Body glitter and pleather

There is a surprising variety of lingerie in Cairo once you start looking. In downtown, the lingerie ranges from silky negligée pajamas to pleather dominatrix gear.

The international lingerie store Victoria's Secret recently came to Cairo in 2013, but there has been varied and flourishing lingerie business in Cairo for years. None of the downtown stores sell international brand names like Victoria's Secret or Calvin Klein, but the majority of the lingerie pieces are cheaper and easier to find.

Stores downtown generally look pretty similar. They tend to be two stories tall, and feature a male owner sitting behind the counter as two or three friendly young women help customers out with their choices. The lingerie is displayed openly in the windows, although most stores sell dresses or other items along with the lingerie.

Most of the lingerie downtown was imported from either Turkey or Syria. The owners of the two lingerie shops that agreed to speak to Mada Masr were both Syrian. They left Syria before the 2011 uprising and the ensuing violence, and both said they were still able to obtain lingerie from back home, despite the political turmoil. 

One of the stores, Bahaa Makki (the name of a well-known Turkish lingerie brands), located on Qasr al-Nil, also sells silver and gold body glitter, flavored lube, and glitter to coat your lips. It’s not difficult to find sexual aids like lube and condoms in corner shops in Cairo, but finding playful things to go along with sex can be trickier. Although Bahaa Makki’s selection was limited to a couple of glitter tubes and lubes under a glass counter on the second floor, it was still an unexpected find.

According to Shorouq, one of the three young women working in the shop, one of the most popular items in the shop are the costumes, which include sexy nurse outfits and sexy firemen (or firewomen, in this case).

Basher Mekky, the owner of the store, says that the pleather dominatrix-style costumes produces by the Erotica brand are also quite popular. The costumes usually consist of pleather bodysuits constructed out of thin straps and black mesh, which show off the breasts and the crotch. The costumes come in all sizes, although the most popular is medium-large.

He says that “sexy” pieces have gotten more popular in recent years, although he wasn’t quite sure why. It could be a combination of two factors, Mekky says: Women want something that is special for them and will stand out as unique, which the flashier costumes and lingerie pieces offer; and secondly, style has changed in general. Mekky explains that in the past, sexier lingerie was not available, but it makes sense that women want to buy it now that it is.

Omar Mohamed Sobhan, another Syrian proprietor of lingerie shops on Qasr al-Nil, says that most of the people who come in shopping for lingerie are collecting it piece by piece, so when they get married they will have a large collection ready. He says that girls as young as 12 come into the shop with their mothers to pick out pieces, although when they get older, from around 18 upwards, they make most of the choices themselves.

Mekky says that around 60 percent of the women who come into his store are buying lingerie for their wedding night. Along with the racier bodysuits, he also sells a rack of lacy white dressing gowns and sheer flowing slips that he says are suitable for the morning after the wedding.

But Shaimaa, an 18-year-old woman working at Sobhan’s shop, adds that women as old as 60 also come into the shop seeking lingerie. Shorouq says that the clientele at her shop ranges in age from 18 up to women in their 50s. All women — whether dressed in niqab, hijab or unveiled — buy lingerie, the two women explain, although Shaimaa says that foreign women are the most likely to buy the racier outfits, like a bright red mesh body suit lying on the table.

Another hub for lingerie is Shehab Street in Mohandiseen, where slightly different variations of await.

The most glorious lingerie store is Saxon, whose owner declined to be interviewed and asked that no photos be taken. The store is hidden in an innocuous residential building next to the McDonald’s on Shehab Street.

There are no signs pointing to the store, and we had to ask guys hanging out at the kiosk across the street to find it. It’s on the second floor, and the entrance is lined with mannequins in various “character” costumes. There’s a mannequin wearing a sexy army uniform (glittery camouflage Lycra with the eagle of Egypt adorning the shoulder), and the perpetual sexy pleather dominatrix outfit.

The store has a wide variety of lingerie, ranging from everyday beige bras to underwear with plastic apples and tassels hanging off the bottom. There was even a piece of underwear with a feathery bird head attached to the front.

Saxon is an institution and has been around for 25 years. Unlike the lingerie stores downtown, most of the lingerie here is made in Egypt. The prices range from approximately LE50 to LE300, depending on how complex the piece is. Most of the costume items, despite being made out of cheap material, are at least LE100.

Another store, Display, sells masks, feathers and funny masks along with the sexy lingerie. A different store by the same name — which was run by the same man, who declined to give his name or be interviewed — was once one of the only sex stores in Cairo. The current owner of Display says the original sex shop shut down due to lack of business,  as most people buy sex toys from the internet.   

None of the lingerie stores seem concerned about being shut down due to conservative concerns. Display’s owner is nonplussed at the suggestion that the original sex shop may have been shut down by the government.

“There was not enough business,” he explains.

Mekky also seems taken aback when asked if he was concerned about being shut down.

In the window of his store, there’s a belly-dancing outfit with a diaphanous yellow skirt and a matching sparkling yellow bra. There are also a number of sexy slips and dresses in the window. “This is normal,” he says, gesturing to the items. “Everybody does this, everybody puts sexy underwear in the window. There are no problems.”

The shop owners said they weren’t aware of any precedent for shutting down lingerie businesses for morality reasons, and aren’t concerned about a perceived lack of morality in their displays, since their clientele mainly consists of married women.

On the classier end of the spectrum, the lingerie store A to Z sells bras and underwear made out of higher-end cottons and material. There were still costumes and nipple tassels sold discreetly in a corner on the side, but the store puts more of an emphasis on the understated, less flashy lingerie than any of the other shops.

In A to Z, three young girls in their early 20s are browsing the selection. They gather to talk about an item, and then later, outside of the shop, their purchases are discretely bundled up into pink-striped boutique shopping bags.

Yasmine Bamieh, the store’s visual merchandiser, says the store distinguishes itself by selling “good quality for good prices.”

But at A to Z, like other stores, the Erotica brand with its skimpy bodysuits is still the most popular. Bamieh says she thinks these are popular because while people want to look conservative on the streets, looking sexy at home is still important to a lot of women.

“Underneath the niqab,” she explains, “the way they dress is not so conservative.”