Made in Palestine
Written by Laila Musleh
Graphics by Sofia Moncayo
To call yourself Palestinian, in the ears and eyes of the world, you are calling yourself nonexistent on the map, a barbaric Arab, and a terrorist. However, to the Palestinian ear and eye, you are a champion of resistance. It is an identity that navigates missile-struck cities and villages, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. Despite the stolen homes, lost land, family martyrs, and ongoing exile, Palestinians are lovers of art and music, their heart embraces people of all cultures and religions, and they carry boundless pride in the pillars and poetry that defines the Palestinian identity today.
Palestinian resistance is found in the poems they rhyme, the songs they sing, the books they write, and the clothing they wear. These forms of resistance secure a voice and place for Palestinians to exist in the world. It is an attempt to restore their rights that were taken away by disposition and exile. Ultimately, it’s their effort to combat the ongoing erasure of their nativity to their land.
A comical term I invented is ‘A Palestinian’s closet’. Compared to the many closets we’ve seen, built, and redefined with trends, personality, and character, a Palestinian’s closet chambers items that are principles of the Palestinian identity. This closet is a union or even a marriage of colors and patterns that celebrate the beauty of Levantine agriculture, and honor the moxie of every Palestinian, living or dead. The Palestinian Kuffiyeh, namely, the hatta or Arab scarf, is a black and white cotton scarf with patterns of fishnets and olive trees alluding to the Mideternean Sea, the strength and resilience of the Palestinian people, and the intimate bond Palestinians have to their land. Today, this scarf is a symbol of resistance. It is worn in protests, in ceremonies, and during one’s mere embrace of their Palestinian origin.
One of the most iconic tokens of Palestinian history and culture is Tatreez. Tatreez is a three-thousand-year-old cross-stitched embroidery technique. The inherited colors and motifs in Tatreez speak to the different regions of Palestine. The natural world is commemorated in the motifs; Trees, fruits, birds, and the moon are recognizable archetypes. Tatreez is also an art of dimension and angles. Geometric designs immerse the embroidery. They are bound to intricate detail, symbolism, and personal identity. Tatreez is a cardinal ornament in Palestinian women’s clothing. It is a language unfolding Palestinian history. It’s unwritten stories worn today by people who live on Palestinian soil or people in the diaspora.
Amid the destruction caused by the occupation, fashion designers are pushing boundaries by promoting inclusivity, blurring social constructs, and creating an international presence of Palestine and the Arab world. These designers have employed art to celebrate Palestine, and protect the Palestinian identity in the face of oppression. Palestinians have collectively witnessed their existence, culture, and traditions be appropriated and threatened by the occupier. Nonetheless, designers, and numerous other artistic talents, have fashioned a space for Palestinian creativity to wield influence in the world, and preserve the Palestinian identity.
Nöl Collective
Ramallah, Palestine
Based in Ramallah, Nol Collective is a political brand. “Nol Collective is political because our occupier has appropriated some of our clothing while using the rest to cast us as terrorists in the eyes of the world”
“Nol” is the Palestinian word for the loom. As Yasmeen Majalli decoded Palestine’s history, she sought to revive the ancestral recipes for producing clothing through her brand; From dying yarns with plants, insects, and spices native to the Palestinian soil, to preserving the color by scouring the yarn in the Gazan seas, and using the loom to weave the yarns into the fabric. Nol’s production of the garments is a story unearthing Palestinian history. It is an emblem of the collective effort and intimacy Palestinians share.
Nol Collective works with workshops, women’s cooperatives, and family-owned businesses in Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah, and Bethlehem to create handmade pieces. Tatreez is weaved into Mjadawli fabric, a fabric essential to the traditional Palestinian dress, and is manifested into the garments Nol presents to the world. Pieces like the Baklava scarf, Zainab tunic, and Tatreez shawl, all present different embroidery techniques. They are stitched by artisans who are divided by borders imposed by the Israeli occupation; they never crossed eyes or shook hands. The diverse embroidery illuminates the division Palestinians suffer under, yet proves their ability to defeat the constraints.
Beyond a tool to resist the occupation and celebrate culture, Nol Collective is a voice of feminism. As Yasmeen embarked to heal from gendered oppression and the intolerable patriarchy, Yasmeen launched her brand. The garments Nol delivers to the world allow her to control the narrative and the presentation of her body.
Yasmeen explains that Nol is always in a state of metamorphosis. Her perception and understanding of feminism, sustainability, and culture have markedly evolved since the brand’s inception. Nol Collective prides itself on continuous learning and change. As knowledge flourishes and understanding deepens, Nol will keep evolving and birthing new garments that speak to the evolving Palestinian identity.
Shop their products: https://nolcollective.com
Trashy Clothing
Palestine & the Arab world
In an endeavor to reconstruct and debauch the stereotypes planted in Arab culture, Shukri Lawrence and Omar Braika founded Trashy Clothing; it is a Palestinian ready-to-wear label using Arab pop culture, icons, and political satire to produce clothing that revolutionizes Middle Eastern fashion and outsiders’ perception of it. Trashy Clothing is ironic in its nature. Shukri explains that the label is almost like an “Anti-fashion movement”. As it repels against the traditions and expectations set by the region’s industry, Trashy Clothing strives to inspire questions about today’s fashion norms, and for the public to wear pieces unveiling their true story and identity.
