The Risky Boys Turn Cairo’s Vibrant Energy Into Viral Fashion Shows

A red carpet unfurls on a street in El Matareya, a lively neighborhood in eastern Cairo. Locals gather along both sides of the narrow street beneath colorful Ramadan decorations swaying in red and blue patterns overhead and cheer for models strutting down the makeshift runway. The clothes — blue and green fabrics, purple checkered pants, denim vests, and pastel-colored scarves — are by Gozouur, a fashion brand that revives traditional Egyptian culture and aesthetics before they become shunned by classism.

Manned by Ahmed Atef and Mohamed Tarek, Risky Boys is a collective of models, stylists, art directors, and designers who have risen to fame with their impromptu fashion shows all over Cairo and Egypt in the past year. United by a love for fashion and the conviction that it is not a privilege of the elite but a means of self-expression for everyone, Risky Boys are creating aesthetics that are true to their working-class upbringing instead of trying to fit into an exclusive world. It has become a cliché thing to say, but this group is actually breaking boundaries.

Tarek, alongside the collective’s representative, Khaled Mitwally, speaks to OkayAfrica two days after the El Matareya fashion show, the second of four events they are organizing this month. Their third show will be held at a football pitch on March 20 and a circus on March 30.

“We’re a group of teenagers trying to democratize fashion,” says Tarek, who fell in love with fashion for its colors, shapes, and the art of grouping materials together in an untraditional way in the Egyptian fashion scene. When he says traditional, he refers to the Egyptian identity as seen through an outsider’s lens: Pharaos, pyramids, camels, and deserts. “We want to change this stereotype that we’re desert people who are not modernized,” he says. “We use materials from our environment [such as recycled family clothes and second-hand finds] to shape a new perspective and show that we have new ideas.”

The idea for Cairo Fashion Month came from the attempt to infuse the traditional fashion week, which does not exist in Egypt, with the colorful visuals and fabrics of Ramadan. “It’s from the people to the people,” says Tarek. “We went from being models to being creatives, dressing people in the same places that we grew up in and were shaped by artistically.” “El Matareya is like the projects in America,” explains Mitwally. “We’re trying to give back to the society and the atmosphere that raised us,” says Tarek.

How do Egyptians react to a group of boys turning their street into a catwalk? “Had you asked this question last year, I would have given you a different answer,” says Tarek. “Fashion in Egypt is only for the A class, but we shoot in simple places. So in the beginning, people were confused.”

Initially, the collective would communicate with, or in Tarek’s words, “convince” the people before turning their streets into a shooting location. Now that they have grown their audience in these neighborhoods, Risky Boys just show up and do their thing; everyone’s excited to cooperate and bring the spontaneous excitement that makes their videos so charming.

“They started feeling it, even if they don’t understand it,” says Tarek. “They appreciate that the youth are trying to make an impact through something artistic. It’s the nature of Egyptians: once they feel safe around you, they’ll help you until the end. They don’t ask for rent or commission; they just walk into our videos without asking. And that’s what we want.”

As is to be expected, others have tried to latch onto the collective’s organic success. Risky Boys don’t mind companies collaborating with them for commercial gain as long as they don’t infringe on their artistic spirit. “Once money is involved, the artistic spirit is killed,” says Tarek. “That’s why we only [directly] work with artists.”

On this journey, knowing that they are on the right track, the feeling of clarity has been Tarek’s favorite part. Risky Boys are dreaming big; they are only scratching the surface of their artistic and socio-cultural vision to show that every human being has an individual style. Will they turn Cairo Fashion Month into an annual event? “You can anticipate it at the start of any month,” says Tarek. “If we have enough facilities, we’ll make every day Cairo Fashion Month.”