Palestinian Textiles

Al-Jilaya dress with large opening sleeves and intense embroidery work, where the chest panel shows qalayed, floral and geometrical motifs. The neck and shoulders are made with Ottoman striped cloth and the sleeves show patches of silk hirmizi cloth. The front side of the dress has patches of triangular shapes of silk with embroidery of flowers. The banayeq (sidelines) show rings and Al-reesh braidwork, along with geometrical and floral motifs. The back side has heavy and relatively long embroidery work, taking shapes of waves and geometrical figures, topped with Al-nakhl and Al-reesh braidwork. 

Malaq dress made with Abu Warda cloth, has a traditional malaq chest panel of flower pots, topped with two pieces of blue velvet cloth with a bird embroidered on it. The neck and shoulders are of red colored cloth and the sleeves are made with silk hirmizi cloth in addition to the original cloth of the dress with embroidered Bethlehem clock and a bird. The banayeq (sidelines) show embroidery of clock and floral motifs in addition to crosses. 

A dress with intense embroidery work on the chest panel similar to qalayed (necklaces) motif, surrounded with different designs of braidworks including flowers. The neck and shoulders are embroidered from the sides with different motifs, centered with an orange hirmizi needle work with flower shapes. The sleeves show different designs of embroidery, while the banayeq (sidelines) and the front and back sides show intense embroidery work in blue with cypress tree and feather motifs, along with talismans on the top side of the sidelines. 

Black dress with bow motif embroidery and talismans braidwork on the chest panel, with cypress trees coming down from it. The neck slot shows talismans motif. The sleeves have two blue lines of the same cloth, and the front side has only thin longitudinal colored stripes. The banayeq (sidelines) show manajel (thick braidwork connecting the dress parts) and thick horizontal shapes with talismans. The back side has comb like teeth embroidered along with talismans and mawares in the back topped by cypress trees, identical to the back. 

Colored silk dress with multiple colors, mostly yellow and red. The dress has several layers of blue and white cloths on top of one another at the end of the sleeves, the tail and the neck slot and the front side in V shape. 

Wide sleeves dress of white cotton with red, green and thin dark blue stripes. The chest panel has striped Kashmir cloth with wavy edges. The neck and shoulders have additional silk cloth and braidwork surrounding the chest panel. The sleeves have silk (bird’s tongue) in addition to colorings in the original cotton cloth. The front and back sides have no embroidery work, and the tail is done with wavy needle work. 

Black dress with wide sleeves, and aqras (geometrical figures) embroidery on the chest panel, the shoulders and along the sleeves, showing geometrical figures and the cypress trees braidwork. The sleeve opening has a tashreefa with white and red. The front side and the banayeq (sidelines) has intense cypress trees motif embroidery, while the back side shows atlas motif showing moons and other geometrical figures. The top shows cypress trees designs and the tail of the dress shows two lines of blue embroidery. 

Black roman dress with bows motif embroidery on the chest pane, especially used in Ramallah areas, along with other floral and geometrical designs. Includes golden qasab thick needlework at the neck slot and above the chest panel. The sleeves, similar to those of the Bethlehem malak dress, have a clock motif embroidery stitched on hirmizi silk. The front side shows traditional mawares braidwork with the ostrich motif. The dress banayeq (sidelines) have manajel (thick braidwork connecting the dress parts) connecting the dress tail to the underarm. The back side is embroidered with the ostrich braidwork and the center shows wheat spike and feathers motif as well as birds. The chest panel has a side pocket.  

White dress with mostly red embroidery. The front side shows two thin braidwork stripes of mawares motif, on both sides. A long braidwork starts at the shoulders along the sleeves in a straight line, showing a specific shape at one end.  The back side of the dress shows similar mawares briadworks on both sides, but the bottom of the back side has a special needlework with five partitions inside a rectangular shape. 

Black Kittan cloth dress, with chest panel framed from three sides with different colors, surrounding a tashreefa motif and an opening with a vest slot and laces. It is topped with a lulu braidwork that has flowers on both ends. The neck and shoulders are made of red cloth with a thick orange lacing. The sleeves include hirmizi cloth with multiple colors of embroidery and framed by lulu braidwork with flowers. The back side of the dress shows flowers from two sides with an oval in the center. The dress’s banayeq include soft floral motifs with geometrical shapes, surrounded by laces of geometrical motifs. A horizontal lulu braidwork with flowers is seen on the center of the dress’s front side, while the back shows horizontal briadworks of cypress trees and longitudinal ones similar to the front side. 

A Tifta (Al-Alam) cloth dress with large opening sleeves, with chest panel embroidery resembling a bow (Al-Anbar chest panel); which is square with geometrical and floral motifs on it. The top corner of the panel and the shoulders velveteen russet. The large opening sleeve with embroidery on the forearm and at the sleeve edge, with geometrical motifs. The banayeq (sidelines) shows floral motifs while the back part shows four thick braidwork of Al-Qasab needle work. 

Roman white dress with regular long sleeves that show floral motifs, also shown underarm and on the sleeve end. Two thick embroidery works are identical on both sides with intense embroidery on the tail. The chest panel embroidery is embroidered with different motifs, where the center of the panel shows a bow topped by two branches of flowers, and under it, there are two squares of embroidery with feathers on the sides. The panel is framed by flowers. 

Malak Dress made with Ikhdari cloth with green, burgundy, orange and black stripes. The sleeves are made with silk hirmizi cloth. Embroidery on the chest panel resembles the traditional stitch of malak dress with floral motifs, while the neck and shoulders slot is made with pink cloth, connected to the chest panel by a line of velveteen russet. The front side of the dress shows the original cloth colors without embroidery, while the back side shows 4 horizontal stripes of the cloth. The banayeq (sidelines) are of silk cloth, and are connected to the dress by manajel (thick braidwork connecting the dress parts) with simple floral motif embroidery in the bottom.   

Black dress with intense embroidery. The chest panel shows bow shaped embroidery which are also known as qalayed (necklaces) as well as floral motifs, while the backside of the panel shows floral motifs embroidered on silk cloth by special stitch.  The sleeves show heavy embroidery of vine leaves, while the banayeq (sidelines) show motfis of flowers, feathers and manajel (thick braidwork connecting the dress parts).

The bottom front side shows patches of yellow, orange and red silk triangles, with Kashmir cloth on the sides. The bottom of the back side has a stitched-in piece of cloth with blue embroidery of birds and flowers. 

A black dress with wide open sleeves with heavy embroidery. The chest panel shows geometrical motifs (fans), with colored slot. The shoulders show embroidery known as Nishan (emblem) and the sleeves show intense embroidery of cypress trees with waves that include a yellow braidwork along the sleeve. The sides of the dress show banayeq braidwork stiches with floral motifs topped by a motif Maqas (scissors). The lower front side of the dress shows motifs of cypress branches with different color shades. The back shows the Pasha’s tent motif topped by geometrical figure and cypress branches, while the bottom back side (tail) has two blue lines that go around the dress.