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Modern · Middle East & North Africa · 1900 - Present
Modern Middle Eastern fashion navigates a dynamic tension between deep-rooted sartorial traditions and an increasingly globalized fashion industry, giving rise to the influential modest fashion movement.
By Dan Schnau · Last updated
This page covers clothing in the Middle East from the early twentieth century to the present. In that period, governments in Turkey and Iran passed laws on what men wore in public, and Iran also ruled on women's dress, first banning the veil and later requiring it.1,17 In the Arabian Gulf, the thobe, a head cloth and the egal are the official national attire for men in Saudi Arabia, while the abaya has changed from a plain black cloak into a garment of fashion.3,12
Laws and decrees give exact dates. Encyclopaedia Iranica dates each Iranian dress measure, from a parliamentary bill of 18 February 1923 to a school ceremony on 8 January 1936.17 Photographs add detail: at the opening of telegraph service in Tehran on 26 April 1926, the Persians attending wore the sardārī (a frock coat reaching below the knees), European trousers and brimless egg-shaped hats.17
For Palestine, the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls oral histories and Palestinian photographic archives "the richest source of knowledge" about embroidery.26 The Textile Research Centre in Leiden holds over two dozen Palestinian thobes, the oldest from Hebron in the 1920s,25 and the RISD Museum holds a cotton keffiyeh from the Arabian Peninsula dated 1949.27
The historian Reem El Mutwalli founded The Zay Initiative, a nonprofit that preserves and archives Arab historical attire,12 and the de Young museum in San Francisco showed Middle Eastern designers in its 2018–2019 exhibition "Contemporary Muslim Fashions."19
The twentieth century brought dramatic shifts to Middle Eastern clothing as the region navigated colonialism, independence, and rapid modernization. In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's 1925 Hat Law required men to wear Western-style hats in public, ending the fez, and Kemal urged Turks to adopt Western dress as part of sweeping modernizing reforms.1 Iran saw similar state-driven changes: Reza Shah banned the veil in 1936, while after the 1979 Islamic Revolution the new government made the hijab compulsory for women, making clothing a flashpoint in political struggles over modernity, religion, and national identity.2
In the Arabian Gulf states, traditional garments maintained their prominence even as oil wealth transformed societies. The men's thobe (or dishdasha) — a long robe — and the keffiyeh (or ghutra) head covering, held by an egal cord, remained standard dress; in Saudi Arabia they form the official national attire, in everyday and formal versions.3,16 Women in the Gulf wore the abaya, a flowing black over-garment, which became a canvas for increasingly elaborate embellishment — lace, embroidery, rhinestones, and even experiments with color — and for designer labels.4,12
Across the broader region, the kaftan has been reinterpreted by designers who draw on traditional caftans while updating them with contemporary materials and embellishment — in Morocco, for example, couture caftan shows pair traditional embroidery techniques with innovative materials and beadwork.5
Turkey's Hat Law, described above, was passed on 25 November 1925, after Mustafa Kemal's speech at Inebolu, later called "The Hat Sermon."1 The day before the vote, three people died in Erzurum when soldiers fired on protesters, and at least 13 people were later executed.1
Iran's measures began earlier and moved in steps. On 18 February 1923, parliament required civil servants, cabinet members and deputies to wear Persian-made clothing during business hours, and that September the minister of war, Sardār-e Sepah (later Reza Shah), extended the rule to the military.17 On 26 September 1928, the cabinet resolved that all Persian men dress uniformly in Western style. Government workers and schoolboys were to wear the Pahlavi cap, a cylindrical hat with a bill; only the clergy and leaders of other recognized religions were exempt.17 The decree took effect in towns on 21 March 1929.17
During a visit to Turkey in 1934, Reza Shah ordered Persian workers to wear brimmed European hats, and a cabinet decree of 8 July 1935 made them compulsory for all men.17 At the school ceremony of 8 January 1936, the shah appeared with his wife and daughters unveiled and ordered all women to dress in the European manner. Iranica records that police enforced the order by force, tearing off women's chadors and headscarves. After the shah abdicated in September 1941, many women went back to the veil, but most educated women did not.17
In Egypt, the tarboosh, or fez, was worn by upwardly mobile civil servants who also wore Western suits. When Atatürk gave up the tarboosh for a fedora, Al-Azhar issued a fatwa against Western hats. Egyptian feminists put aside their veils in the 1920s, and in the 1930s parliament made the galabiyya, the long gown of the fellahin (farmers), the uniform of state-run provincial schools.22
In Egypt, the Free Officers' Revolution of 1952 settled the hat question: almost overnight, in Maria Golia's words, "tarbooshes were out, military caps were in." The 1950s and 1960s were the golden days of the galabiyya, when, under Gamal Abdel Nasser, galabiyya-wearing farmers were celebrated on postage stamps and magazine covers.22
In Iran, in the last two decades of Mohammad Reza Shah's reign (1941–1979), educated women followed the Western fashions of the day. As prosperity grew with the oil boom, men also adopted Western styles, and families spent a large share of their income on fashionable clothing.17
The RISD Museum writes that the keffiyeh and its head rope, the agal, came into wide use in the mid-nineteenth century and in the twentieth century became "badges of national identity in many countries of the Middle East."27 In Saudi Arabia, Reem El Mutwalli explains that with industrialization the abaya was made commercially and black became the norm, and that in the 1970s a lighter, sheer silk aba became popular.12 From the second half of the century, elite Muslim clients were also important patrons of the Paris couture houses.19
For Palestine, the Met's essay notes that the style of each thobe signified a woman's village, tribe or town and her marital status.26
