and well-informed, approachable writing, Style from the Nile offers a comprehensive overview of a phenomenon that, to this day, has a mesmerizing appeal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jul 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781399098083

Isabella Campagnol

Isabella Campagnol, a dress, textile, and decorative arts historian, is the co-editor of Rubelli: A Story of Venetian Silk. She has lectured on the topics of Venice and Venetian textiles in Italy and Europe and the United States. She lives between Murano and Rome.

Book preview

Style from the Nile

Style from the Nile

Egyptomania in Fashion from the 19th Century to the Present Day

ISABELLA CAMPAGNOL

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

PEN AND SWORD HISTORY

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire – Philadelphia

Copyright © Isabella Campagnol, 2022

ISBN 978 1 39909 807 6

eISBN 978 1 39909 808 3

Mobi ISBN 978 1 39909 808 3

The right of Isabella Campagnol to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

  1 ‘Soldiers, Forty Centuries Behold You!’: Napoleon, Cashmere Shawls, Giraffes and Early Nineteenth-century Fashion

  2 ‘ Retour d’Egypte ’ Fashions in the Nineteenth Century

  I Dancing with Cleopatra: Egyptian Vibes at Costume Balls from the 1897 Devonshire’s Ball to the Roaring Twenties

  3 Ancient Egypt and the Belle Epoque

  4 ‘Wonderful things!’: Tutankhamun’s Influence on Fashion During the Roaring Twenties

 II What to Wear ‘to Do the Nile’: Stylish Tourists from the Nineteenth Century to the 1920s

  5 The Story Lives On: Egypt in Fashion from the 1960s to the Present Day

III ‘When Ancient Egypt Was Young’: Beauty Secrets and the Land of the Nile

  6 Reinterpreting Ancient Egypt in Contemporary Fashion

Conclusions

Endnotes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

This book is the result of a lifelong fascination with ancient Egypt. I distinctively remember being 8 years old, recovering from a rather long flu and receiving some books to help me pass the time: among them, oddly enough for a girl my age, were C. W. Ceram’s Gods, Graves and Scholars: A Story of Archaeology and Howard Carter’s The Tomb of Tutankhamun.

Rather sceptical at first, I ended up reading the two books in a matter of hours, staying awake well into the night to finish them, completely enthralled with the narration of the finding of the royal cache of mummies in Deir-el-Bahri in 1881 and with the story of the discovery of the sepulchre of a young, largely unknown pharaoh and of the untold treasures he brought with him into his tomb in preparation for the afterlife. A love affair with ancient Egypt had begun.

Of course, I wanted to became an Egyptologist right there and then, but the vagaries of life led me in another direction. I studied art history and then I specialized in the history of dress and fashion, fascinated by the possibility to get, through their clothes, physically close to people long gone.

Eventually, my own Egyptian ‘fever’ returned and I kept thinking about how to put my passion for the land of the pharaohs and for the history of fashion together. Studying the influence of ancient Egypt on western fashion was the obvious answer, and I slowly began collecting the research material that is now part of this book. A quote from a magazine here, an image there, a note in a catalogue, I filed all the information, thinking that someday, sometime, they might become part of a structured research, but the years passed, and I never got round it.

In 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, confined in my house for months, I began drafting a summary, reorganizing the materials I already had, looking for more among the immensely useful digitized resources that we are so lucky to be able to use these days. Gradually, Style from the Nile began to emerge as a cohesive project: its time had finally come.

Now that the project has been concluded, I am glad and honoured to acknowledge the crucial support I received from colleagues, friends and family, because, despite the long, especially nocturnal, hours of research and writing, this book would have never seen the light without their help.

First and foremost, I must thank my father who, in gifting me those books, ignited a spark which is still very much alive in me more than forty years later.

I am most grateful to Claire Hopkins who received my draft summary and believed in the idea, giving me the opportunity to bring this project to life.

A special thank-you goes to Dr Karin Bohleke, whom I have never personally met, but toward whom I felt an immediate connection: via Zoom and emails, she generously shared her in-depth knowledge of Egyptomania and fashion and has offered me invaluable advice, even sharing useful tips for collecting Egyptomania objects.

