Fashion is a neglected subject in reception studies of ancient Egypt, with the exception of the Egyptianising vogue inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb (1922). Campagnol, a teacher of the history of fashion in Milan, goes beyond ‘Tutmania’ to survey Egyptomania in Western women’s fashion from 1802 through to the present. Her book is organised into six chronological chapters, interspersed by three thematic sections. The latter include an excursus about Egyptianising fashion at costume balls, stylish tourists in Egypt through the 1920s, and beauty ‘secrets’ from the land of the Nile.
Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801) and its publications inspired Egyptomania in architecture, art, and the decorative arts. An early example in textile design was Les Monuments d’Égypte, by Oberkampf (1808). However, Kashmiri shawls bought in Alexandria as souvenirs for Napoleon’s wife Josephine were mistakenly dubbed ‘Egyptian’, and became popular in early 19th-century French fashion. Fabric colours named after Egypt were introduced in shades of green, blue-green, and umber, with pale yellow inspired by the Egyptian giraffe given to France in 1827.
The inauguration of the Suez Canal (1869) resulted in Egyptian-inspired gowns (not illustrated), but the premiere of Verdi’s Aida, with costumes designed by Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, seemingly did not influence fashion. From the mid-19th century, popular Cleopatra-inspired fashion and hairstyles demonstrate marketing persuasion, but Campagnol acknowledges that these were Egyptian in name only. Egyptianising jewellery of the period featured sphinxes, gods, heads of pharaohs, scarabs, and hieroglyphs. This obvious Egyptomania in jewellery was not matched by the fashion couturiers, and the author should have discussed this discrepancy.
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