Let's talk Fashion, again....

In Fashion as a social Science (view my previous post "Let's Talk Fashion" here) there is a classical theory which
states that Fashion is a product of the Western world. Thee are a few other theories, but it happen that I personally subscribe to this one and few others...
I ll explain: first, and foremost, the world only have Western people creating any theories, if at all, about Fashion, so far. We have yet to see someone from the Middle East or Africa showing up with a Fashion theory. Why is that? Simply because in simple societies like those, they have worn ethnic, traditional dresses who hardly changed, and when/if it did, it took centuries, plus, if I may add, there isn't anyone from those parts of the world that we know about (scientist) interested in the process and  to analyze and dissect it, as we do here, in the West.
There is someone like Joane Eicher, for example, who has enunciated lengthy theories about how calling some outfits as "ethnic" or "traditional" is insulting to begin with and it should be unacceptable. I personally see her as uber-liberal, almost radical, and I don't care about her theories. I am deeply comfortable with using the term ethnic, as well as traditional, and I believe that it's a incontestable fact: those exist. And where those exist, you can hardly talk about Fashion.
Yet, I do have a hypothesis....

My hypothesis is compiled of two (I-II) parts, which are interchangeable:

Part I

“Fashion” of Saudi Arabia (which, by the way, I found it to be fascinating), Arabian Peninsulas as well as of all other Muslim countries is slowly moving away from certain traditional ethnic beauty enhancements  as those nations take their place in the modern world. And it’s most  likely, that  in the next 20 years to see less of those practices, or the traditional ones, if still in practice, would suffer modification and alterations which will bring them more towards the way we know Western Fashion to be:

Western women's influence on beauty culture of Arabic & Muslims women

Example: Of all the ancient methods of ornamenting the body, scarring is the last practiced today. And it is self-explanatory, why is this so. 

Part II

Simultaneously, the West is going to adapt certain particulars of the Arabian beauty culture bringing them into their fashion and westernizing themAt first, those will be regarded as exotic or different, and then , some might even become, mainstream.

Example: Henna is now popular in the West as a hair dye and/or conditioner. Initially it was used in the powder form, as the Arabian women do, but now the messy part has been taken out of the procedure, by incorporating it in the composition of shampoos and conditioners, as a way of the West to acknowledge Henna’s benefits and it’s wonderful results it had on those who have used it for centuries: namely, the Arab and Muslim women.  Although, some women, myself included, believe that using it in its natural form produces better results, yet it is very time consuming process and could also require quite an effort to apply it on the hair:

Arabic and Muslim women's influence on Western women

MY RESEARCH METHODS:

Conversation with other authors through their published work via: books, journals, magazines & print, in general, as well as digital publishing, blogs, Internet.

HAIR

For Saudi women, and even for men, hair has always been important as a mean of expression in traditional Arabian culture.

An Arabian women’s hair generally looks very beautiful, with a not too fine, or too strong texture.  Traditionally it is worn long and kept lustrous. Yet, very few Western people can see this because it is considered a sign of modesty to have it covered when out-of-the-doors.  While indoors a married women may allow her hair to fall free, but never for a girl who have reached puberty.

There is an exception: while dancing, the hair is deliberately loosened. There are accounts about Bedouin dancing women loosening their hair. But women of all ages and tribes of Saudi let their hair down when performing a dance and are completely relaxed even in the presence of men. When the music stops, almost embarrassed they have to cover their hair again:

A fully covered Afghan woman, today

Now, just draw a parallel in your mind with Lady Gaga, who walks around in her underwear, and people call her "brilliant" ! And then ask me why do I think she is just an awful exhibitionist?...Anyway, West society is been so spoiled for so long, that being in the middle between those two extremes has became somehow unappealing, or maybe plain borring...

So, let's move on with my hypothesis....

According with American Bedu  (blog written by a former American diplomat who was in the US Foreign Service for 20 years, currently married and living in Saudi Arabia - "more power to her!", my personal add notation): “in fact, when someone is in Saudi Arabia, you never know how many women wearing their abaya have an application of henna on their hair. But the assumption is that their hair is always long..".

IS THERE DRESS FASHION (of the Traditional veiling)?

According to St. Petersburg Times –“Inside Saudi Arabia”:

“Women who uncover their hair or faces in public are less likely these days to receive a disciplinary lash from the mutaween, the religious police. And men and women who aren't related have become a bit more relaxed about meeting for coffee, especially outside the "Bible Belt," as Saudis jokingly call their ultraconservative capital, Riyadh".

This statement reinforced the classical theory that Fashion only appears in a progressive society, and directly reflects the correlation between Fashion as an expression of the society. The changes in the society are losing up the strict ethnic dress in Saudi, and as a result Fashion makes a vague appearance. The simple fact of having a choice, either to cover their hair or not, it can confidently be called fashion.

The veil and veiling is referred to in Arabic as hijab.

Beside the dance ritual as described above, women might appear unveiled in public in times of crisis, as a symbolic act of their distress and to metaphorically show their helplessness. Or, as well, women in mourning appear unveiled during the funerals.