SS21 ‘Pride for Pay;', SS20 ‘3o2balk’, and AW20 ‘Club Sultana’ collections redefined different aspects of Arab culture. Pride of Pay exposes Israel’s pinkwashing attempts and manipulative campaigns targeted toward Queer Palestinians. 302balk probes marriage culture in the Arab world. It highlights the different traditions found in each country, village, and family. It also questions the expectations, pressures, and feelings imposed on marriage in the region. Club Sultana celebrates the art form of belly dancing. Their mission was to reclaim the sexualization of the art form and revisit its innocent and cultural symbolism.
In their SS18runway show in Berlin, they fashioned a depiction of the occupation wall found in the West Bank, Palestine. As the wall separated one side of the audience from the other and inhibited one group from viewing the show, they manifested every Palesitnain’s reality into performance art. The audience experienced a minuscule fraction of the oppression and division Palestinians suffer under.
Their most recent SS22 collection ‘Souvenirs of Conquest’ highlights how tourism is an aid to the occupation. The Palestine Tourist wrap skirts, Sand Bottle crop top, Inspection Pocket trousers, and Stolen Souvenirs skirt denote how Israeli tourism is used to conceal the violence and war inflicted daily on Palestinians. Previous collections have also featured pieces inspiring boycott movements and exposing the injustices of the occupation.
Shop their products: https://www.trashyclothing.shop
Anat International
Gaza, Palestine
Salma Shawa was regularly complimented on her denim jacket that featured traditional Palestinian embroidery. The dialogues proved people’s interest in learning about her Palestinian heritage and culture. This kindled her desire to create a clothing line focused on embroidered and handcrafted jackets.
Similar to Nol Collective, Anat International uses a 3000-year-old craft and introduces it to modern clothing. Each piece of embroidery is handmade and placed onto a denim jacket. Beads, coins, and additional fabric are often added to the denim to enhance the character and individuality of each jacket. Anat pride themselves on their ethical and environmentally conscious production; they do not manufacture their products in bulk. No embroidered fabric is identical to the other, even ones of the same pattern. “Operating from imperfect conditions, it only makes sense to create imperfect products. It challenges people’s perception of perfection.”
Inclusivity, in the production and use of the jackets, is a core value of Anat. The embroidery is weaved by both men and women, and factory work is not solely assigned to men. This shatters the social constructs dictating gender roles in society and provides space for men to partake in a craft usually practiced by women. Anat’s mission is to expel the traditional realms assigned to either gender and preserve Palestinian embroidery as it becomes a craft practiced and worn by everyone.
The process in which Anat’s garments undergo is a political journey. Ultimately, reckoning Anat as a political brand. Navigating checkpoints, difficult shipping procedures, and unaffordable costs are all obstacles imposed by the Israeli occupation to limit the spread of Palestinian resistance. After the jackets are erected in the factory, they are then taken to different Gaza embroiderers. Electricity is severely limited across the city, therefore, its unpredictability often delays the production cycle. Anat is a slow fashion brand. Salma emphasizes that embroidering a single jacket requires three weeks for completion.
Salma aims to inspire conversations focused on human rights, Palestinian realities, and the grievous environment the jackets were produced in. “Palestine should not be your charity project. It shouldn’t be your charity case, your donation case. It’s time that we start seeing real efforts at liberation and people, different people, putting pressure on their governments, putting pressure on their friends, circles, and family when it comes to Palestine. That’s the urgent need right now.”
Shop their products: https://anat-international.com
MEERA ADNAN
Gaza, Palestine
Meera Adnan strives to reclaim the Palestinian narrative through her brand. Based in Gaza, MEERA ADNAN takes the romance and nostalgia in Palestine and manifests it into wearable art. Like the numerous other Palestinian fashion houses, MEERA ADNAN is surely a political brand. However, Meera uses fashion and clothing to create, or even highlight a poetic reality of Palestine.
Meera’s collection ‘Harvest Season’ showcases six products, each one inspired by different emblems of Palestine’s landscape. The ‘Flora of Palestine’ scarf top is made of a silk fabric featuring a diverse ensemble of chromatic flowers. The collection incorporates a ‘Tatreezna top’, a sheer wide turtle neck, and a ‘Tatreezna Unisex top’, a viscose button-down shirt. Both garments feature different tatreez patterns. The tatreez in the collection echoes different elements of the land; It includes stitches of Palestine’s flora, orange blossoms, and strawberries. ‘Tatreezna’ translates to “Our embroidery”. The name, alone, is a reclaiming of a traditional practice that existed thousands of years before the existence of the occupier. It emphasizes the nativity of Palestinians to their land and credits them for the craft. The collection also includes an oversized t-shirt ‘Habibat A’lard’. The name directly translates to “Lovers of the land”. The shirt features the map of Palestine hugged by the river and the sea, and images of a pomegranate, grapes, olives, figs, watermelon, and strawberries inside of it. All of these images are significant archetypes of the Palestinian land. This collection is a commemoration of the nature and fruition of Palestine as Palestinian resistance is also found in the preservation of the soil.
As Gaza is a city under siege, literally an open-air prison, the restriction of movement makes the importation of products difficult. Although the garments are designed in Gaza, Meera is required to bring the fabric from aboard. Most of the materials and production are done in Turkey. Again, this affirms Palestinians’ ability to defeat the rules and control of the occupation through their ambition and creativity.
Through MEERA ADNAN, Meera strives to paint an image that truly represents Palestine and her origin. Her brand sheds light on a different perspective of Palestine. Her work is a celebration of the beauty, nature, and fruition that connects Palestinians to their land and culture.
Shop their products: https://meeraadnan.com