RIYADH, 18 October 2006 — If you have not yet gone to the tailor to make a new thobe (the long white robe worn by Saudi males as a national dress) for Eid, don’t bother. Tailors are most likely to tell you that they are not accepting any more orders.
It is part of the Eid tradition for Muslims worldwide to buy new clothes to commemorate the end of Ramadan, and with Eid approaching, tailors are bogged down making thobes for their customers in time.
“We do not accept any orders for Eid thobes a week before Eid,” said Shahid Mahmoud, a Pakistani thobe tailor in the capital. “The only exception we give is to a VIP customer,” he added, referring to customers ordering in bulk.
Mahmoud said that it usually takes a day or two for a thobe to be ready to be worn after it is tailored. “But during Ramadan, we usually ask customers to pick them up after a week due to the large volume of thobes being made before Eid,” he said.
He said that customers usually tailor three to four thobes for Ramadan before Eid and then return a few months later to make another couple of thobes.
Mahmoud said that 100-percent cotton is still the most popular, with customers preferring the soft comfort of cotton to synthetics (less prone to wrinkles) or pricey and delicate silks. Thobe wearers still prefer collars to collarless necklines, but the more traditional open sleeves — as opposed to dress-shirt sleeves with buttons or holes for cuff links — are becoming more popular, says Mahmoud. Off-white colors with a touch of yellow are also in vogue. But stark white still dominates.
Abdul Aziz Al-Qahtani, a customer in a Riyadh tailor shop, says the thobe is a reflection of a man’s character.
“A thobe reflects my personality and I make sure it has nothing awkward or that draws unnecessary attention,” he said.
The modern thobe resembles a long Western-style fitted dress shirt with a collar and a chest pocket. Traditional thobes have a Nehru collar, open sleeves, and a baggier fit. Thobe lengths also vary. Some thobes are fitted in an elegant length that nearly completely cover the sandals. Conservatives in Saudi Arabia tend to have shorter thobes, ascribing to a Hadith about preventing your clothes from dragging on the ground.
Khaled, a Yemeni salesman in a thobe shop on Riyadh’s Thalatheen Street, said that he charges SR80 to tailor one thobe, not including the cost of the four to five meters of material needed to cut a long shirt. “The more expensive the textile, the more expensive the thobe.”
Prices for the fabric usually ranges from SR100 to SR400, putting the price of a tailored thobe much higher than readymade ones, which cost about SR75.
Khaled says he employs mostly Pakistani tailors. According to him, they have a reputation for being the most experienced at tailoring thobes. “They’ve been in this business for decades,” he said.
Customer Al-Qahtani said he usually has three or four thobes made every other month. “But due to the importance of Eid, I make sure my thobes are made way before time,” he said.
He said he chose cotton textiles and the dress-shirt-style thobe that is the norm of Saudi office workers.
“I usually choose a collar with the buttons displayed,” he said. “I apply this to all my thobes because I wear them to work and I need to be official,” he said.
Al-Qahtani said he did not favor thobes that have special decorations on them, such as embroidered trims. “I’m not into that stuff. I wonder sometimes where youngsters get these ideas,” he said.