I am also extremely grateful to my esteemed and dear colleagues and friends, Virginia Hill and Federica Rossi, who patiently read the original draft: their encouragement and suggestions have been crucially important for me.

A profound thank-you goes to Chiara Squarcina, director of the museum and library of Palazzo Mocenigo, Venezia, and to Luigi Zanini for his useful insights: some parts of the book would have not been done without him.

I wish to thank Katherine Purcell, Joint Managing Director at Wartski, for her generosity in allowing me to use some images from their collection; Brenda Wiard, who kindly sent me the scans of some very difficult-to-find articles from Look magazine; Janet Tait from antinik-vintage who permitted me to use the image of one of the handbags in her shop and David S. Cooke of TiffanyScarabs.com who allowed me to use one of the Tiffany scarabs in his extensive collection. I have had the privilege to give a number of lectures at the Accademia d’Egitto in Rome and to share with them the early findings of this research: I kindly thank the director, professor Heba Youssef, and all the personnel for the enthusiasm they showed for my project and for their support.

Last, but not least, a heartfelt thank-you goes to my husband Lorenzano and my daughter Camilla who have cheerfully endured my absentminded presence while I was writing the book; and to our family pet, a well-tempered, mixed-breed Jack Russell named Diaz who spent endless hours at my feet, awaiting, with the patience only a dog can have, the next break to go for a walk or to play with the ball.

Introduction

‘In the official history of Egyptology, there is a long-standing delight in the tension between the pure scientism of archaeological research and the fact that Egyptological discoveries have always aroused widespread curiosity and intense aesthetic interest whose tone and motivation diverge sharply from the interest of dispassionate study.’¹

The point made by Elliot Colla in his Conflicted Antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian Modernity is a very important one: it clarifies the fact that the curiosity and aestheticism of Egyptomania are something rather different from the scientificity of Egyptology. Despite their focus on the same subject, ancient Egypt, Egyptology and Egyptomania, rationality and obsession, evidently correspond with two very different approaches, that, however, go hand in hand: one is the consequence of the other and Egyptomania represents the popularization of Egyptology, a filter through which ancient Egypt was appropriated by the West.² The feeling of awe and the sense of eternity and other-worldliness radiating from Egyptian monuments and artworks was translated into something more relatable and more easily understood: Western art, architecture and decorative arts assimilated such elements as hieroglyphs, obelisks and pyramids, even without fully comprehending them, embracing ‘a prodigious cultural repertoire whose individual items evoke a fabulously rich world: the Sphinx, Cleopatra, Eden, Troy, Sodom and Gomorrah, Astarte, Isis and Osiris, Sheba, Babylon, the Genii, the Magi, Nineveh, Prester John, Mahomet, and dozens more; settings, in some cases names only, half-imagined, half-known’.³

Egyptomania eventually became a daily experience and, while it ‘gave modern, mass-produced objects a sheen of luxury, exoticism, and exclusivity, Egypt could also be clothed in the ordinary, the everyday and the accessible. It was precisely this combination of resonances that made Egypt so marketable in British and American mass culture in the 1920s and 1930s’.⁴

There were myriad ways Egyptomania was ‘marketed’ to everyday life and women’s fashion. How best to show off one’s knowledge of ancient Egypt than by wearing a ‘Tut-ankh-Amon’ frock? How best to prove one’s understanding of Egyptian symbols than by sporting a scarab brooch? How best to ‘surround’ oneself with Egypt than by using a ‘Sphinx’ perfume?

Very little has ever been specifically written about Egyptomania as a trend in Western women’s fashion, and what exists usually focuses almost exclusively on the most famous chapter of the story, the post-1922 craze that followed the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The aim of this volume is to widen the perspective, analysing the diverse ways in which Egypt inspired the world of fashion in different historical periods and the reasons of the periodic peaks of popularity of the Egyptian trend, peaks that were not random, but that coincided with specific occurrences associated with Egypt.

