The clothing and textile industry has always been a major player in the Egyptian economy with one of the most well established garment manufacturing companies in Egypt, Bishara (BTM & MARIE LOUIS) maintaining its growth and success in this field.

Over the past 15 years of HE magazine’s publishing history, the magazine kept a close eye on the Bishara company’s success and achievements and we are staying with our practice by conducting an interview with the company’s innovating force, world fashion designer, Marie Louis Bishara.

You just organized a fashion show at the Citadel in Cairo, why did you select such an unusual place and what are your comments on the event?

The reason is that we are trying to bring our history to Egyptian exhibitions. There is suffering in the tourism industry therefore we wanted to change this idea. We wanted to show that we are peaceful and that we are coming back to the world, we also wanted to strengthen the image of Cairo. I did this event in Cairo instead of Paris to show that Egypt is safe again. This fashion show is dedicated to the Rotary Club who are helping society.

The show was beautiful, we introduced for the first time a young Egyptian singer, her name is Nesma Mahgoub. The collection was about the 20’s and 30’s with accessories. Nesma was singing wearing one of the collection and waiting for the rest of the collection to come by. There were three lines at this event which made it different than any other; Marie Louis, T by Marie Bishara; evening wear and Jeans line.

What are the expected colours of this summer and for the coming Autumn?

Very pure and white colours, very light and romantic colours; electric blue, fuchsia, turquoise and bright red. In the evening you can find pastel colours, pale pink, pink and black, blue and silver, grey and beige with gold.

Next autumn you will find; striking yellow, pink, high violet and black. There are also nice off whites, beige, camel and steel grey.

What do you think of fashion industry now in Egypt comparing to some years ago and what are the current obstacles facing fashion industry today?

I would not call it a fashion industry I would call it the young emerging designers who studied fashion recently and are very talented. We did not have them five years ago. We are expecting and hoping in some years to host an international fashion week in Cairo.

As for industry challenges, we should attend technical schools which could teach the methodology of good quality product, beautifully manufactured. A great problem that we don’t have a variety of good fabrics made in Egypt , it is better creating factories in Egypt for the fashion industry instead of importing which is a very long and expensive cycle.