Kuwait-Style.com

River Island is selling chumq for KD7.500. Do you find this as laughable as I do? Apparantly this trend has been sweeping the world since early January. I guess I was hidden under a rock somewhere while all this was happening. Or maybe I was distracted by the fact that it’s our country’s national headdress and men all around me were wearing them as they went about their business. This isn’t the first time the chmaq has been the subject of a fashion trend. So the international world decided to play it safe and keep it as a scarf, how many years ago did Kuwaiti girls design and then walk around in skirts with the chmaq pattern? Do you remember? Thankfully it was a passing phase but only a few seasons ago girls were sporting bags made out of that material. That habba was popular throughout the Gulf. Now the West has caught on.

Earlier this year Urban Outfitters marketed the “keffiyah” (as it’s known abroad) as anti-war woven scarf. Reportedly, Pro-Israel groups protested against them because these keffiyahs are usually worn by people supporting the Palestinian cause which in turn caused Urban Outfitters to issue an apology and pull the product from their stores. However, several accounts point to the contrary. While the product is no longer on Urban Outfitters website some people are still finding it in stores across the U.S and is being sold in the UK stores. The only similar product to be found currently on the U.S. site is the plaid fringe scarf that you can see on the right.

I find it fascinating that a simple chmaq can cause all that fuss. People do like to stir the pot, don’t they? I think Kibum Kim writing for the New York Times (Source) summed it up best writing, “The kaffiyeh appears to be the dubious successor to last year’s Che Guevara T-shirts, a symbol denuded of any potent political associations by pop culture.”

Achmiqa worn by men in the Gulf countries are usually white or red. The black ones are associated with Palestinians. Colored ones, like green and blue, became fashionable after a time but I don’t know how they came to be. If you do, leave me a note in the comments. I’d like to know the story behind those.

In an unrelated note, first we had the نعال نجديه and now the male-style sandals are in style for women to wear? These are from STEPS and are being sold for KD29.

Note: Chmaq is the same thing as Keffiyah. And the plural form of chmaq is chumq or achmiqa.

Source 1 - Source 2 - Source 3