LONG before the coming of Islam, women in the Gulf 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 Middle East . 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 Middle East, especially during the economic boom of the late 70s, helped transform the ‘abaya’ , jilbabs, caftans 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.