Palestinian Costumes & Embroidery:
A Precious Legacy

Overall Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars)

This is a half-hour documentary on traditional women's clothing of Palestine, with emphasis on the elaborately embroidered dresses characteristic of the region.

Why I gave it 4 stars: The information about the dresses and the embroidery designs used on them was excellent, but I was wishing for just a little more information about the headdresses and pantaloons. Production quality was superb: the lighting, the sound, the camera work. Not once did the production quality detract from my ability to enjoy the information being presented.

Have you actually watched this video yourself? If so, offer your own opinion in the poll below! Otherwise, click the "View Results" button to see what worldwide users of shira.net think of it.

The above poll includes responses submitted since October 28, 2002.

This half-hour video is a documentary about traditional women's clothing and embroidery designs of Palestine. Narrated by Maha Munayyer, it opens with her describing the preparations a Palestinian bride would have gone through for her wedding - weaving the fabric for her wedding dress, doing the embroidery, etc. This is followed by a 1-minute tableau depicting the bride, the groom, and the bride's friends dancing to Middle Eastern music while dressed in traditional clothing.

The primary substance of the video comes next. In a 20-minute segment, Munayyer moves from region to region of Palestine, describing the local variations style of clothing typical of each. The tour covers Bethlemen, Jerusalem, Hebron, Jaffa, Galilee, Majdal, Gaza, and the southern desert. In all cases, she speaks strictly of women's clothing, particularly describing the dress style and the traditional embroidery designs typical of that region. For the northwest, she also describes a little about the shalwar worn under the yelek, and for the southern desert region she notes that this was the only area in Palestine where veils covering the face were used. Most of the dresses were from the early 20th century, around the 1920's, although a few were newer. In most cases, the narrative does identify the age of the dresses modeled.

The descriptions of the dresses and the local variations in embroidery was excellent. The video covered color, what the fabric was made of, how the embroidery designs were altered over the 20th century with the coming of European influence, and more. However, very little was said about the headdresses, and only once did the video discuss what type of pants (if any) were worn underneath. Nothing was said at all about traditional footwear. It left me feeling hungry, wanting more. That lack of information about headdresses, pantaloons, and male clothing is why I gave this video only four stars instead of five. Admittedly, the dresses with their incredible detailed embroidery designs are the most compelling characteristic of Palestinian attire, so it was appropriate to focus on them, and I wouldn't want to withdraw any of the time that was spent discussing them. I just wished for an additional 10-15 minutes to cover the additional topics.

The display of the dresses was done very well. With Arabic music playing softly in the background, the women modeling the dresses did low-key simple Oriental dance moves and took turns coming forward to show their dresses. Voiceover narration by Munayyer described what to look for on the dress of each model as she came forward, with appropriate camera closeups zooming in to show the detail. I felt that the combination of music, dance, and narrative was an extremely effective way to organize the display of the dresses. The choice to use live models made for a much more compelling video than dresses hung on mannequins would have been. The music and dancing added a lively element that merely walking and turning would not have done.

The final section of the video, about 6 1/2 minutes long, looks at the history of these dresses. It shows examples of ancient art from Egypt, Assyria, and other parts of the region depicting ancient Canaanite people wearing clothing featuring these embroidery designs, and shows how the cut of the clothing evolved over time. Any woman interested in wearing Palestinian-style clothing for historical re-enactment events such as Renaissance Faire or Society for Creative Anachronism will find this section useful. Although the historical clothing pictured comes from ancient times, it's reasonable to conclude that if a given embroidery design was used in ancient Egypt and still used on clothing from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, then it's probably reasonable to conclude it was also used during the Medieval and Renaissance periods that these enactment groups depict.

You Will Probably Like This Video If

• You're researching historical garb of the Middle East.
• You appreciate beautiful embroidery.
• You're involved in historical re-enactment groups such as Society for Creative Anachronism or Renaissance Faire guilds and you'd like to create historically-correct women's garb for the Palestinian region.

You Probably Won't Care for This Video If

• Historical women's clothing bores you.

What I Liked

• The many beautifully-embroidered dresses showcased on this video are a feast for the eyes.
• This video served as an excellent introduction to the fabulous traditional embroidered dresses of Palestine. It provided detailed information about the embroidery designs unique to each region and the colors used in that region.
• The dresses were worn by models who did a little low-key dancing to Arabic music as they took turns coming forward to show the detail of their dresses.
• The narrative identified which embroidery designs emerged in the 20th century as a result of European influence.
• The production quality was superb. The lighting, sound quality, and camera angles were all done so well that I never once found myself distracted from enjoying the information being presented.
• In the historical section, the video traced the evidence from historical times demonstrating that the style of dress and the embroidery designs date back to the eras of ancient Egypt and Assyria.

What I Didn't Like

• I wished it would have contained some information about men's clothing. At the beginning, there was a man portraying the groom, but there was no narrative about his garb and he wasn't on camera very long.
• I was hoping for more information about the headdresses.
• I would have liked more information about which regions wore pantaloons and which did not, and if they did wear them, what style they were. There was a little information about this for northern Palestine, but nothing for the other regions.

This video would be excellent for anyone who is interested in the traditional dresses of Palestine. It's a great resource for women involved in historical re-enactment who would like to portray characters from this region, and it's useful for anyone interested in seeing one type of clothing that would be ethnically appropriate for performing debke. Although it's only a half hour long, I found the video to be very informative and the content was well-presented.

If you're interested in men's garb, or if you want to know more about the women's headdresses, pantaloons, and shoes, you won't learn much from this one. But if you're starting from the position of knowing nothing about clothing from this region, this video will provide a solid introduction.

Contact the Palestinian Heritage Foundation as follows:

Palestinian Heritage Foundation
P.O. Box 531
West Caldwell, NJ 07007-0531
U.S.A.

Phone: (+1) (908) 740 5583
E-Mail: PALHERF@aol.com

General: | Home | Shira's Classes | E-Mail Shira | About Shira | Shira's Photo Gallery | Shira's Performances | Troupe | Mailing List |

Belly Dancing Information & How-To's: | About Belly Dancing | How-To's | Middle Eastern Culture | Belly Dancing Fun & Frolic | Belly Dancing Poetry & Art | Reviews: Books, Music, Videos | Find Belly Dancing Teachers/Performers | Tech Talk | Links |

Shopping: | Mugs, Shirts, Mouse Pads | Videos | Toys | Books | Music |

Using This Site: | Table Of Contents (Site Map) | Search This Site | Survey | Behind The Screens |