From Amman. Today, we learned about traditional Jordanian and Palestinian clothing. Ilana was even allowed to model some of the amazing clothing from the collection of Widad Kewar, an expert in traditional Arab dress.

Widad’s collection is huge, but not nearly as big as the first dress she showed us! The dress that Widad had on display was from a region of Jordan called Salt. During the Ottoman Era, when tax collectors would come to Salt, these dresses allowed women to hide precious belongings in their folds.

Given the societal rules of the time, it was unlikely that a male tax collector would search a woman. Even if he did, he’d be unlikely to find anything in all those folds of fabric! I would have loved to see Ilana try it on, but because the dress was on display it would have taken a ladder and several people to take it down!

Next, Ilana modeled a brightly colored dress from Ma’an. There was a jacket to go with it. We learned that women from Ma’an would wear the jacket on their heads like a hood. I thought this was a bit unusual, but learning about other cultures often requires an open mind. Ilana didn’t miss a beat and put the jacket on her head like a pro. And, it didn’t look nearly as ridiculous as I had imagined it would.

Widad’s collection also contains some traditional men’s clothing. Before leaving, Ben and I tried on Ottoman Era silk robes with accompanying hats. The robes were incredibly comfortable. Those Ottoman sultans sure had great taste!

Next, head to the desert.

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