Cultural Collision the Branded Abaya Christina Lindholm

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FSPC 1 (1) pp. 45–55 Intellect Limited 2014

Fashion, Style & Popular Culture Volume 1 Number 1

© 2014 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/fspc.1.1.45_1

Keywords

abayaveilhijabcoveringMuslimMiddle Eastern dresscouturedesigner

Christina LindhoLmVirginia Commonwealth University

Cultural collision:

the branded abaya

abstraCt

Conservative Muslim women from the Arabian Gulf region typically wear an all-covering black robe and headscarf, the abaya and shayla. These garments adhere to the Qura-’nic directive to dress modestly and to avoid attracting attention from male strangers. With the enormous profits from oil and natural gas, many Muslim women have engaged in personal expressions of wealth and status through dress for decades, wearing haute couture beneath their abayas. As the region modernizes with education and careers for women, the desire for self-expression has spread to their outer garments and these opportunities have been seized by both regional designers and international couturiers. This article discusses the rise of the branded abaya.

Few issues in Islam and Muslim culture have attracted more interest – and yet proven so susceptible to stereotyping – as issues involving women.

(Esposito 1998: xi)

Designer logos and branded clothing are a recognizable and popular sight in Europe and America. Their status-giving appeal is now spreading to ethnic forms of dress in several parts of the world including the Middle East, where traditional styles have remained little changed for decades, if not centuries. With increased global interaction through travel and international mass media, these garments are undergoing external influences and moderniza-tion at many levels, including branding. To discuss the significance of branded Middle Eastern dress, it is imperative to understand the enormous differences between these cultures and Europe and America.

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The Middle Eastern cultural traditions that expect or require Muslim women to wear a covering and a concealing dress is a mystery to many westerners. The origins and history are not understood, nor are the cultural reasons for its continuation. Significant confusion revolves around the unfamiliar terminology of hijab, abaya, chador and burqa, to name only a few. The term veiling is politi-cally loaded and has created issues from news articles to governmental inter-vention; yet, even the basic term ‘veil’ itself is not well defined. In various locations it is a headscarf, a facial cover or a robe concealing the entire body. Most Muslims who ‘cover’ or ‘veil’ cite the Qur’a-n verse Sura XXlV:31:

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their ornament only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands fathers, or their sons or their husbands sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slave, or their male attendants who lack vigor, or children who [know?] naught of women’s nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.

(Pickthall 1976)

Thus, women are admonished to actively avoid attracting attention to them-selves. In these conservative societies, women are carefully chaperoned, most marriages are still arranged, often to a cousin, and unrelated men and women simply do not socialize together. They do not date, live together or engage in any activity that might bring shame or dishonour to their families. While seemingly restrictive by twenty-first century western standards, these behav-iours are not so very far removed from arranged marriages in Europe and America in the not so distant past.

Muslim Arab women in the Arabian Gulf region address this directive to be modest and deflect male attention by wearing their ubiquitous all-covering black robes and headscarves. These garments, the abaya and the shayla, are a modern reinvention of a centuries-old style, the ra’s (meaning head) abaya, an open square cloak worn atop the crown of the head and cascading down each side of the wearer’s face, covering the body. It was held closed by hand and often worn with a mask. In Muslim countries where women were usually secluded in the home, abayas allowed a woman to appear in public without concern about unwanted attention from male strangers. The abaya protected a woman’s privacy and modesty and her family’s honour. It signaled that the wearer was an observant Muslim and there was a tacit cultural agreement that men would accord abaya-clad women respect and distance.

Women have worn concealing clothing since biblical times. According to Noor Al-Qasimi (2010: 47) the abaya originated in the eastern region of what is now Saudi Arabia.

