Thread: Have Egyptian costumes gotten smellier?

I've been buying Egyptian costumes for years, and generally when they are new they smell just fine. The last two costumes I have gotten from Egypt have smelled so saturated of stale smoke, I can hardly stand it. I got them from two separate sources, which I do not want to name so that I won't inadvertently do damage to those designers/makers. I just bought a fully beaded dress and for the first time, I dipped the whole thing in Woolite before I could even make the alterations on it, it smells that bad. Has anyone else noticed this trend? It's very frustrating to pay hundreds of dollars for something that smells like it's been lying in the corner of a tobacco-filled room for 6 months....

Hm. I recently bought an Egyptian costume and it didn't smell at all.
(It does now because I danced in a smoke-filled lounge yesterday... ..g.: )

On the other hand, I bought two identical skirts in Bombay 1,5 years ago. I made one really wide skirt out of them, so I had to open the seams, sew them together and alter the border on top. And the material smelled so badly of chemicals (probalby the dye) that my nose literally closed for a few days as if it didn't want to take that stink anymore!
I had to wash it twice I think...

MEISSOUN

Interesting... because I was trying to make the alterations last night and my nose started to stuff up, so I stopped and washed it. Incidentally, when I washed it the water turned BROWN! Yuck... It smells like smoke rather than chemicals, but maybe it's the chemicals in the fabric that hold onto the smoke? Lovely....

Maybe it just depends on the smoking habits of the particular seamstress who works on each particular costume. Do we have to start ordering them "smoke-free" like hotel rooms? LOL

I've heard that practically EVERYONE in Cairo smokes, so in a situation where a designer has several dozen people sewing for them, your costume may spend days in a room with several women, all of whom may smoke. I'm not sure that there's anything we can do about it, since it's a cultural thing - do you think the designers would ban smoking in their workshops?

I ordered a costume from Turkey, and it smelled of smoke when it came out of the box, too, so it's not just Egyptian costumes. I think that the attitude towards smoking is just different there, and I'm sure they don't even think about the smell that it's leaving behind.

Oh I know there's nothing we can do about it... I was just kidding about ordering smoke-free...lol

I'm just wondering if somehow the set-up has changed so that some of the costumes are being exposed to much more smoke than before, being handled less carefully, etc. I'm sure the smoking habit isn't new in the Middle East, yet my costumes did not used to smell smoky at all before. Are they working in more enclosed environments? Are there many more seamstresses in the rooms together rather than just a few? It seems like something may have changed.

Perhaps it's because as the demand has gone up, the volume of costumes they are making has shot up, and they are working in huge rooms with many smokers rather than small rooms with just a few. One of my costumes came from one of the current, popular Egyptian designers, so it's not limited to the cheapo ones...

Brown water? EEEEWWWW!

Incidentally, how well did your costume come through the wash?

There's an expression "he smokes like a Turk" and it's not there for nothing....

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

Brown water? EEEEWWWW!

Incidentally, how well did your costume come through the wash?

I'm unhappy to say that after washing it and baking in the sun for two hours (inadvertently - we're having a heatwave and while I left the house the temperature went to 90 degrees fahrenheit) I cannot yet notice a lessening of the smell. Perhaps when it cools down...

I'm thinking that the fabric they used must have sat in a warehouse full of smoking people for a couple of years...

it must be really disappointing to receive a new costume with a stale smoke smell attached to it. I haven't noticed any changes, but I haven't bought any new costumes from egypt or turkey last year. Some of the designers have people beading in their own home, so maybe the seamstress working on your costume had a lot of smokers in her house.

Our troupe costumes that we got last October had a bit of a smell to them, but once they were out of the box and in open air for a bit, they were fine.

Try the vodka/water spray - soak the inside liberally. You may need to do this more than once. I dance in a cigar/shisha cafe and it usually takes 3 liberal sprayings to remove the cigar smell. Once dry and unsmelly, hang it in a small room with a few sticks of incense.

Originally Posted by damiena

Try the vodka/water spray - soak the inside liberally. You may need to do this more than once. I dance in a cigar/shisha cafe and it usually takes 3 liberal sprayings to remove the cigar smell. Once dry and unsmelly, hang it in a small room with a few sticks of incense.

Have you used the vodka on thick swimsuit lycra? I just want to make sure it's not going to do anything to the color. If I soak the inside, it will soak all the way through as most of the costume is just fabric with beading on the outside.

I was also thinking of trying the kitty litter....

I've bought stuff in Cairo over many years, costumes and other clothing, which almost always smells smoky. If you can't wash the item, you have to hang it up where there's a good flow of fresh air, such as a back porch or balcony, in a room with windows open, for several days. If you wash an item and it still smells smoky, try washing it again if it's safe to do so. Otherwise hang it up in freely circulating fresh air.

15 day's ago was at Cairo and visited the workplace of a specific costume maker.
I'm a smoker, well, i couldnt breath !!! in that place, it was cloudy of the smoke !!! for me was a miracle how they sew the beads having same time the sigarete between the small finger and the beside that one, without burning anything !!!
I dont believe we can do anything about it, its a culture thing...
Maria Aya

...and we all notice the smell more as our societies become more non-smoking.

As a 17 year old I worked in a bank ( no smoking up top) but the rest room was a cellar and it was like descending into an opium den. you couldn't see across the room as we all puffed and coughed away.

The last shipment of skirts we got from India smelled like goat. I would have preferred smoke. :)

Originally Posted by Lilladancer

Have you used the vodka on thick swimsuit lycra? I just want to make sure it's not going to do anything to the color. If I soak the inside, it will soak all the way through as most of the costume is just fabric with beading on the outside.

I was also thinking of trying the kitty litter....

I use the vodka/water on all my lycra costumes without a problem. You can always test a small spot or an arm/headband if you are worried.