In the beginning I did not trust.
My grandmother always says that acrylic is bad, your skin doesn’t breath. Cotton is better.
Then I tried microfiber t-shirts, bought at Decathlon. For 5 or 6 euro, you will have a t-shirt that doesn’t soak in sweat, it’s easy to wash, it dries in a flash and it could be folded into your trousers pockets.
I’ll let my grandmother try them, sooner or later …
The keffieh
Strolling through Damascus and peering in nooks and in less beaten tiny streets I ran into a keffieh pack shop.
Keffieh packing shop in Damascus
The keffieh is the traditional Arab men’s headdress, used from Yemen to Jordan, from Syria to Saudi Arabia, from Bahrain to Oman, resulted in different styles.
Me wearing an arab keffieh
For example, the all white one is typical of the Gulf countries, the white and red is used by the Saudis, Syrians and Jordanians. That black and white one, perhaps the most famous, of course, is Palestinian.
Moreover even the agal, the circle used to keep it, changes according to the Sirian keffieh. In Iraq is thick, huge, in Jordan the threads that compose it are all intertwined. In some parts of the Gulf is colorful.
Cutting of the fabric
This does not imply that the inhabitants of a country wear only the headdress originary from the same place. Everything depends on one’s own taste.
Me wearing an arab keffieh
And there are also modern keffieh, such as a very stylish one I saw in a fancy shop, cream coloured with purple geometric designs.
The keffieh was born with practical purposes: to protect from sunlight and to cover the eyes and mouth from the wind and deserts sand.
Me wearing a beduin keffieh
Regarding to geometric patterns, there are two basic: one resembles a fishing net, the other grains. It seems that they come from Mesopotamia times.
Sirian keffieh