The research traces the origin and evolution of fashionable ‘Egyptomania’ back to its roots, filling in the blanks of a narrative that began in the wake of the cultural mission of Napoleon’s savants. The cashmere shawls that arrived in Europe following Bonaparte’s disastrous Egyptian campaign were initially misunderstood as indigenous to Egypt and would become the status symbol of the fashionable ladies of the French Empire, together with the turbans so much in vogue in the early nineteenth century. In the late 1820s, even the arrival in France of a giraffe from Egypt sparked a fashion frenzy that was connected, however flimsily, with the land of the Nile.

A new Egyptian phase in Western fashions would begin with the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869, fuelled by the numerous important archaeological findings of the second half of the nineteenth century, a period that is usually defined as the ‘golden era’ of Egyptology. Not only clothes, but also accessories, and jewellery especially, benefitted from the variegated decorative repertoire of ancient Egypt, with scarabs, either authentic ancient ones or modern copies, being among the most popular ornaments of the ladies, and gentlemen, of the time.

At the dawn of the new century, more archaeological discoveries, such as those of the Italian expedition led by Ernesto Schiaparelli, would inspire a new wave of Egyptomania in fashion with evening dresses enriched by an iconographic repertoire that was as picturesque and eclectic as it was fanciful.

After the inevitable break during the First World War, another Egyptian climax, this time related to the success of Cleopatra and pharaonic-themed plays and movies, took place in 1920, just two short years before the most momentous archaeological discovery ever made on Egyptian soil. On 4 November 1922, the news of the discovery of the almost intact tomb of Tutankhamun spread like brushfire across the world, transforming, in a matter of days, ‘Tut’, as the pharaoh was soon nicknamed, from an obscure adolescent king whose existence was acknowledged only by a few specialists, into a household name with thousands of articles patented and trademarked after him. He was the first global media phenomenon of the modern world: newspapers and magazines published endless articles and special reports about him and about the untold treasures with which he was buried.

Paradoxically, from a purely scientific point of view, the discovery contributed little to the improvement of the knowledge of ancient Egypt since no written documents were retrieved from the thousands of objects that filled the sepulchre, but it is nonetheless remembered as the most important archaeological discovery of all times because of the unparalleled contribution it offered to the development of a new design style that would soon become a dominant Art Deco trend.

The veritable ‘Tutmania’ that would invest architecture, furniture and jewellery design, and, of course, fashion, was sustained by the innumerable ornamental possibilities offered by the precious objects found in Tutankhamun’s burial place: ‘flapper-style’ gowns were elaborately embroidered with beaded ‘Egyptian’ patterns, evening bags sported imaginative hieroglyphic decorations, brooches nonchalantly displayed ancient goddesses and ostrich feathers, like the ones found in the tomb, becoming the favourite trimmings for gowns and fans.

Interestingly, while the news was received simultaneously all over the world, given the possibilities offered by new communication media, the reactions were not similarly synchronized: while in the Unites States and Great Britain the fashion world reacted instantaneously, with an approach and timing that almost replicated that of today’s fast-fashion companies, exploiting and literally ‘burning’ the fad in a matter of months, other countries like France or Italy, were slower, responding to the trend with a delay justified by the couture quality of their designs

The Egyptian overdose of the Roaring Twenties, the severe decade of the Depression and, even more, the tragic years of the Second World War, would consign to temporary oblivion the flamboyant Egyptianizing style, which would remain largely dormant until the latter part of the twentieth century. It would then be Hollywood, and the epic story of Cleopatra interpreted by an unforgettable Elizabeth Taylor, that would bring the land of the Nile back into style, and in glorious Technicolor too, even if, in a world that was moving at a much different pace in comparison with the 1920s, the 1960s ‘Cleomania’ would fade even more quickly than the earlier ‘Tutmania’.

