Fabulous Full Figures, Part 2: Leyla Lanty

This dress was designed to be worn without a belt, but Leyla's hip and other measurements can vary as much as an inch or so as time goes on. This prompted her to make a very narrow black stretch sequin belt to secure the hip line on days when the dress fits too loosely for her hip movements to show without a belt.

Red Melaya Leff

This playful ensemble was another creation from Mahmoud el Ghaffar at his atelier "El Wikalah" in Cairo. The photo below was taken by Leyla's dear friend Marcia Morris Conklin:

This dress was designed specifically to be used for the malaya leff dance, a saucy, sassy, "street" dance from Alexandria. The malaya leff is really the name for the very large rectangular black veil which the dancer wears completely wrapped around her body over the dress when she enters the stage. As she dances, she takes one end and then the other off and twirls it around, drapes it over one shoulder or arm and then the other, and so on. It's the dance of a young lady who, under the guise of "going out shopping" is out looking for men with whom she can flirt and maybe marry.

Here's how Leyla describes it:

"This dress is 'off the rack' except for the bodice. It fit my hips and my height, but the bodice was too small. 'No problem', they simply opened the side seams, removing sequins and beads as necessary, inserted a gusset, then added back the decoration plus an extra flower or partial flower as needed."

Although Leyla no longer has this particular dress, she still considers it a flattering style for nearly every body type, including hers. So, given that she felt it was flattering, why doesn't she have it any more? Here is her story!

"Immediately after buying the dress, I arranged for a private lesson with Raqia Hassan, one of Cairo's top teachers, to learn malaya leff. It was a lot of fun to learn, but after returning to the States, I found the extremely saucy style of this dance, often including gum chewing and some extra large moves, to be not very comfortable for me. It just wasn't my style. That was obvious in the puzzled looks on audience members' faces each time I tried to perform it. I've since sold it to someone who can handle the style

The copyright of the article Fabulous Full Figures, Part 2: Leyla Lanty in Middle Eastern Dance is owned by Shira. Permission to republish Fabulous Full Figures, Part 2: Leyla Lanty in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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