Heba Serag Eldin: On Innovative Visual Merchandising and The Fashion Industry

Heba Serag Eldin, owner of Fashion Garage, one of Cairo's first online fashion retailers, and Fashion Funds fashion event and publicity, is breaking the mould once again, as an innovative visual merchandiser with strong intent to establish a platform for unconventional and versatile visual displays. The high fashion diva has already worked alongside fashion boutiques such as Amuse and The Dressing Room, and exclusively creates window displays and, soon in-store displays. Considering that not too many local boutiques acknowledge the importance of combining their layout features, Serag Eldin is hoping to inspire that conversion in the near future. “I studied at the Italian Fashion Academy as well as Central Saint Martins School of Art and so I'm very aware of the importance of merging window and in-store displays,” she explains. “The results of an all-inclusive theme in a store can be fascinating, however in Egypt we are not too keen on doing so, not yet anyway. So far I mostly work on seasonal and occasional window displays.”

 

A photo posted by The Dressing Room (@thedressingroomeg) on May 26, 2015 at 8:05am PDT

Serag Eldin is quite the controversial artist, from her paintings and photos, and all the way to the windows of fashion boutiques she aspires to create out of ordinary spectacles. “I like captivating designs, odd visuals that do not necessarily abide to the classical expectations of a theme,” she says. “For example, during Easter season for The Dressing Room I wasn’t going for the standard coloured eggs and bunny decorations or whatever. Instead I created a theme called Pets for Vanity; I got baby chicks (not real, of course) put them on a leash and had a mannequin hold them like they’re walking their dogs.” With more in the works, including an upcoming grand collaboration with Amuse and our very own MO4Network, she’ll be taking over the fashion scene even further in the near future.

 

"Baby chicks for pets, fashion vanity" our Easter window display by @hebaserag we love it! Don't you? #window #display #easter #fun #love #fashion #style #thespringfantastic🍍🍋🍯🍉😍🍭🌷🌼☀️💛

A photo posted by The Dressing Room (@thedressingroomeg) on Apr 3, 2015 at 8:37am PDT

“When I first came across windows such as those of Harvey Nichols and Selfridges I was instantly awe-struck, especially the 2012 Selfridges theme where each window hosted an artist with spectacular displays and quotes, and I just thought ‘my god I gotta do this’. They’re so bad ass and theatrical, none of that standard decorative stuff, and I still admire their work and check out their latest themes and windows to this day.”

Although very meticulous with her work, Serag Eldin is still inspired by pretty much everything she comes across, “It’s all relevant! Music, people and their surroundings, movies, it’s all stored in your brain and when it’s time to create you dig everything you need out of your memory and add your own personal element into it. It’s not just about the clothes, or the mannequins in a store, everything has to match, and evoke a sense of artistic completion, and I hope I get to soon enough incorporate everything I believe in, and studied, into my work.”

Check out Fashion Funds' Instagram here, and Heba Serag Eldin's Instagram here