Everyday ra’s abayas were made from either cotton or wool, with the rare special occasion abayas made from silk. These abayas often included embroi-dery around the front openings and down the front edges using gold wrapped (zari) thread. Najla Al-Wahabi (2003: 40) states this changed ‘during the 1950s and 1960s [when] increased trade led to an influx of synthetic silk fabric, mainly from France and Japan’. The ra’s abayas were and continue to be a simple garment made from a rectangle of cloth that has the cut ends folded, nearly meeting at centre front and stitched along the selvedge edges to form a


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1. Market or shopping area.

shoulder seam. If needed, the abaya could be shortened by adding a horizon-tal pleat at the hip line. Conversely, a longer abaya would feature a horizontal seam at the hip, joining two lengths of cloth. Small tailor shops existed in the larger town souqs1 to make and sell abayas, while women living in the smaller villages obtained ready-made abayas from itinerant abaya sellers.

Interaction between the Arabian Gulf nations and Europe and America esca-lated rapidly after World War II. Oil revenues launched several of these nations to almost immediate and enormous wealth and led to the adoption of many western practices. Education and international travel became far more attainable and popular for citizens of the Middle East. Beginning in the 1950s, traditional Middle Eastern dress was quickly discarded in favour of Euro-American fashion by both men and women who were eager to express their wealth and status. In ‘Makers, buyers and users’, Ann Smart Martin (1993: 141) noted that the late 1980s ‘promoted acquisition as a tool of economic growth and unrestrained consumption as the just rewards of those who had risen to the economic and political elite’. With control of the valuable oil market, the Arabian Gulf coun-tries were not restrained about becoming major consumers of western goods, especially fashionable dress. Mai Yamani (1997: 55) argues that women in Saudi Arabia were particularly encouraged by the Saudi Government to adopt Euro-American fashion as a vehicle for promoting evidence of national modernity and sophistication. It had the added benefit of erasing any lingering tribal iden-tity. Arabia, as a single nation under one ruler, had only emerged in the 1930s, and tribal loyalties to city-states were still stronger than national loyalties. By adopting western fashion, tribal affiliations were not as easily discernable and therefore less likely to contribute to a potential political coup.

This era of conspicuous consumption of Euro-American dress in the Middle East was somewhat short, lasting roughly from the 1950s to the 1980s. Education and employment allowed Muslim women a voice and many began using that voice to demand equal rights. Faced with cultural blurring, diminished control over women and the possibility of humiliation should the women do anything to damage the family honour, many Muslims embraced a more traditional, conserv-ative form of Islam. Mary Morris (1997: 158) identified these concerns as the basis for ‘Islamism’ and stated ‘The erosion of tradition has also led to uncertainty and anxiety, fear of losing cultural identity, and a resurgence of basic fundamentalist principles’. This wave of conservative Islam began in Egypt in the 1970s (Ahmed 1992) and made its way across the region. The main premise of the movement was a rejection of western secularization and a return to a more fundamental, religious way of life. Muslims embracing this ideology feel that corrupt western ways have no place in the Muslim world. They advocate Sharia/Islamic law and ‘the belief that Islam should guide social and political as well as personal life’ (Berman 2003: 258). As a result of this trend, by the 1990s, most women in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were once again wearing the abaya to express a culturally motivated religiosity. Although young women started the conservative Muslim dress movement in Egypt, it is not clear who was instrumental in the readoption of the abaya in the Arabian Gulf states.

The abaya that appeared in the 1990s features significant differences from the traditional ra’s abaya. It is a closed gown, worn over another set of completely concealed clothing. It is usually a lightweight, silky cloth of polyester or nylon and it rests upon the shoulders rather than the head. A woman then covers her head with the shayla, an 18’’×2' rectangular scarf that is wrapped around, covering her hair, ears and neck. The abaya and shayla may be paired with some type of translucent veil that covers the face partially


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or completely. These garments may render a woman completely anonymous, and are thought to adhere to the Qur’a-nic directive for modesty. This reli-giously imposed modesty serves as a control to prevent fitna, the social chaos that Muslims believe will occur when unrelated men and women mingle, and bring shame and dishonour on the woman’s family.

