New Hairstyle

Oman has managed to preserve much of its original culture, including the differing and colourful varaiations of regional dresses for women. Now more or less reserved for special occasions or hidden under black abayas, the traditional dress is being reinvented and influenced by the different regions brought together in workplaces and schools. The kind of jewelry once worn by women in Dhofar is now worn by women in Buraimi, ect. Designers of the "new " traditional dress are influenced by the other regions or other media, and this has always been the case in Oman, due to the import of Indian craftsmen and trade in Zanzibar, and a policy of welcoming foriegners as valued guests.
Traditional Muscat/a form of Al Batinah regional dress is constantly adapting, but has strongly influenced the perceived form of the 'national dress' along with the interior Ad Dakliyah region. Often worn for state occasion and by school children for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Al Batinah and Ad Dakliyah dresses could most commonly be considered the majority Omani dress.

Mistakenly referred to by expats and non-Omanis as "Hindu" or "Pakistani" influenced dresses, due to the predominance of the tunic top and sirwal, Omani pants, being tighter at the ankle, are in no way similar in cut to the churider pants of India, nor is the cut of the Omani tunic, though the embroideries of these dresses today, are predominately Pakistani and Indian due to the tailors originating from those countries in Muscat.

*In the 1900s it was quite common for the women of Muscat to wear the birqa face covering now more closely associated to Beduoin culture in other regions.*

Traditional Muscati dress consists of a knee length tunic dress and worn over sarwal /pants, a headscarf often fringed called waqayah or lihaf, worn under another longer rectangular scarf without fringe called the leso or a kanga by the Zanzibari/East African Omani population dependent on the textile used. Al Batinah and Ad Dakliyah Regional Dresses

Dresses of the Muscat and Al Batinah region also typically feature what are called zarrie laces running from the shoulder to the hem as a means of decoration, on the sirwal, and at the neck fastening of the tunic. This is also consistant from Muscat, Al Batinah, and Ad Daklihaya region/governates, only difference being Al Batinah and Ad Dakiliyah typically have a textile trimming the bottom of the tunic additionally called, I believe, the sinjaf??? Al Batinah usually use purple fabric to form the sinjaf traditionally, while Ad Dakliyah tunic styles are hemmed on the longer side, mid calf rather than knee length. Ad Dakliyah dresses ALWAYS include the leso and the yarn fringed warqiyah/lihaf, and this is the Omani style you will most often spot OPNO sporting.uscat style, are also, now being influenced by Western and Indian culture, as these artistic expressions below bear testment to:

Dhofari dress: The outfit worn by Dhofari women is made up of three parts: the sarwal (the trousers), the loose dress which is shorter in the front and longer in the back called abuthail "father of the tail", the shayla/headcovering. It differs from the regional dress of other parts of Oman, mainly because of the area's classical relation to the Hadramout Kingdom.
Traditionally, the sarwal were not worn in areas of Dhofar further away from Yemen, although they always WERE worn in Yemen. Today, however, women in Dhofar wear the sarwal when leaving the house. For more casual occasions they are made of cotton and for special occasions velvet, silk or another more valued textile, and often decorated at the ankle hem.
Daily worn, the abuthail dresses are made of cotton with no embellishment and with a shorter tail hemline as exampled in the below, albeit, the below being a highly embellished example of the shorter, more practical day-wear hemlines.For special occasions they are made of velvet and silk chiffons, and highly embellished with crystals or embroideries. Traditionally, black velvet was worn for the abuthail with edging embroidered with bright alternating coloured threads in pointed and straight lines. Though new styles have evolved, originally the dress had a square neckline with no sleeves, only openings in the side seams. With the back trailing behind and the front hemmed above the ankles, legend in Salalah says the dress evolved this way to erase a woman's footsteps. Of course, it wouldn't have been made of silk in the past, if the legend holds true;)
The headcovering in Salalah is traditional worn loose but is now securely wrapped, this having evolved from more Northern Omani styles.
Having just covered one of the most often produced traditional dresses reinvented by designers on the runways, after the Dhofari dress, the other dress most worn by my Omani friends who aren't ACTUALLY from Dhofar or Sur in Ash Sharqiyah region, is the traditional dress of Sur, the suri.

Ashsharqiyah Dress from Sur is traditionally of the same function as Northern Omani dress, consisting of a tunic dress and sarwal pants, but the way that these items are embellished is distinct to the region. While other Omani regions typically embellish the bottom of the tunic and its chest, this region only embelished the garment on the wrists and on the bottom hem of the Sirwal. Additional embroidery for the chest panel was left for the suri.
The suri, better described pictorially in its traditional form in this post http://howtolivelikeanomaniprincess.blogspot.com/2010/12/suris-traditional-sharqiyah-dress.html is a loosely woven (traditionally black) wide sleeved overgarment, usually extensively embroidered along the chest, and often minutely on the sleeve hems. It is worn over the embroidered traditional tunic and pants by pulling the sleeve edges up and over on the head so that they criss-cross eachother. This can leave the arms either covered to the elbow, or to the wrist, depending on how far back on the head the garment it tied/pinned. It may also be used to fully envelop the face. It is very breathable, and easy to move in and usually covers to the feet or ankles, unlike the shorter tunic worn beneath.

Barka Al Jig Baluchi dress- There are no concrete facts as to the origin of this design but popular opinion is that it originated in the city of Barka in the Al Batinah region. However, there are numerous other cities where the Baluchi women also wear this style.

Unlike traditional Baluchi dress with ruched siding seams at the waist, this dress is not worn beyond Omani borders, and the embellishments on the chest, wrists, and hem all demonstrate an Omani influence, including the two vertical lines that run from each shoulder to the hem.

