Quote

The great thing about Cairo is the vast majority of women wear some kind of head scarf, but they are also very fashion-conscious. They love bright colors.

My mother never put an emphasis on looks. She let us grow up on our own time line. She never forced any beauty regimen into my world.

I was like most teenagers. I wanted to look more conventional - you know, to just be the pretty girl in school.

Certainly, I am writing as a 21st-century woman, so I am much more inclined to view her as a three-dimensional woman. I think we keep coming up with this stubborn problem of a woman being judged by her appearance rather than her accomplishments. We are much more inclined to ask: was Cleopatra beautiful?

I never wore full-on eyeliner in high school, but I wanted to.

When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio?

With guys I revere, like Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, their look is less about style than purpose and the expression of beauty. It wasn't just about being noticed, you know?

Fashion hasn't changed enough yet. There's too much a stereotype of beauty.

To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.

There is one universal truth: All women, all over the world, want to look beautiful. That is always the theme of my designs.