Since their reappearance, abayas are primarily made to measure by a tailor. The basic abaya is a simple garment opening with either a shallow neck slit so that it can be pulled on over the head or opening all the way down centre front and fastened closed with snaps. The fabric is always black and usually of a silky synthetic cloth. The simplest style has the sleeves cut in one with the body and the edges finished with black soutache braid. Abaya tailors abound in the Middle East and are often clustered in the same location with tailors usually males from Nepal or India. Being non-tribal members, tailors are not potential marriage partners; thus, Muslim women are allowed to interact with them.

Abayas began to feature subtle embellishment in the late 1990s. Black embroidery, appliques and other types of discrete decoration appeared and quickly evolved to more noticeable ornamentation including coloured beads, sequins and lace (Figure 1). Even the basic silhouettes changed to afford a wide range of choices and new collections appeared twice a year.2

Figure 1: Embellished abaya, 2007, Doha, Qatar. Photo: Laurence Koltys.

2. Interviews conducted in Doha Qatar by author, November 2008.


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The abaya has thus changed from a plain, utilitarian garment to a fashion object, joining the western fashion industry cycle of seasonal offerings and new trends. Abaya shops are now showrooms with racks upon racks of all the latest fashion styles. Customers may choose to copy an existing display model or work with the tailor to develop a garment that expresses their personal pref-erences. Not all custom-made abayas meet consumer expectations, although designs that are beautiful on paper or in the imagination may not prove to be flattering. As women in Qatar confirmed during interviews, some abayas are only worn once or twice before being donated to charity. Fashion has become an important symbol of status and modernity in the Middle East and wear-ing old, unflattering or dated abayas engenders the same disdain as similar awkward taste does in the West. Marjorie Kelly (2010: 215) explains that a woman ‘dresses to impress in the knowledge that one will be scrutinized by one’s peers and any dress code violations will be widely noted’.

In Brand.New, Jane Pavitt (2000) confirms the concept that identifiable goods are consumed for a variety of reasons, with status being one of the primary motivators. She writes ‘the product is promoted as a “sign of me” – a signal to others of our status, aspiration or personal values’ (Pavitt 2000: 16). Several Middle Eastern companies have been established in response to this demand for more elaborate and status-giving branded abayas. The obvious contradiction here is that while made to measure abayas are one of a kind and unique, branded goods are more desirable. Unlike the tailor system, where everything is made to exact individual specifications and a customer can order precisely what she wants, these business concerns offer collections of designer ready-made abayas and matching shaylas to a middle- and upper-class clientele. Although garments are made to order, stylistic changes are not accepted and the only adjustments allowed are for fit. They are generally more costly than a tailored abaya and the shops are luxurious showrooms located in the modern malls that are springing up all over the Arabian Gulf region.

Al-Motahajiba was one of the first branded abaya businesses, opening in 1982 with a small tailor shop in Doha, Qatar. It now has 36 stores in the Middle East and employs approximately 1000 people, including designers, tailors and retail clerks. All designs are produced in-house by a team of professionals from India, the Philippines and the Arabian Gulf. An Al-Motahajiba shop is spacious and elegant and offers samples to try on. Selections are made and the order is placed. Dary is a subsidiary of Al-Motahajiba aimed at a younger clientele. Like the parent company, Dary produces ready-made abayas and matching shaylas. Their logo is a discrete ‘D’ in small rhinestones (Figure 2). The price points are slightly less and the styles are slightly more trendy. The parent company reports an annual sales volume of ‘above US$100 million’.3

Numerous abaya designers have emerged since the turn of the twenty-first century. Most of these are women who actively promote their work by participating in fashion shows and Fashion Weeks around the Arabian Gulf region. Further promotion occurs on their websites and on Haute Muslimah and Hijabtrendz, blogs devoted to abaya fashion and aimed at Muslim women. Images from the latest fashion shows are posted and transmitted globally, thus communicating the lure and prestige of the brands.

Dutch-born and French-trained Judith Duriez opened Arabesque in the UAE in 2001. After attending the prestigious Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture de Paris, Duriez apprenticed at Chanel and worked in the Paris couture industry for ten years. Duriez moved to the UAE and offers bespoke tailoring and genuine haute couture design.4 Rabia Zargarpur also

3. http://www.alibaba.com/member/qa108039561.html. Accessed 19 February 2012.

