Integrating Egyptian Traditional Dress Elements through Eco-Friendly Fashion Practices for Women's Wear in Kabale Municipality

The global fashion industry is currently in crisis as two threats threaten its very existence; the first is destructive environmental degradation resulting from the industry’s unsustainable production practices while the other is the loss of indigenous cultural identities due to the dominance of Western cultures and designs. Therefore, this research sought to investigate intercultural design by incorporating Egyptian traditional dress elements into sustainable women’s wear in Kabale Municipality, southwestern Uganda. Using a descriptive qualitative case study design under an interpretivist-constructivist paradigm, the data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews, observation and artefact analysis from a purposively selected sample of 18 subjects as fashion designers, consumer women, cultural experts and textile artisans. The research revealed five dress elements that can easily be fused in intercultural designs in Uganda which include; lotus, scarab and ankh symbols; white, gold and blue pictorial colours; free-flowing silhouettes; natural textile colours and types; and eco-friendly technologies and materials such as organic cotton, banana fibre, bark cloth and natural dyes and five prototypes, including a lotus inspired flowing dress, a scarab symbol-embellished jacket and ankh symbol inspired tunic. The three prototypes presented received 94%, 89% and 94% positive responses respectively based on identity preservation, aesthetic quality and eco-friendliness. The presented designs demonstrate intercultural Egyptian-Ugandan fashion fusion as eco-friendly. The research enhanced knowledge on East African urban fashion design and offered conceptual guidelines for practitioners, educators and policymakers

Egyptian traditional dress, eco-friendly fashion, sustainable women's wear, intercultural design, Kabale Municipality, emotional durability

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