When you are going to Saidi Arabia you have to wear a long garment, that is called in Arabic an ''abaya''. This long garment are worn by muslim women to protect themselves not from the weather but from the eyes of men. The colour of this Abaya is always black. Over the past few years, an abaya evolution has been under way thanks to the designer Eman Al-Mandeel and others. Eman started wearing her own designs, and after a while people started asking her to make abayas for them.
Eman moved to Riyadh where the black abaya's were worn by women with little or no embellishment on it. But against the odds, Eman's creations have won lots of fans. Many Saudi VIPs wear them, who can afford it.
Eman wants more Saudi women to adopt colourful abayas as a statement of their identity.
"You can not change a country in one or two years," she says thoughtfully. "But each year I can see Saudis getting that little bit more accepting… My aim is to make Saudi women look like individual members of society."
My opinion
I have seen this kind of cloth which is called an abaya. It is nice to wear it but not only the black one. I like the abaya's which have embellishment and are colourfull. The colour black is too hot in the summer. This designer did a great job to reinventing the Saidi Arabia Abaya. I also want to have one of this abaya just for fun. I will wear this kind of cloth when I have to go to the mosque.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13372186