Fashion Blogs

Many names with same or a similar face, let’s put it like this. A thwab, ‘Kandhura or Dishdasha resonates with the cultural milieu of Gulf countries. Circumstanced by harsh tropics, this garment took form out of necessity to provide the male folks with something comfortable to wear in everyday life. Warding off the incessant sunlight as well as hot and humid climate, an easy to wear light cotton attire comes in as a mandated need of the hour as the harsh climate does little to provide for smooth travelling under the sun. These circumstances thus demand for an attire which does away with the ardous task of multiple layers of clothes as required with any English garment.

Dishdashas generally not only ring in cultural reverberations but also brings together religious ethos of offering salah comfortably. The long robe like thwab extending from shoulders to ending right before the ankle comes with the cultural invocations of a bright head gear richly endowed with embroidery and is mostly crafted in cashmere or Cotton. This is known as Mussar. Another adornment of the ensemble.  And just as everything undergoes a paradigm shift so do these humble Dishdashas. Every state brings in something different to the attire and adds the local cultural imprint. Like an Emirati Kandoura which is worn with an inside T shirt and wozar is different from an Omani Dishadasha in terms of its pairing with a colourful head-gear and traditional khanjer at the waist belt. The Kuwaitis too call this attire as Dishdasha but Bahrain prefers it as thwab. The attires sport a front opening with a hidden button pallete. Generally they come in circular or mandarin collar works and are well cuffed to show one to two buttons. Needless to say, more often than not, buttons are replaced with precious stones on the collar cuffs or cuffed sleeves. Well one can say that these Dishdashas apart from being extremely comfortable in everyday walk of life lends itself useful even during the offering of salah owing to the flexibility of the cotton fabric, being a 'breathing' fabric.