CITY Issue 54

Living the Good Life in the Big City From left to right: Hussein Chalayan showed Islamic chadors for Spring/Summer 98; Comme des Garçons skirted the political issues between Britain and Scotland in Fall/Winter 99-00; Balenciaga worked the Palestinian keffiyah into a number of looks for Fall/Winter 07-08. so recalled a bitter history of familial pride and propriety without so much as a comment to the politics of it all. The collection was about “drapery.” But when a chiseled male model in a jewel-encrusted and gilded papal costume literally christened the catwalk of a 2001 couture collection by John Galliano for Christian Dior swinging a thurible of frankincense and myrrh, it seemed the fat lady had sung: the most powerful European sartorial icon had been caricatured in the name of fashion, and by a man who once gleefully dubbed his complicated fusion of eclectic world fashions “Barbie Goes to Tibet.” Yet all of fashion’s stolen treasures might not have prepared me for this recent Fall/Winter 07-08 season, when Nicholas Ghesquière, the creative force behind the house of Balenciaga, worked the Palestinian keffiyah, or black-and-white checkered scarf, into nearly every ensemble of his presentation. His references throughout the collection were multi-ethnic, ranging from Moroccan folk embroideries to American quilts, but this detail, this afterthought of an accessory, was the most impacting element. All of a sudden, they’re on the subway, at the club, getting coffee in the morning—the sheepish scholar, the model, the promoter, even a sales clerk at Old Navy—all casually fitted with a keffiyah: a biting accessory to an otherwise indifferent wardrobe. The scarf is so intrinsically linked with Yassar Arafat’s headshot that it’s hard to believe that anyone could be oblivious to the political implications of this traditional Arabic man’s headdress. It has been a symbol of Palestinian nationalism since the 1930s. Left-wing Jews, dubbed “keffiyah kinderlach” by Haaretz journalist Bradley Burston, wore it during the second intifada to advertise their disagreement with Israeli policy. I’ll admit that its stark graphics make the keffiyah an appealing accessory. But given our political reality, is the successful promotion of this ever-present ascot a coincidence? The consequential exposure of Islam (and various factions therein) after 9/11 prompted a widespread recognition of practicing Muslims. Yet the kufi skullcap, the chador, and the keffiyah are parts of our vochador cabulary in large part due to the preponderance (whether acknowledged or not) of racial profiling, rather than our earnest attempts to familiarize ourselves with the structures of the religion, or with the religious populations themselves. Another case of the clothes make the man. Our wardrobe, built from travel and exposure to an eclectic boutique culture, hosts textiles, graphics, and even constructions rife with folkloric and religious meaning. These multi-culti costumes that we’ve configured—the Aum banner of inner peace, the bindi dot of strength and luck, and most tellingly, the revolutionary’s keffiyah—have become our coup, our voice. Yet, as we tell our stories through T-shirts, caftans, prayer shawls, we inadvertently nullify the very potency that first attracted us to these garments. So I have to wonder, where will we find new clothes? BA L E N C I AG A : P H OTO B Y C H R I S M O O R E / CAT WA L K I N G / G E T T Y I M AG E S . CITY 55

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 54

CITY Issue 54 Contents Letter from CITY Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment The City Life The Amused Bouche On the Rocks Fast Food City Insider: Austin Fit How We Live: The Bedroom City Insider: Warsaw In Rogue The Value of Vintage Taking the Plunge Raising the Bar The Science of Scent Changing of the Guard The New Fashion Cities A Cut Above Chrysalis What Dreams May Come Dawn & Dusk Will o' the Wisp Where To Buy It Socials Icon

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