In the West, we regard veiling as a female seclusion and, par excellence, during the last years we came to associate it with Muslims and, in particular, with Islamic fundamentalism.  It has been a case in France, in 1989, when a group of African Muslim girls showed up at their public school wearing veils, with their heads covered with large scarves, which is considered a Fashion of Now-Islamic dress. This particular incident was viewed by the France authorities as breaking the law of Republic of France about separation of Church and State and it stirred an enormous scandal, generating a national debate which extended to the entire Francophone world.  It generated countless headlines in newspapers and magazines, next to an avalanche of books which have been printed since this incident. Some of the best known are: “The Scarf and the Republic”, “The Veiled ones of Islam”, “Veiled Women, Fundamentalism Unmasked”, “Beyond the Veil”, or “Behind the Veil in Arabia”.

The result was that veiling at public school has been banned in France.

This incident is the perfect example of the clash of the traditional ethnic dress with the modern world , when those two encounter. And it came to sustain my initial theory, that slowly this will disappear or it will be altered  to such extent that will almost became fashionable, as we know  Fashion to be (meaning reflecting the society and its changes).

 Historian have looked back at the last two centuries and have concluded that native Christians and Jews, leaving in proximity of the Arab and Muslim women, must have been the first intermediaries between the foreigners, and their western influences, and the locals, and their traditional, ridgid costume. The Christians and Jews were credited with influencing slowly and definitely the Arabic women to adopt certain symbolic manifestations of modern (western characteristics).

This change supposedly appeared at first in their manner and lifestyle, only after, was  followed by changes in the way they dress.

As Daniel Schroeter explains in his book “Merchants of Essaouira: Urban Society and Imperialism in Southwestern Morocco”: it was first "the Moroccan Jewish merchants , who had foreign ties, to provide a modern education  for their daughters, which, of course, had to expose them to the Western values and tastes", as part of their “civilizing mission” as the author calls it.

 And so appear that the abandonment of the veil was a progressive process, with women, especially those with an Western education, first wearing Western, or at least Western influenced clothing, indoor, while still going in public in full or modified hijab.

If you had gone to Brooklyn New York today, and saw the Hasidic Jews, you would  have probably never credited the Jews with being such a "fashion forward" at some point in their history, right?

Hasidic Jews, Brooklyn NY

The abandonment of the veil by Muslim women came much later and more slowly than I the case of the Christians and Jews. This was also due to the fact that both Christian’s and Jews’s veiling were not so austere, quite the opposite, it allowed great room for jewelry and  personal adornment and differentiated one women from the other:

Moroccan Jewish woman, cca 1900s 

The entire process of veiling abandonment reinforces Alvin Toffler’s theory in his famous book: "Future shock” that “minorities experiment, while majority cling to the forms of the past” . Here, as in many regards, his theory is still sound at work.

According with Yedida Kalfon Stillman in her book:  “Arab Dress from the Down of Islam to Modern Times – A Short history”, Egypt was the first major battle ground of modernization between social traditionalism and social reform. And, as the history proved us, just a month ago, Egypt was the first ground to witness an Arab street revolution:

Egyptian Muslim woman, cca 1900s

 Egypt also gave to the Fashion history one of the most notable events to mark the modernization of traditional dress, when a famous feminist, Huda Sharowi, cast her veil into the Mediterranean when she returned home from a women’s congress in Rome (oh, those Italians again....drive us crazy with their amazing Fashion styles...they must have done it to her, too).

Paradoxically enough, today Egypt is known to be a great center of both: modern and traditional Arab culture. The veil practically has disappeared for many upper and upper middle class women, but it remains a big and ridged tradition for the petite bourgeoisie.

However, as we speak the veiling in public it is not a matter of the past. In countries like Saudi Arabia (where to this day, veiling is enforced by law) , Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Afghanistan veiling is practiced by the majority of women; and it remains the traditional attire, mainly for poor and the lower-middle class. The upper class, would wear it, only for public or private ceremonial occasion.

How sad is this:

Afghan woman today

 There are many so called "distortions" of the traditional dress, where a Saudi women would go to a very fashionable mall while wearing her ethnic dress accessoriesed with a Yves Saint Laurent ($1600+) handbag, and wearing Burberry's sunglasses ($200) , which are as modern as the current year runway, and even in the western world are considered high-end luxury….

A Saudi woman at the Mall

Here is a close-up at the bag, from Nordstrom: 

CONCLUSION:

This brings us back to my theory, that categorically, due to the impact with the Western world which began two centuries ago the traditional ethnic Arabian dress  is being "squeezed", so to speak.

Most definitely this compression it’s been a very slow process, it is continually happening, and almost imperceptible from one year to another. It took a few generations and a perspective look of the Fashion historians to realize there in an uncontainable change, which could be confidently called fashioning of the traditional garb.

And we all hope so, because new markets need to open up…..right?

And why have I said 20 years? Because the Internet, satellites, digital media, traveling, education, wars, American & English soldiers stationed all over the places…, etc have speeded up the process…..

Long reign Ms. Fashion!!