Men's Fashion

Everywhere you go in the Kingdom you will see Saudi men wearing the traditional Thawb and the head cover. I’ve always find them intriguing and like to observe the different ways of wearing the Shamag and the many cuts of the seemingly simple thawb. Here below is a very easy to understand description of the various components of the traditional Saudi dress for men, adapted from http://www.saudiembassy.or.jp/DiscoverSA/TC.htm

The Thawb is the full-length, loose garment with long sleeved made of cotton or a polyester mix. The color is usually white. However, in the winter, you can see some in darker colors such as brown, navy blue, black made out of wool for warmth.

The Taqiyah or Kufeya is a small white cotton hat worn directly over the hair. Wearing the taqiyah keeps the headscarf from slipping off the head.

The Ghutra is a square shaped cotton fabric, folded diagonally to form a triangular shape. When worn, the Gutrah is also folded from the front. Men wear their gutrah on the top of Kufeya. Some men wear theirs directly over the head.  The typical color of Gutrah is white.

The Shumagh is similar to the Ghutra, except that it is embroidered with white and red threads. . It is folded into a triangular shape and placed on the top of the head. 　

On top of the Ghutra or Shumag, a doubled black rope-like cord called igal is worn in order to hold ghutra in place. Igal is generally made of tightly woven black goat-hair and sheep's wool.

For special occasions like wedding, the men wear a bisht over the thawba.  It is usually made from cotton or camel/sheep wool and comes in many colors like black, brown, gray, and cream color. Bishts are trimmed with beautiful golden embroidery.

Every man is very particular when selecting their thawb.  Tailors all over town stock shelves after shelves of the similar looking white fabric used for the making of the thawb.  I cannot imagine having to select just ONE fabric as they all look and feel the same to me!  Same goes for the selection of the shumagh.  Stores sell them in nice boxes and although they all look the same, they are different in texture, thickness of the fabric, even designer as Yves Saint Laurent, Dior and like are producing designer shumagh!

Once the different pieces of their wardrobe selected, it is time to put it all together.  And again, although it could look like a uniform, men have acquired their own style of folding their shumagh... just check out these three Saudi men, who were standing next o each other...all alike but all different!