Women’s dress from the ancient cities of Morocco

Knowledge of the traditional Moroccan costume has for a long time been characterized by cliches inherited from the folklore in this field. As soon as the image of feminine adornment is evoked, for example, one thinks instinctively of the caftan or the Izar, thus focusing on the ancient and Oriental origins that serve as references. Without pretending to completely clarify this question, we can offer here an over view of women ‘s costumes with the aim of seeing them in a more coherent way and becoming aware of the more accessible cultural func¬tions that determine them.

I would recommend to you the national collections preserved at Rabat’s Ethnographic Museum of the Oudaias. These cover a period running from the middle of the 19th century to the 1970s. They present a rather homogenous range out of which one can see their rich regional varieties as well as the originality of the accessories that are associated with traditional clothing. These are not necessarily what they appear to be; nor is elegance solely tied to life’s great social events, such as weddings and baptisms. They can be appreciated in the apparent carelessness headscarves are tied in daily life or the way materials and colors of ordinary caftans and « fouqiyas » are mixed. The two have made up an insepa¬rable duo for more than a century.
To better understand traditional cos¬tumes, one must make a distinction bet¬ween the urban and the rural. These two vast traditions come from the ancient cities called « Hadriay » (Fes, Meknes, Tetouan, Rabat and Sale), and from the regions of the Atlas, the Rif, the plains and the Sahara. We will give you here Just a brief presentation of the urban feminine costume.

Through the richness of its material and the diversity of its accessories, women’s clothing worn in the old cities reflected the fashions and tastes of the social group are whi¬ch wore them. The outer garment called « Haik » was uniformly the same, a cloak made of wool (or another ordinary material) in which women would drape them¬selves during their supervised outings. The inner garment on the contrary was the essential part of the wardrobe. Until the mid 19′ » century, the main garment was the caftan. One knows that it comes from Turkish origins, and that it was introduced in Morocco in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Its Persian etymology means « cuirass » and it is true that its long, collarless shape closed down the center by small passementerie-trimmed buttons reminds us of a cassock.
At the beginning it was worn by both sexes. Then men had to content themselves with broadcloth caftans. Later, it was definitely abandoned to women who along with personal taste and style varied its shape and the way it was worn. The range runs from the simple colored broadcloth covered by a thin, transparent material or « fouquiya » (literally what is on top) to the most refined silks and most prestigious brocades and velvets. For important occasions, they combined the refinement and transparency of veils and gauzes with sparkling adornments.

These were composed of neck laces made up of several strings of pearls (M’dejja) or with piercedgold ornaments enhanced by garnets, rubies from Fes and emeralds (Tazra).
In Fes, for instance, the Bencherifs, a family of weavers, gave their noble name to this fashion. It is typified by very loose-sleeved, silk caftans sprinkled with gold and silver specks. These were tied high at the waist by long brocaded belts (Hzam) with skilfully arranged geometrical patterns drawn on them. Rabat and Sale, faithful to their Andalusian traditions, were distinctive in their red, blue or purple velvets enhanced with gold galloons and passementerie which drew circular or helix patterns. The hems bordered with galloons gave to the ensemble a quasi-imperial sparkle. Accessories used all available resources.jewelry, embroide¬ry and all kind of other elements combined to highlight the whole.

Long veils (Abrouq and Kenbouch) of gold-laminated silk enhanced the way the velvets fell. These head coverings dropped to the waist where they were sometimes held under the belt. Made of velvet embroidered with gold or silver thread, the belt called « Mdomma” was quite different to the broca¬ded « Hzarn ». Finally, the shoes, whose upper front part was in embroidered velvet, were called « Cherbil ».
In another connection, jewish women during ceremonies wore a combination of clothing called « lkessoua lekbira », literally « full or formal dress » This was made of a gold thread embroidered dickey and vest with a flared skirt hemmed with golden galloons and fan-shaped on the bottom. The sleeves (Kmamat) in light fabric were independent of the ensemble and were affixed on the shoulders to cover the arms and forearms to the wrist. Finally, the heeled shoes were in black or purple velvet embroi¬dered with golden thread.

To end this tour, let us visit the northern city of Tetouan that effectively mixed Turkish influences by way of Algeria with its Andalusian heritage. It gave us beautiful and elegant velvet and silk caftans that accentua¬ted the slenderness of the waist and allowed the material of the dress to flare. These were worn with a matching vest enhanced with helix braids in gold or silver

Many of these costumes were magnifi¬cently visualized by the genius of the French painter Delacroix in the 19th century. Rediscovered thanks to ethnographic research, they represent today an inestimable patrimony for Moroccan museums that continue in this way to enrich and to develop their collections