4. http://www.arabesque-hc.com/designer.swf. Accessed 19 February 2012.


http://www.alibaba.com/member/qa108039561.html



http://www.arabesque-hc.com/designer.swf



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works in the UAE. Educated in the United States at the Fashion Institute of Technology, her debut collection of Rabia Z earned her the 2007 Emerging Designer Award at the Dubai Fashion Week. In 2008, she was the first winner of the International Young Fashion Entrepreneur and in 2009 she garnered a position on the Arabian Business News 100 Most Powerful Arab Personalities.

At the other end of the spectrum are the self-taught designers. Amina Al-Jassim is a Saudi Arabian fashion designer who began designing jalabiyas5 in 1984 under the label Dar Breesam Couture. She adapted her business to focus on abayas when the trend for jalabiyas declined as women adopted Euro-American fashion, and was the first designer to offer a fashion show on live models in Saudi Arabia. This occurred in her home as fashion shows are banned in that country (Wahab 2009). Omani Nawal Al Hooti also lacks formal training, but is earning a reputation for beautiful garments with tradi-tional Omani influences (Dahle 2011).

Several other designers are producing abayas for an international market. Emirati sisters Hind and Reem Beljafla offer the D.A.S. collection at Harrods in London. They are London trained in Interior Design and Fashion Design, respectively. The sisters work with a couture clientele to create abayas that coordinate with their Chanel, Dior or Hermes heels, ‘because they will be wearing the abaya in public where they cannot show a dress that would match with their accessories’ (Newzglobe 2010).

The emergence of decorative abayas has not been lost on the ever-re-sourceful international haute couture industry. In 2008 British couturier Bruce Oldfield designed a black silk taffeta abaya encrusted with $365,000 worth of diamonds. The garment was featured at the Saudi Gulf Luxury Trade Fair, which was held in London to help boost British exports. He stipulated that a percentage of the proceeds go towards benefiting Palestinian children. While

Figure 2: Rhinestone logo of Dary, 2008, Doha, Qatar. Photo: Richard Harris Photography.

5. Jalabiyas are the traditional loose gowns worn indoors or under the abaya. They are similar to caftans.


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he did not find the experience easy, stating ‘the most difficult challenge for me was to create a garment which did not follow the natural curves of a woman’s shape’, he is receptive to the concept of abaya design, saying ‘I have enough clients in the Middle East and if they ask me for them I’d be happy to give it a go’ (Walker 2008). This widely publicized abaya garnered international fashion industry news and alerted the haute couture industry to a potentially lucrative new market. While undoubtedly many Arabian Gulf women were already couture clients, the possibility of bespoke abayas opened additional revenue streams.

‘As Emiratis or women of the Gulf we are brand crazy, that’s something everyone knows about us!’ stated Badr al-Budoor at the Paris debut of a collection of haute couture abayas (Radsch 2009). In June 2009, the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, arranged a fashion show of luxurious and extravagant abayas at the Hotel George V Hotel in Paris. Participants included John Galliano, Carolina Herrera, Jean Claude Jitrois, Nina Ricci, Alberta Ferretti and Blumarine. At the fashion show, Dania Tarhini, the Lebanese General Manager of Saks Fifth Avenue, Saudi Arabia, told Agence-France Presse: ‘I realized that women in Saudi Arabia wear designer brands but have to cover up with a black abaya. I wanted them to be able to wear it with pleasure, not just as an obligation’ (Radsch 2009). The show was a smashing success, with the Riyadh Saks Fifth Avenue presenting the couture abayas to their best customers. These abayas were made from luxurious fabrics and featured heavy gold embroidery, beading, crystals, appliques and fine lace. Beginning Fall 2009, these internationally branded abayas became avail-able in the Riyadh store.