This style dress usually includes a lihaf (headcovering), tighter sirawal than traditional Baluchi pants embroidered Omani style with laces and zarrie, and a mid-calf dress without set-in sleeves called a Juma. Similar to the Dhofari abuthail, it has side seam openings instead.

Although I could not find any pics of traditional Baluchi dress at this fashion show, I posted about it here:
http://howtolivelikeanomaniprincess.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-traditional-omani-dress-but-close.html

and this Muslim woman whose blog I enjoy also did: http://muhajabat.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/dress-of-the-balooch-women/

When I was new in Oman I remember being told by other expat women that you can differentiate all Omani's regions and tribes by their dress. Which holds true for traditional regional costumes for women in most cases.

But in the case of men's dishdashas, what colour they are, like the mustard dishdasha men are from this ____ region because it is famous for saffrron dye is how ridiculous this statment is.

Also, the different ways of wrapping musayrs? While some ARE indeed traditional, an Orange musayr worn in Sharqiyah a certain way denoting a warrior tribal ancestry ect, tassels on the musayr cloth most common in Dhofar, and the beduoin disdain for the embroidered hats called kumas, most of the time, different embroideries and colours and ways or wrapping the men's dress, are just an expression of individuality.

Mustard dishdashes do not a tribe make. ;)

BTW, I forgot to blog about it in the daily diary, but Oman's French Museum in Old Muscat just hosted a totally awesome collection of historical & haute couture bridal wear from France, and French Designers. http://main.omanobserver.om/node/29248 & http://gulfnews.com/mobile/life-style/beauty-fashion/trends-that-shaped-the-evolution-of-the-french-wedding-dress-1.726793

Thirty luxurious dresses from prestigious collections were exhibited to retrace the history of matrimonial fashion between 1810 and 2010, featuring the innovations of the most famous French designers including Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Chanel, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfelt, Paco Rabanne, Marcel Rochas, Jeanne Lanvin, Jacques Fath and Christian Dior.

It's not there anymore, but it was totally worth checking out. I loved loved loved the chanel one, and I remember finding the Victorian era dresses in Vintage shops in my city, as well as the vintage parasols and gloves.

Right now I working on sewing some traditional Omani wedding dresses, two of them, and eventually I will post pictures of different regional bridal dresses and customs. A virtual gallery of my own.

I totally understand WHY alot of Omani girls, especially my Muscati ones, forgo the traditional Omani dress in favour of the white wedding dress, as I wore one for my wedding here in oman, and it weighed a tonne. After a few hours in the warquiya (heavily bejewelled shawl) my headaches, and the embroidery and beading on the bodice was too much to move other than ceremoniously. And despite the dress being designer, designer as much as one can get in Oman, it had tacky sequins on it in places. I mean, the dress was nice, but not all that.

So decided to make my own. That LOOK as nice the Hindi tailored ones, but are COMFORTABLE AND BREATHABLE AS THE WHITE DRESS.

I was saying to my Omani friend S, "This dress, the embroidery and beading looks gorgeous, but in the end it's cheap hand work, and highly uncomfortable. If the same embroidery and beading was done on the dress by Lassage using French couture techniques, it would be comfortable."

Second quote of the night. "And sequins! No one but Chanel and Armani REALLY do sequins with class."

OPNO is a bit of a snob, she will be the first to admit, when it comes to clothes.

A review of the exhibit:

"...The genesis of the exhibition occurred with the French Embassy's desire to commemorate through the medium of fashion — one of France's greatest cultural exports — the 40th anniversary of Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed's reign in Oman.

It was thus decided that the wedding dress would be the theme, for the very nature of weddings and wedding dresses conjures up an atmosphere of gaiety and celebration....

The ground floor is thus largely dedicated to dresses from the 19th to the early 20th century while the floor above contains haute couture wedding fashion 1970 onwards.

One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition is that the wedding dresses do not exist in isolation. While the dresses are narratives in themselves, as in the actual dresses and fashion that dictated their appearance, the team also incorporated them into being part of a greater social narrative occurring over time. The decision to do so was in keeping with the exhibition's vision of playing with the idea of time. The specifically named rooms, such as the Cinema Room, indicates the impact moving images had on the world, allowing a moment to be relived, rather than be frozen in time, through the inclusion of a Lumiere brothers film reel.

Another room is dedicated to documenting the pictoral representation of wedding dresses over the past two centuries, etchings graduating to print and 20th-century glossy magazines. One also gets a glimpse of a doll that was used as a marketing and advertorial tool, with designers dressing it up in their creations and sending it to potential customers. The room reveals the preoccupation with the wedding dress, predicated upon the assumption that it would be the most important dress a woman would wear in her life, given the sanctity of the wedding ritual and marriage and the attention dedicated to it, albeit in changing media avatars over time."


Anyways, if you've never seen the French Museum (exhibits in french, arabic, and english) it open from Saturday to Wednesday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 5 pm to 8 pm and Thursdays from 10 am to 1 pm.


-Love OPNO (who loves many things, like fine French food, and haute couture---not the stupid niqab ban.)

A Suri is a loosely woven (traditionally black) wide sleeved overgarment, usually extensively embroidered along the chest, and often minutely on the sleeve hems. It is worn over the embroidered traditional tunic and pants pictured below, by pulling the sleeve edges up and over on the head so that they criss-cross eachother. This can leave the arms either covered to the elbow, or to the wrist, depending on how far back on the head the garment it tied/pinned. It is very breathable, and easy to move in and usually covers to the feet or ankles, unlike the shorter tunic worn beneath.