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Palestinian Syrian, Palestine, Bethlehem

Woman's dress (thōb), 1800s

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Palestinian

Title

Woman's dress (thōb)

Year

1800s

Medium

Cotton, silk: plain weave, embroidered, appliqué, braid trim

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • cotton

Dimensions

Center back length: 128.3 cm (50 1/2 inches)

Place

Palestine, Bethlehem

Type

  • Fashion,
  • Costume

Credit

Gift of John Davis Hatch in honor of Olivia Eggleston Phelps Stokes

Object Number

1991.013.19

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Sartorial Sanctuary

December 19, 2008 - April 26, 2009

The Arabic word thōb refers both to a man’s shirt and to a loose, ankle-length, collarless dress worn by women. In rural areas of the Islamic world, women’s dress revolves around this minimally constructed garment, which provides ample space for modesty and for personalized and regionally specific embellishment.

Exquisitely embroidered Palestinian versions of this basic garment are some of the most impressive examples of Middle Eastern regional dress. The quality of workmanship and distinctions in motif, stitch, color, pattern, and design arrangement have created a lexicon of types that can be easily deciphered to place a woman according to both status and region or town. The Bethlehem woman who created and owned this trousseau garment would have worn it first at her wedding and thereafter as ceremonial dress, with a jacket of felt or broadcloth and a distinctive felt hat embellished with silver or gold discs, coins, and coral beads.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Woman's dress (thōb) with the accession number of 1991.013.19. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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