Dress for women

2000

This colourful dress with bat sleeves is worn by Saudi middle class women and is from the Zad collection. Zad is a Saudi women's clothing brand founded in 2011 by Saudi designer Zakia Attar. Thobs and abayas are sold under this brand name. The brand promotes itself as 'traditional with a twist'. The dress stands out because of its brightly colored fabric in blue, red and yellow with large blue and pink roses and because of its batwing model. The sleeves have gold piping. The brightly colored fabric with large flowers refers to Bedouin heritage, and to textiles worn in the Asir province, a province in southwestern Saudi Arabia. This type of dress is worn by middle-class women in the evening with guests, both family and friends. Due to the obvious reference to Bedouin heritage, not everyone from the upper middle class would want to walk in it.The dress was purchased at the Zad store in the Red Sea Mall, a large shopping center on the outskirts of the Saudi port city of Jedda. This center houses businesses with locally and internationally produced high-end brands as well as branches of the Spanish retail chain Zara. The Zad shop has a diverse range of products: on one side of the shop hang abayas from formal to casual, on the other colourful dresses or thobs. The fabrics have different inspirations: there are fabrics in English Laura Ashley style, fabrics that remind of traditional dresses from India, but also dresses with colourful floral designs that refer to the Saudi Bedouin heritage like this dress. Over it, women wear a black abaya.