In Iran, Iranica, writing in 1992, records that during the Revolution of 1978–1979 many educated women adopted dress associated with Islam as a symbol of opposition to the Pahlavi government. As the new state consolidated its power, all women were required to wear the "Islamic" mode of dress in public: a loose gown that left only the face and hands uncovered, with the head and neck covered by a black chador or a thick scarf (meqnaʿa).17
In Saudi Arabia, the seizure of the holy mosque of Mecca by insurgents in 1979 was followed by greater powers for the religious police, and the abaya, without color or decoration, became mandatory in public.12 The 1980s introduced the abaya Islamiyah, a tailored cloak slipped on over the head, and between 2000 and 2010 designers tried new cuts, with wide sleeves and "wings." In 2016 the religious police lost their powers, including enforcement of the abaya.12 Reuters reported on 27 September 2019 that the tourism chief, Ahmed al-Khateeb, had said abayas would not be mandatory for women tourists, but modest dress would be, including at public beaches.21
In Turkey, a ban on headscarves in the civil service was lifted on 8 October 2013. The ban stayed in place for judges, prosecutors, police and military personnel.20 In Oman, the Minister of Commerce and Industry adopted standard specifications for the Omani dishdasha in February 2017, defining five main types.23 Among Palestinians, "flag" dresses that declared a national identity through their designs or colors became popular during the first Intifada of 1987.25
The early twenty-first century saw the emergence of modest fashion as a global movement with deep roots in the Middle East.15 Emerging and established Muslim designers, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia and diaspora communities in Europe and the United States, created highly fashionable clothing that met individual standards of modesty, proving that modesty and fashion-forward design were not mutually exclusive.14 The hijab itself became a fashion statement, as young Muslim women coordinated their head-wraps with their outfits.15 International brands took notice: Nike announced the Pro Hijab in 2017.6 That same year, the hijab-wearing model Halima Aden walked for Max Mara and Alberta Ferretti.13
The Gulf states, particularly Dubai and Saudi Arabia, established themselves as luxury fashion capitals. Dubai Fashion Week (launched in 2023) and Riyadh Fashion Week (first held the same year) attracted international attention, while Lebanese-born designers such as Elie Saab and Reem Acra became fixtures of global red-carpet fashion.7,9,10,11 Saudi Arabia's social reforms of the late 2010s were followed by the kingdom's first Arab Fashion Week in 2018, and Saudi designers have since blended heritage, such as Sadu-style prints and the bisht's gold trim, with contemporary cuts.8,12 This regional fashion scene reflected a broader cultural confidence — a determination to participate in global fashion on the Middle East's own terms rather than simply adopting Western norms.
The table lists only what the sources consulted name for each place.
| Country or region | Men's garments | Women's garments |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | Thobe; ghutra or shemagh with the egal; bisht for officials and for others on formal occasions3 | Abaya, enforced in public by the religious police until they lost that power in 201612 |
| Oman | Dishdasha; kumma cap and massar headdress; bisht23; khanjar for important events24 | Abaya with a lahaf headscarf in cities; in rural areas, colorful wide trousers with tunic tops or dresses24 |
| Gulf states | Kandora28 | Abaya19,28 |
| Arab world, general | Aba or bisht, usually draped over the shoulders18; keffiyeh and agal, which became badges of national identity in many countries27 | Aba or abaya, draped over the head in Iraq or worn from the shoulders in Jordan18 |
| Egypt | Galabiyya for rural men; tarboosh (fez) until 1952; suits for most People's Assembly members in 200922 | Veil, put aside by feminists in the 1920s and put back on by women in the two decades before 200922 |
| Palestine | Not covered in the sources consulted | Thobe with embroidered panels marking village or town and marital status25,26 |
| Turkey | Western-style hats in place of the turban or fez under the 1925 Hat Law1 | Headscarf, allowed in the civil service from 2013, with exceptions20 |
| Iran | Pahlavi cap for government workers and schoolboys from 1929; brimmed hat for all men from 1935; after 1979, jackets and trousers, mostly without neckties17 | Unveiling ordered in 1936; after 1979, a loose gown with a black chador or thick scarf17 |
Iran's 1923 law required officials to wear Persian-made clothing, and the 1928 regulations brought the owners of textile factories close to bankruptcy.17 The de Young exhibition notes that Turkey led the commercial design and manufacture of Muslim modest fashion in the 1990s, and that Indonesia has since emerged as another leader.19
For the aba, abaya or bisht, the Textile Research Centre describes a lightweight summer version made from silk or cotton, and more often a synthetic material, and a heavy winter version of sheep or camel wool.18 Before oil, according to Reem El Mutwalli, the women's garment was made of sheer goat or camel wool, colored black or dark navy with indigo dye.12 Today, Saudi abayas come in linen or velvet depending on the season.12
A 2018 company statement reported by TradeArabia says that premium kandora and abaya brands in the region are often made of Japanese fabric, and that Japanese textile makers have exported fabric to the region since 1960.28 The textile maker Toray states that in the 1980s it launched polyester thobe fabrics as an alternative to the conventional cotton and cotton-polyester cloth.29
Myth: all women in the Middle East wear black. On Palestinian thobes, the Textile Research Centre notes, red threads were for women soon to be married and blue for widows.25 In Oman, rural women wear colorful trousers and tunics, and the abaya occasionally comes in grey and black or with embroidery.24 Saudi abayas now include pastel colors.12
Myth: the abaya is ancient and unchanged. The Saudi abaya evolved from the izar, an eighteenth-century body wrap, and its black color became the norm with commercial manufacture.12
Myth: Atatürk banned the veil in Turkey. Encyclopaedia Iranica states that Atatürk had not banned the veil, and that Reza Shah's abolition of the veil in 1936 made him the first ruler in the region to do so.17 Turkey's Hat Law applied to men's hats.1 A headscarf ban in Turkey's civil service did exist until 2013; Al Jazeera wrote that its roots went back almost 90 years.20
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