Michel De Montaigne once said, “The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along. ”Montaigne was right when he recognized the effect of customs and practices. Some people still respect old customs as a way of saving the history and our traditional customs alive as a part of our daily lives. If I am in charge to send a memorandum in order to represent my country to an international exhibition, it would be a traditional men dress in Saudi Arabia.
In Saudi Arabia, the men have a special traditional dress. It consists of four pieces. First and main piece called thawb. It is a loose, long-sleeved, and ankle-length fabric that is similar to a robe. In the summer, men usually wear white cotton thawb, but they do wear it darker in color and made out of wool in the winter, depending on the temperature. Another piece of the traditional men dress is the ghutar. It is a headdress made of a square of cloth. It has many styles that depends on how it folded and wrapped around the head. Also, it provides protection from direct sunlight and protects the mouth and eyes from blown sand. The third piece of traditional men dress is agal. It is an accessory for headdress used to hold the ghutar made of black cord. The last piece of the traditional men dress is pusht. It is the outer cloak made of wool and worn over the thawb. It is usually brown, black, beige, grey or cream in color. Unlike the thawb, it is only worn on special events such as weddings or festivals. Therefore, traditional dress in Saudi Arabia has four pieces.
Each part of Saudi Arabia has a special way to wear the traditional dress, so people can recognize where other people come from by the way they wear their dresses. For example, people come from north region usually wear dark thawb and white ghutar, while people come from south region wear white thawb and red ghutar. It may also refer to a social position, status of wealth, or sometimes, a religious position.