By 10:00 a.m. today I realized that it was just going to be one of those odd days, so I devoted a Reflections on Things at Hand (one of my recurring features) just to the morning.
Today must be insane shoe day at Zayed. I have seen more fashionable/scandalous high heels shoes today than one would normally see in the States in a season. I've talked before about the amazing creativity that the students use when adapting the abaya, as a way to upholding tradition but also expressing individuality. This especially shows itself in regards to shoes, and especially high hells. My favorite of the day was from a young woman wearing a very conservative abaya and hijab, with none of the fashionable additions that they create, who was also wearing the most eye-catching red shoes with what must have been four inch heels. Beyond the fashion disconnect, I'm just amazed at the skill required to walk in them.
My other favorite fashion moment of the day related to a young woman who was sporting a cut-away abaya. Often the students will just leave the abaya open in the front, where it almost looks like a cross between a cape and and an academic robe (think Harry Potter). Lately I've seen several girls with the lower part of the abaya, just in the front, cut away. It works to emphasize what are normally a pair of skin-tight stone-washed jeans. Today the cut-away abaya bracketed a pair of remarkably loose/slouchy pajama pants and moccasins. Fascinating. The thing is that once the girls are in class the vast majority of them are very serious students, and they leave the fashion mentality out in the promenade.
Oh, and walking back into the male wing after office hours I saw one of the boys using a match to light a pipe, inside the building. I have no idea what that was about. I suspect that just as with the high heels and the stone-washed jeans and the pajama pants, it was just fashion.
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