A young girl sits on the stone steps of her home, watching her mother, and other female family members, create the traditional Palestinian handcraft of “tatreez” (hand embroidery). They sit with balls of bright embroidery thread in baskets, stitching on local cotton or linen or an older garment, painstakingly small cross stitches in bright colours, across the bodices, in panels for sleeves and on the hems of their skirts. The visible record of their love for their land and storytelling of their shared history, appears in the motifs, olive trees, buildings and local fauna and flora.
The traditional Palestinian “thobe “(long loose fitting dress), was worn for centuries, in villages near Jerusalem, and through Gaza in Ramallah, and Bethlehem. Before the colonisation and now destruction of Palestine, the choice and combination of motifs, colours, and style of embroidery (tatreez) on a woman’s thobe could link her to a very specific village and region, a personal visual ethnography.
Incorporating traditional Palestinian foods, flora, architecture and scenes of daily life, designs use colours and form to indicate a wearers regional identity and home place, and marital status. Tatreez was recognised by Unesco on their Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Bethlehem, a center for design and a popular pilgrimage town since ancient times, is famous for rich and distinctive use of couch stitching, “tahriri” or “taqsireh”, involving laying a heavier cord using gold or silver thread in an intricate pattern. This style of embroidery is highly valued across Palestine and by discerning buyers online, especially for weddings.
After the 1948 Nakba many Palestinian families were uprooted, and the traditional designs connected women to their history and their home places. After the Palestinian flag was banned, its colours were specifically embroidered onto clothing. Political struggles and resistance to the Occupation appear through colours of the Palestinian flag as well as doves and other symbolism. Palestinian women literally wear their resistance and activism as beautiful and often inherited, refreshed dresses.
The craft of tatreez reflects Palestine’s long history of beautiful clothes. Embroiderers throughout the West Bank still create hand-stitched items and Palestinian sellers market fine crafted home decor items, larger embroidered panels for clothing, and full thobes, exquisite as celebration or wedding garments, on sites like Etsy and Pinterest.
Yasmeen Mjalli, the designer at Nol Collective, also supports embroiderers in Palestine creating modern tatreez designs, to sell on the global marketplace. She also supports local clothing upcyling project souk samara. She helped preserve handweaving of traditional Majdalawi fabric, a 100% cotton element of traditional Palestinian dress for centuries. Originally from the demolished town of al Majdal in Gaza, one of the last remaining master weavers was able to recently move to safe premises and continue the craft, with funds raised by selling traditional clothes online.
Action :
do confirm that any purchase of tatreez work will directly support a Palestinian family, especially if you are buying a preloved garment which was a much valued family heirloom. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and elsewhere use these traditional skills to support their families.
Additional References:
https://www.unesco.org/en/fieldoffice/ramallah/palestinian-embroidery
Book by Rachel Dedman “Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine” https://www.commonthreadspress.co.uk/products/stitching-the-intifada-embroidery-and-resistance-in-palestine
Talk by Rachel Dedman on the links between Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine : https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/material-power-embroidery-dress-and-resistance-in-palestine/