Egyptian costumes

Many regions contribute to a wide variety of Egyptian costumes...

Siwa

Women would wear a long colourful dress, 'Tob', covered by a transparent black poncho type tunic with their ankles showing. Lots of heavy silver jewellery is also worn including heavy silver anklets. The men of this area traditionally wear trousers with a vest, a colourful woollen poncho and a woollen hat.

Egyptian costumes from the Southern Oasis'

Has a similar costume to the Northern Siwa Oasis, only not as much jewellery is worn. The men here wear a vest over a galabeya or Koftan and a stall around the head instead of a hat.

Northern Egypt (Mediterranean)

The women of this area wear short colourful hand embroidered skirts, reaching to just below the knees and embroidered colourful knee length boots. They would sometimes wear a scarf around the head though the rules of covering the hair and face are not as strictly followed here because of its location and hence greater influence by western civilization. The men of this area wear a Koftan, a stall - a cloth wound around the body and then draped over the shoulder, and a red hat.

Egyptian costumes from the Sinai region

Women here wear a floor length black dress embroidered with mainly red thread, sometimes yellow and other colours. A long Kanaa (length of cloth) around the waist, and an embroidered face and head veil called a Bora, embellished with coins. Facial tattoos of lines and dots are local to this area. The men wearing a Koftan or galabeya, a black stall around the head, goatskin shoes, and in winter a waistcoat or cloak.

Red Sea Mountains

Here the men wear a galabeya or Koftan with two belts crossing over their chest to holster their swords.

Why not now go from learning about Egyptian costumes to learning how to belly dance?