Pavitt (2000: 16) explored the increasingly global obsession with branded goods. She states ‘From cornflakes to cars, our daily lives are increasingly dominated by branded goods and brand names; the brand is the prefix, the qualifier of character’. Thus, Pavitt professes that branded goods are marketed in such a way as to enable the consumer to relate their personal attributes and desires through using the branded object. She comments ‘Goods and their messages contributed to the establishment of popular concepts of self-identity and individualism’ (Pavitt 2000: 30). This resonates with the wealthy Middle Easterners as they seek to establish themselves as individuals, apart from their historically strong tribal identity. Pavitt (2000: 38), and the essays by other contributors in Brand.New, explain how the evolution of brand messages provide an ‘assurance of quality’ and ‘makes use of already estab-lished codes of status, desire, fear and need’. In this manner, consumers are lured by brands that promise, through their glamorous advertising and pack-aging, access to romance, social success and/or a desirable lifestyle through their consumption.

Included in Brand.New is an essay by Paola Antonelli, Curator of the Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She states ‘Among all the promises that brands make to consumers, the “signature” of the designer is seen as a particular mark of distinction’, hence the endless use of initials as brand logos, for example. This distinction sets the consumer apart through her personal choices and confirms wealth, status and superiority of taste. According to Antonelli (2000: 52), ‘Signature and editioned goods are promoted as an alternative to the “mass-market”, by inference, in contrast to lower class and undesirable mass “common” goods, which do not carry these status-giving signature logos’. Thus, designer and branded goods reflect not only high levels of income and good taste but also exclusivity and identity


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with a rarified wealthy socially elite upper class. Couture abayas thus indicate that Middle Eastern traditions are valued and worthy of the couturier’s efforts. Pavitt (2000: 80) adds ‘In a world in which we increasingly form opinions of others based on what we buy, […] in many cases brands today offer us a reas-surance that what we purchase will be accepted by others’.

The entire issue of couture abayas denotes a significant change in the atti-tudes of the Paris couture industry towards the Middle East and of Middle Eastern women regarding fashion and style. In decades past, wealthy Middle Eastern women travelled to Paris to purchase high-end European fashion to wear under their abayas. Since 2008, the couturiers seem to be willing to design abayas and Middle Eastern women are evidently willing to wear them. This marks a major and significant shift in attitudes towards status,

Figure 3: Counterfeit Burberry, 2008, Doha, Qatar. Photo: Richard Harris Photography.


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cross-cultural design, making and consumption. Lou Taylor (2000: 123) explained in her article ‘The Hilfiger factor and the flexible commercial world of couture’ that the usual attitude of the haute couture industry from the 1890s onward was ‘couture clients will be found and then educated into the specific consumption etiquettes of the trade’. Now, some commercially astute designers and companies realize that they are neglecting a potential, wealthy market segment. With shrinking consumer bases and couture houses ever more dependent on their ready-to-wear lines, accessory and signature perfumes, creating an entirely new luxury product – couture abayas – for their wealthy Middle Eastern clientele presents a heretofore untapped and lucra-tive market.

Middle Eastern women are as deeply vulnerable to designer brand logos as all fashionable women are because of the status and international fashion modernity they imply. Along with the desirability of brands and recognizable logos comes the inevitable ‘knock-off’. Copyright laws are not well enforced in the Middle East for fashion items; thus, it is not uncommon to see familiar European designer trademarks in use on unlikely items. The Figure 3 Burberry plaid accented abaya was of a middle- to low-quality cloth and the abaya was inexpensive, ensuring that it was not an authentic Burberry product. Similarly, Figure 4 shows a large pink sequined Christian Dior logo found on the back of an abaya in a tiny tailor’s shop in Qatar.

Irrespective of the origin of an ornate or a branded abaya, the underlying issue of attracting versus deflecting attention has caused consternation among conservative Muslims. Clearly, logos are meant to advertise sophistication, wealth, social status and are designed to be seen. This is in direct opposi-tion to the main intent of the abaya that is to deflect attention. Despite being decried by various clerics, it is unlikely that the status-conferring branded abaya will disappear any time soon.

Figure 4: Counterfeit rhinestone Christian Dior logo, 2008, Doha, Qatar. Photo: author.


