If a king gave you a dress in 1942 and another in 1952, which would you reach for first? That was the delightful dilemma for the daughter of the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who received the garments from King Abdulaziz. Now they glint in a London gallery as though the tailor had only just put down the needle.
Thobe Mokhattam, From the Turathuna (Our Heritage) series, Safeya Binzagr (1940-2024). Reproduction of watercolour on paper. Courtesy of Darat Safeya Binzagr.
Gifting clothing is a long-standing Islamic tradition among rulers, and foreign visitors were welcome recipients. A garment makes an unusually personal present, made to be worn at precisely the moment someone wants to be looked at. These thobes, the outer dresses of central Najd, the historic homeland of the Saud family, would have been worn for weddings and other special occasions. Colourful and voluminous, they were clearly built for making an entrance, and you can almost hear the rustle of that much cloth crossing a room.
Most of us own a gifted garment we keep long after it stops fitting, a scarf from a grandmother or a jumper knitted by an aunt. The thobes sit at the very grand end of that impulse: cloth that says I thought of you, with a king’s resources behind the thought...
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Image Credits:
Lead: Thobe (outer dress), Najd, Saudi Arabia About 1950. Silk, metal-wrapped thread.
All further images as credited in captions, and courtesy of the V&A.