LONG before the coming of Islam, women in the Middle East were in the habit of wearing an outer mantle when they went outside their homes. This old tradition still prevails in much of the Arabian Peninsula and to this day, the black ‘abaya’ is worn as an outer garment by all women in the Kingdom. For many years the typical ‘abaya’ was a double square, 150 centimeters in length and width, consisting of two lengths seamed together horizontally at the hip line. The shape, characterized by an absence of side seams and selvedges sewn together on the shoulder line, carried narrow slits for the hand holes. The ‘abaya’ was then simply decorated with black cord at the edges, along the shoulders and at the wrist and sometimes trimmed with lace.
The arrival of expatriate women in the Kingdom, especially during the economic boom of the late 70s, helped transform the ‘abaya’ into a more functional garment. Most women who went out shopping in those days would tie up the long sides of their ‘abaya’ into a clumsy knot. This prevented them from tripping over the dangling flaps. Gradually, buttons and zippers appeared, enabling women to wear the abaya like a light coat. And finally touches of color began to appear on this outer wrapper which reminds us that before the plain black abaya, Saudi women’s black cloaks were embellished with gold.
Diala Kabbara is part of a growing number of designers who are interested in reinventing the ‘abaya’. She began by designing abayas for herself. Her original abayas immediately attracted the attention of her friends who were bored with their plain black abayas and welcomed the opportunity of wearing a trendy one: “Wearing a stylish abaya makes you feel good. I imagine myself in each one of the abayas I design. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and I come up with a new design.”
Diala admits that she loves black; it goes with any color. She readily adds touches of bright pink, red or silver to her abayas: “Whatever color you combine with black is all right.” She specializes in customized abayas to suit a woman’s changing needs: “I have formal abayas that can be worn for weddings, seminars, social activities and everyday abayas for shopping or working.” One of her flagship creations is an abaya fitted with stretch sleeves for working women. Many women in the Kingdom wear an abaya while at work and require a comfortable mantle without long sleeves which are not practical.
What Diala Kabbara calls a ‘formal abaya’ is similar to a long evening coat. When fully embroidered, it is a work of art. To design an exclusive ‘evening abaya,’ Diala works closely with her customer to choose the pattern and the colors to be embroidered.
It must be remembered that the Kingdom has an ancient tradition of embroidery. Arabian women took great pride in embroidering; it gave them enjoyment as well as great personal satisfaction. Almost all their clothes in the past were embroidered by hand. While all Arabian embroidery is beautiful, the finest examples of needlepoint come from northern and western Arabia.
A Diala Kabbara abaya is anything but classic. “Classic is boring” she says with an infectious laugh. She admits she is an aficionado of the little known but genial Antique Batique designs. She loves fashionable and stylish trends and blends them with her own ingenious ideas. A recent display of her latest collection in Riyadh featured an original abaya studded with metal hooks and enlivened with a vivid fuchsia pink trim. With a Chinese style abaya, Diala Kabbara reminded her loyal fans that few can compete with her in terms of creativity. No longer satisfied with their own trendy abayas, Diala’s customers asked her to start designing fashionable abayas for teenagers and even little girls.
She is aware that there are plenty of abaya designers on the market but few are truly creative. “In fashion design, you must be artistic, imaginative and innovative. You also need to have lots of ideas and that is the most difficult because money cannot buy an idea. All my abayas are fashionable and creative.”