A tale of many coloured threads
Palestinian Bazaar Festival to feature Arab fashions
Each loop and zigzag design that dances across traditional Palestinian clothing is there to tell a story.
The embroidery is much more than eye candy, says Mousa Qasqas, who will MC the fashion show portion of Edmonton’s first Palestinian Bazaar Festival on March 17 at the Transalta Arts Barns.
It is rooted in a history he hopes to share with those who attend.
“A major part of our tradition is fashion, or the clothing,” Qasqas says. “Even our Palestinian community here, I don’t think, really knows there’s a very interesting and differentiated fashion motif as compared to the rest of the Arab world. I think they just all assume all Arabs dress alike.”
Qasqas says the goal of the inaugural festival is to celebrate and raise awareness of Palestinian culture through music, food, art and fashion.
Presented by Humanserve International, a non-profit agency that supports the Palestinian community, the festival will feature a number of events including poetry by Edmonton’s Ahmed Knowmadic, who is the 2011 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word Champion, and a hip-hop performance by U.k.-palestinian Shadia Mansour, who has become one of the leading female MCS worldwide.
Majeda Fyith, Humanserve International representative and festival co-organizer, says the bazaar is one way of bringing Palestine’s vibrant cultural scene to Canada.
“I think we often associate very negative things with Palestine because of the Israeli-palestinian conflict and just what has been happening in the Middle East. We really want to bring to light that Palestinians have contributed to society in a variety of positive ways, through their art, through their music, through their culture, products and literature.
“We live in such an amazing city,” Majeda continues. “Edmonton is really a cultural mosaic and has so many festivals going on, and we wanted to be a part of that scene and add to that scene. We didn’t want to do a typical educational awareness event.
“We really wanted to make it a celebration and learning process through that.”
During the festival, Qasqas hopes to reveal his culture’s unique needlework.
The combination of cross-stitching and couching has traditionally been used to decorate the clothing with curved designs that can signify where a person is from, as well as their marital status.
Qasqas says the most distinct embroidery is usually featured on a long, loose-fitting one-piece dress called a thob.
Some embroidery motifs may depict scissors and roses, which symbolize Gaza. Bethlehem, on the other hand, is represented by cypress trees.
Although the dresses may look identical in cut or colour, the embroidering will always be different.
“Embroidery itself is a very personal thing,” Qasqas says.
“Every town in Palestine traditionally would have its own embroidering patterns. It even got so detailed where you could tell who was single and who was married by the type of embroidery. They would indicate things like that. It was very specific.
“Bethlehem is really popular for its embroidery,” Qasqas adds.
“They used to call it the Paris of Palestinian village fashion at one point.”
Qasqas says the show will feature about 10 Palestinian fashions for adults and 10 for children. The pieces will come from a variety of villages, each featuring distinct embroidery patterns.
All the pieces have been pooled together from community members who are eager to share their love for fashion and their culture with Edmontonians.
“I think people will get a lot more than just fashion out of it,” Qasqas says.
“I think for anyone that is just interested in a fun day to listen to some poetry, look at some art, try some food, I think it’s a great time for the family.”