During the massive event, Meet d3, hosted by the Dubai Design District (d3), 90 designers from across the world, musicians, gourmet chefs, entertainers, and artists will be showcasing their creations in collaboration with the Dubai Design Fashion Council.
The three-day event will also include a very interesting Emirati aspect, embodied in the Evolution of Emirati Dress, an exhibition that focuses on the traditional clothing worn from 1960 to 2011, with an emphasis on the Emirati thawb and kandurah throughout this period.
Speaking at the event will be Dr Reem Al Mutwalli, who is the author of Sultani: Traditions Renewed, Changes in UAE Women’s Traditional Dress during the reign of Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1966-2004).
The book accurately documents important aspects of the UAE’s history as the modern state developed. Al Mutwalli describes the traditional clothing of UAE women as it has evolved during the past five decades, placing these changes in their historical, cultural, social, economic, political, and ethnic contexts. She traces the impact of oil wealth, urbanisation, access to the world market, and the pressures of globalisation on clothing and a conservative Arab-Islamic society.
Al Mutwalli has lived in the UAE since the age of five when her father was appointed economic consultant to the then crown prince, UAE President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Because of this, she was fortunate to have almost exclusive personal access to the ruling family and elite members of UAE society. This, together with the in-depth individual interviews and group discussions that she conducted, enabled her to collect first-hand accounts from people who have lived through the societal changes described.
tabloid! spoke to Al Mutwalli, who said, “[Clothing] has been important in preserving the status of indigenous women in the UAE, in the face of the overwhelming influx of an expatriate community”.
She also pointed out that throughout her book, aspects of traditional clothing are examined in relation to social status, competitive displays of honour, wealth and identity, convention, good manners, piety, and spiritual conviction.
She traces regional and other influences on design, and examines details about materials, decorative trimmings and motifs, terminology and techniques.
“I also discuss how the huge and rapid increase in wealth affected the development of dress manufacture, trade in textiles, and tailoring workshops.
“I examine certain lifestyles and customs, and see their connection with dress forms that have been rapidly disappearing. I study how culture, religion, identity, conformity and the changing role of women are evidenced through the dress worn by women in the UAE in this period, and put the present state of UAE women’s dress in the context of the broader Arab-Islamic world.”
These exclusive first-hand accounts formed the keystone to her study, in contrast to studies that use interpretations of archaeological finds or the analysis and views of those who have not had direct access to women in the UAE.
She was privileged to examine beautiful examples of carefully preserved clothing, many of which came from the private collections of members of the ruling family.
Interest in providing help was so high that an older form of dress, currently extinct, the gold-studded mask (burghu), was commissioned by Shaikha Hamda Bint Mohammad Al Nahyan for the benefit of Al Mutwalli’s book.
Shaikha Hamda was also the first to grant permission to photograph her own gold-studded dress (thawb), that once might have accompanied such a face cover, and graciously presented Al Mutwalli with a replica of it, opening the door for others to follow suit and allow her to photograph their dresses.
More recent examples and contemporary interpretations of traditional clothing came from the private collections of Shaikha Ushah Bint Shakbout Al Nahyan and Shaikha Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan.
Still other examples belonged to members of prominent families, such as the large abaya collection belonging to Asmae’ Sidiq Al Mutawae.
With the help of Abdul Illah Al Khunji, a comprehensive collection of traditional textiles used in the costumes of UAE women was sourced, catalogued, and photographed.
“It is almost impossible to find any traces of textiles in the UAE or remnants of costumes that date back more than 60 years or so. For the most part, fabrics are very fragile and they quickly deteriorate in the inhospitable climatic conditions characteristic of the area under study,” she added.
None of the local museums have any examples of such artefacts among their displays or within their collections. Clothing shown there are modern reconstructions of what used to be available. She also pointed out that the relative poverty of the pre-oil era forced the economical use of clothes and their constant recycling. Clothes were mostly worn to a point of disintegration, or handed to needy people.
Al Mutwalli concludes that “unspoiled segments were reused in making newer garments. Ironically, in the post-oil years clothing is still not being conserved. The abundance of materials and clothing being made for today’s consumers encourages the continuous discarding of garments in favour of fashion that changes by the season or even weekly.
“It is a pity that these modern costumes are not being preserved since many of them are elaborately embellished, intricately designed, mostly handmade, and costly. Many of them warrant some sort of conservation as works of art.”
Al Mutwalli holds a PhD from SOAS in Islamic Art and Archeology. She has played an important role in establishing a grassroots movement to support UAE art through her 16 years as head of the arts and exhibitions department at the Cultural Foundation (CF) Abu Dhabi, where she helped to launch and support the careers of many regional artists.
She established the first art workshop in Abu Dhabi, and directed various cultural and educational programmes to engage culture enthusiasts at all ages. She has also curated prominent art collections; among them the CF’s art collection and the private collection of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
She has published a number of books, some of which are references taught at universities; the first being Qasr Al Husn, An Architectural Survey of the Oldest Fort in Abu Dhabi (1995); Sultani: Traditions Renewed, Changes in UAE Women’s Traditional Dress during the reign of Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1966-2004) (2011); Sadaqah, a Guide to Philanthropy (2012); and Reemiyat, aseries of children’s picture books (2013).