In the following decades and into the twenty-first century, Egypt would resurface frequently, but erratically, as a source of inspiration in fashion. No longer the effect of momentous discoveries or other Egyptian-related events, Egyptomania in fashion would appear instead as the result of the personal interests of fashion designers who would use and reinterpret different aspects of Egyptian iconography, religion and costumes. It seemed therefore fitting to opt in the final chapter for a thematic approach to interpret contemporary fashion collections through the references made to Egyptian antiquity and to identify some recognizably Nilotic themes – hieroglyphs (an easy choice), the protective wings of the goddess Isis, the bandages of the mummies, the bead net dress, the usekh necklaces, the snakes and the gold of the pharaohs – and analysing each of them from an Egyptian and historical perspective, describing the ancient symbology and use and then comparing it with specific examples of contemporary fashion collections in an enriching dialogue between past and present.

The chronological structure of the volume is interspersed with chapters, identified by Roman numerals, that go beyond a diachronic organization of the contents: they are dedicated to themes which cover more than one historical period and they can actually be read independently from the rest of the text.

The chapter dedicated to fancy balls, for example, begins with the Belle Epoque and ends in the 1920s, progressing from competitions between society ladies for the most realistic interpretation of the costumes of Cleopatra to students dressing en masse as an army of Tutankhamuns for a parade in the Roaring Twenties.

Another transversal topic deals with the fashionable, or not, travellers that explored Egypt during enviable extended stays in the country and with the wardrobes that accompanied them, which have been described through memoirs, early guidebooks and fashion magazine articles; particular attention is dedicated to the always-popular pastime of souvenir shopping, and in particular to the passion for Assiut shawls, a typical trophy to bring back from an Egyptian trip from the late nineteenth century until the 1930s.

The last of these chapters is dedicated to the endless variety of beauty products, from perfumes to soaps, from creams to makeup that, beginning from the early nineteenth century, would, in their marketing campaigns, take full advantage of the association with fabled Egyptian ‘secrets’ for immortal beauty, with the allure and the timeless charm of Nefertiti and Cleopatra: while the secrets were never actually revealed, they definitely held the magic power of enhancing the sales of pretty much anything, even today!

From the methodological point of view, I decided to focus on primary sources: luckily, nowadays, a great deal of nineteenth- and twentieth-century magazines have been digitized, so I enjoyed the privilege of reading literally hundreds of them from cover to cover from the comfort of my own home, losing maybe the emotion of the contact of the paper, but gaining in exchange an otherwise unprecedented access to printed materials in the United States, France or England that would have been impossible for me to consult in person, especially in this day and age. As a result of this extensive research, most of the materials, images and quotes coming from magazines and newspapers have never before been published. I also studied museum collections and photographic archives to compare the illustrations of the magazines with the actual garments or photographs, which helped me to better contextualize the clothes and the ways in which they were worn. Online sources and information coming directly from fashion brands were instead used for the images of the contemporary collections analysed in the final chapter.

It is my hope that Style from the Nile, with its mix of fashion history, archaeology, and a sprinkle of gossip, will accompany the reader on an exciting and very chic journey through a fascinating phenomenon that, to this day, continues to wield a mesmerizing influence on the world of elegance.

Venezia, 6 July 2021

Note: the name that recurs most in the text is Tutankhamun. I have maintained the original spelling in the quotes, which means that the pharaoh is variously called ‘Tut-ankh-Amen’ in the United States and Great Britain, ‘Toutankhamoun’ in France and ‘Tutanchamanu’ in Italy.

1

‘Soldiers, Forty Centuries Behold You!’

Napoleon, Cashmere Shawls, Giraffes and Early Nineteenth-century Fashion

A Legendary Adventure: Napoleon in Egypt

On 19 May 1798, a mighty fleet sailed from the French port of Toulon: the over 30,000 men who constituted l’Armée d’Orient were embarking in an enterprise that was, at the same time, grandiose, daring and … mysterious.

The participants in the military expedition were not, in fact, told the final destination of their mission until they had almost reached the shores of Egypt, a fabled land that was still largely unknown by contemporary Europeans. From a political standpoint, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, but by the late eighteenth century several European countries had begun eyeing this prosperous land that was considered ‘not belonging to anybody’,¹ attracted by its position as a crucial hub in the commercial routes to the East, which brought from there silk, rice, textile dyes and exotic spices, not to mention