An Ode to Square Scarves

These particular styles ALWAYS left an awful mark under your neck:-(

  
Just recently I posted a Facebook status- “Pashminas or Square Scarves?” The reason for posting that status was for me to begin making preparations for my transition to pashminas to square scarves.  A bit dramatic you may say…..but yes for me it was quite a big deal!  You see, me and georgette squares have quite a long history.  I grew up Muslim in Philadelphia circa 1980-1999 (and then I took a hiatus in 2000 from all forms of hijab smh) and any sort of khimar that I received during that time were those awful triangle jacquard khimars that came with the matching jilbab or shawal qamise sets that you got in the little cellophane bags at the Pakistani Book Store.At first I loved them and couldn’t wait to go to the Mosque or Eid prayer with my dad to flaunt my matching head to toe (literally) jacquard jilbab and matching khimar. (See picture below)  But then I got to middle school and the THOUGHT of wearing a shalwar anything terrified me, besides those scarves that came with those sets would NOT compliment my hoodie and Jodeci boots smh or my jeans, Shell-Top Addias and leather coat (yes, don’t act like you don’t know! ALL the girls were dressing up like dudes at that time!)  I remember thinking: all I need is a plain white scarf, a plain white scarf and of course most Muslim families that I knew at that time relied on home made clothes when it came to Islamic attire.  But I had a working mom who did not have time for sewing and then somehow some way I received my first cream square georgette and this was before the nicely surged ones-mine had edges that were neatly folded over and then sewn.  And at first sight I was in love, but then it occurred to me that I hadn’t had a clue on how to wear it.  So I just folded the square into a triangle and pinned it in the back and let it flow behind me like I was Rupenzel or someone.  But wearing it that way made it easy pray for someone to walk by and snatch it off…..yup, I went through that as well.  Anyway, I digress, so it took a long time for me to figure out a different way to wear a khimar (about 4 years) because it wasn’t until high-school that I came up with not 1 but 2 alternate styles for the square scarf and that was to pin at the neck, after you pinned at the back (oh, wonder of wonders) and then tuck the ends into my long plaid Guess shirts or pin it at the   neck and let the ends dangle.  And that was when I begin loathing the square scarf.  They were boring to me and they always showed oil stains from the oil sheen or moisturizer I added to my hair (hey this was before there was a such thing as an under scarf) and they burned easily when you ironed them (although I know now that that you don’t really have to iron georgette, and that back in the day I confused chiffon with georgette and it was the chiffon that of course burns easily.)  So when pashminas and shaylas infiltrated the market in the new millennium I was in love.  You could wrap them in a variety of ways, they were warm and cozy, they draped wonderfully, and best of all you could get away with wearing them with only ONE pin.  But then I think I did what one does when you love anything too much you start going a little crazy with it.  Soon, I started lusting over the biggest longest pashminas that were available and just went little crazy wrapping yards of fabric around my head and I had more then one person tell me that I looked like a bobble head with how I chose to ware my khimar lol.  That, along with a few trips to the “Motherland” (Philly) made me a bit nostalgic for the good ole georgette square scarf. Another thing that made me think about the good ole Square Scarf was my fascination with how sisters from various ethnic backgrounds have their own distinct way of wearing khimar.   Once upon a time I used to think that to wear a khimar was to imitate the Arabs (shame, shame on me).  When in all actuality there is incredible diversity in how sisters choose to don the khimar.  For example, women of Arab decent tend to wear pashminas or shaylas, Asians have their Duppatas, Turkish women adorn themselves with those beautiful silk squares (that I’ve been drooling over), Somalians have their knee length khimars and African American women LOVE their Square Georgettes!  So me being a Black American woman I think of the georgette square as sort of cultural attire lol! Now, I am in NOOOOOOO way saying that Black Women ONLY wear this or Arab women ONLY wear that.  Most Muslim women I know tend to mix it up.  And I myself don’t see a problem with mixing and matching and incorporating different cultural garments into our wardrobe.  I think we should wear what we like regardless of the cultural origin.  So as of now I am on a quest for new square scarves-because I currently do not own any(wearable) ones.  So we shall see how I fair with this quest…..