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referenCes

Ahmed, Leila (1992), Women, Gender and Islam, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Al-Qasimi, Noor (2010), ‘Immodest modesty: Accommodating dissent and the “Abaya-as-Fashion” in the Arab Gulf states’, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 6: 1, pp. 46–75.

Al-Wahabi, Najla (2003), Qatari Costume, London, The Islamic Art Society. Antonelli, Paola (2000), ‘Signature value’, in Pavitt, Jane (ed.), Brand.New,

Princeton: Princeton University Press. Berman, Sheri (2003), ‘Islamism, revolution, and civil society, perspectives on

politics’, American Political Science Association, 1: 2, pp. 257–72. Dahle, Stephanie (2011), ‘Middle East’s fashion week’, Forbes.com, 1 March.Esposito, John (1998), ‘Women in Islam and Muslim societies’, Islam, Gender,

and Social Change, Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and John L. Esposito (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. ix–xxviii.

Kelly, Marjorie (2010), ‘Clothes, culture and context: Female dress in Kuwait’, Fashion Theory, 14: 2, pp. 215–36.

Martin, Ann Smart (1993), ‘Makers, buyers and users: Consumerism as a material culture framework’, Winterthur Portfolio, 28: 3, pp. 141–57.

Morris, Mary (1997), ‘What do women want? Gender and politics in the Middle East’, Middle East Policy, 5: 3, pp. 155–90.

Newzglobe.com (2010), ‘Abaya couture at Harrods’, 15 July. Accessed 31 August 2010. http://www.arabesque-hc.com/designer.swf. Accessed 19 February 2012. http://www.alibaba.com/member/qa108039561.html. Accessed 19 February 2012.

Pavitt, Jane (ed.) (2000), Brand.New, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Pickthall, Marmaduke (trans.) (1976), The Glorious Koran, Albany: State

University of New York. Radsch, Courtney (2009), ‘Abayas get glam revamp from designers in Paris’,

Al Arabiya, 28 June. Taylor, Lou (2000), ‘The Hilfiger factor and the fexible commercial world of

couture’, in Nicola White and Ian Griffiths (eds), The Fashion Business; Theory, Practice, Image, Oxford: Berg.

Wahab, Siraj (2009), ‘Amina Al-Jassim: Passion for fashion’, Arabnews.com, 3 June.

Walker,Tim (2008), ‘Princess Diana designer Bruce Oldfield creates red carpet abaya’, The Telegraph, 14 August.

Yamani, Mai (1997), ‘Changing the habits of a lifetime: The adaptation of Hejazi dress to the new social order’, in Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper and Bruce Ingham (eds), Languages of Dress in the Middle East, Richmond: Curzon, pp. 55–66.

suggested Citation

Lindholm, C. (2014), ‘Cultural collision: The branded abaya’, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture 1: 1, pp. 45–55, doi: 10.1386/fspc.1.1.45_1

Contributor detaiLs

Christina Lindholm has served since 2008 as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies for the 3000 VCUarts students. This follows a five-year position as Dean of the VCU Qatar campus, where she managed the transition


http://www.arabesque-hc.com/designer.swf. Accessed 19 February 2012

http://www.arabesque-hc.com/designer.swf. Accessed 19 February 2012


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from a sponsored programme to the first official off-shore branch campus of an American university, and seven years as Chair of the Fashion Department at VCU. Lindholm earned her Ph.D. at the University of Brighton, and a B.S. and M.S. at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her area of research is the dress of the Middle East. She is a member of several professional organizations including the Textile Society of America, the Popular Culture Association and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Among her publications are articles in the Berg Encyclopedia of World Fashion (2010), the third edition (2002) of Dictionary of American History (Charles Scribner’s Sons) and the second edition (2002) of The St. James Fashion Encyclopedia (Visible Ink Press). She has served as a consultant to many companies, including Proctor and Gamble, DuPont, Play, Timberland and Olivvi.

Contact: Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, 325 N. Harrison St., Richmond, VA 23284-2519, USA.E-mail: [email protected]

Christina Lindholm has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.


mailto:[email protected]


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Cultural Collision the Branded Abaya Christina Lindholm

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