Fashion for the less active kind of man? Photograph: Egyptian Picture Gallery. Copyright: Historylink101.com 
  

I thought it must be a joke when I first saw it on Twitter, but apparently not. It's the Zahi Hawass fashion collection – named after the comical Antiquities Minister who is Egypt's answer to Indiana Jones.

The Hawass menswear line "seeks to capture the spirit of a manwith a very rich personal history", according to Art Zulu, the New York design and branding company that developed it. 

Its blurb continues: 

"Exploration and adventure are the undercurrents of this collection, and each piece is designed with a utilitarian approach. The ZAHI HAWASS line is carefully crafted to convey a sense of time and place...

"ZAHI HAWASS is a novel fashion line not just for the traveling man, but the man who values self-discovery, historicism and adventure. Rich khakis, deep blues and soft, weathered leathers give off a look that hearkens back to Egypt’s golden age of discovery in the early 20th century."

The collection was photographed last year in suitable surroundings when the King Tut exhibition (and Zahi Hawass) visited New York.

In a blog posting, photographer James Weber describes his experience shooting in the museum at the dead of night with no visitors present. "It’s hard to try and train your body to stay up and focused for such a long time after you’re normally in bed," he says.

"One thing that no one counted on was the music. It was the kinda creepy instrumental music that the museum plays all day … well it played ALLLLL night as well. We couldn’t turn it off. At about 5am we all started getting a little loopy ..." 

Loopy, indeed.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 15 April 2011.