Aleppo’s yellow man is a minor fashion celebrity

ALEPPO, Syria — Abu Zakkour, a 68-year-old man in the Syrian northern city of Aleppo, has apparently become a symbol of peculiarity in the city with the yellow color he has been dressed in for the past 35 years.

His obsession with yellow started on Jan 25, 1983 when Zakkour decided to be a “yellow man”, as the color represents love in his eyes.

“For me the yellow color represents love and something no one has ever done and no one even endures. I believe no one in the world can wear yellow for 35 years, day and night, indoors and outdoors,” Zakkour said.

The man wears everything in yellow, including his suits, neckties, shirts, underwear, socks, slippers and glasses. Even his suitcase is yellow.

Notably, he uses yellow nail polish to make non-yellow items yellow, such as the transparent silicone case of his golden mobile phone.

Upon entering his small flat in the Maari neighborhood, the yellow shoes and slippers are the first yellow items that jump into the view.

Actually there seems to be an effort to make yellow a prominent color everywhere in the house: the sheets on his bed are yellow, the table cover is yellow and even the small trash can is yellow.

In his small yellow and blue wardrobe, 11 hangers hold his outfits including suits, a coat, a safari suit and a couple of jellabiyas, a kind of traditional long garment.

“When I walk down the street or go to crowded places, people will smile and take photos with me. Many people stop to talk to me and joke with me and I think it’s called love,” he said.

Zakkour has remained faithful to his yellow-color cause, as he said such attention from the streets and TV interviews seems to be a solace for his loneliness after the death of his wife and the departure of his sons outside Syria.

“Wearing another color would make me feel offbeat and strange because I am wearing yellow for 35 years and it’s a long time. I cannot even have any different color within my yellow attire,” he explained.

The long years of wearing yellow has apparently paid off as everyone in Aleppo now knows him and the story about why he chose to wear yellow is being bandied about across the city.

As a peculiar landmark of Aleppo, Zakkour told Xinhua that he would never wear another color as long as he is alive.