Designing Women

Designing Women

This morning we visited the Qatar branch campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. On the Qatar branch campus they offer majors in design, including fashion design. We heard a brief talk by the head of the fashion department. I couldn’t help but wonder how big the fashion industry could be in a country where all the local women wear abeyas and shaylas (the black head to foot covering) whenever they go out in public. But what do I know? Apparently the woman still care about fashion. First of all, they wear designer shoes and carry designer handbags. They also add all sorts of embellishments to their abeyas, so that they can end up costing thousands of dollars. (This is interesting, since I believe the whole point of covering up is to minimize the emphasis on women’s appearance).

But the real purpose of fashion is to dress up for other women. So when the women are together in private, it’s time to strut their stuff. And they pull out all the stops up at weddings. Wedding celebrations are segregated by gender. That means women can and do wear whatever they want, which is usually over-the-top glamorous (and revealing) designer clothes.

It’s important to look good at weddings, because they are prime locations to hunt for a mate. They do this not by impressing men (who aren’t there), but by impressing potential mothers-in-law. Older women are generally the ones who do the match-making. Weddings provide an opportunity for the mothers to check out the available stock of young women. If they like what they see, they might arrange a meeting between a young woman and an available young man. (This process is dramatized in a work of Saudi Arabian Chick Lit by Rajaa Alsanea called Girls of Riyadh.) If all goes well, another wedding will take place. Then women will have an opportunity to dress up again and thus keep the local fashion industry alive.