In a way it was all Nicolas Ghesquière’s fault. In one of his early collections he used a Palestinian scarf, but the keffiyeh reappeared in lavish prints and gold fringes in Balenciaga’s 2007 Fall/Winter collection, worn around the neck with narrow jackets and blazers. For months after that catwalk, wearing keffiyehs was tremendously fashionable, with celebrities often being photographed wrapped up in the ubiquitous scarf.
Yet the whole trend annoyed me as in Italy we used to wear keffiyehs 10 or 15 years ago, both as a political and fashion statements. In recent years there was an abundance of keffiyehs at anti-G8, anti-Berlusconi and other assorted demos, with students wearing the black-and-white scarf around their neck or folded in half to make a triangle with one point facing down in the centre of the chest. Over ten years ago my mum bought a keffiyeh from a fair trade shop in my home town (yes, fair trade was already popular in Italy 15 years ago) as she wanted to do some interior design experiments with it, but I made an unfortunate remark while she was showing it to me saying I would have worn it during various demos I was planning to take part in, hoping they wouldn’t have arrested me, and she promptly hid it away (to this day I still don’t know where she buried it…).
The keffiyeh (Arabic كوفية) is a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. It’s actually a cotton and wool scarf folded and wrapped in different styles. This is an ideal accessory to protect oneself from the sun, but also from dust and sand, this is also why they are popular with Western soldiers serving in Iraq. Traditionally the keffiyeh is held in place by the agal, a rope circle, this was for example the style predominantly worn by Yasser Arafat. 
Leila Khaled, a member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, first worn the scarf in the style of a hijab in the ’70s.
Traditional keffiyehs are made of white cotton, but some have a checkered pattern in black, red or green on a white background. Particular meanings are attributed to different colours, but the colour symbolism is not universally accepted by all Palestinians.
Westerners were first exposed to the keffiyeh trend while watching 1920s films with Orientalist themes such as Rudolph Valentino’s movies. In Italy keffiyehs first became popular in the late ’80s, the same period they became fashionable in the United States, that is at the start of the First Intifada. They never went out of fashion in Italy where coloured keffiyehs have replaced the traditional black and white version more recently.
In France fashion and art collective Andrea Crews produces quite beautiful rainbow coloured keffiyehs, also available from its website (at €20), while in Italy you can find them in fair trade or ethnic shops and on market stalls. Some eBay retailers even have amazing three-for-two special offers on coloured keffiyehs.
How are they worn in Italy? This summer they have been used as sarongs, shawls or turbans during summer parties in Paul Poiret‘s style. Trendsetters foresee they will still be fashionable in Autumn, worn in more traditional ways, around the neck or as belts. Some of the most fashionable keffiyehs for this Autumn are those produced by the Swedish brand Svensson that collaborated with designer Jonas Liveröd and turned keffiyehs into fashionable print scarves (available in four colours and costing around €50) which are perfect to wear with casual but also elegant clothes.
The only problem with the keffiyeh trend is that being this item so politically loaded, many people think this fashion is offensive. Urban Outfitters for example stopped selling keffiyehs last year after receiving complaints from a pro-Israel activist. Though somehow different, the whole debate surrounding keffiyehs is similar to the one surrounding rosary beads worn as necklaces on plunging neckline dresses. My opinion? Coloured keffiyehs might just be a passing trend, but I guess that if they are stirring a debate is only healthy. After all, isn’t fashion supposed to be controversial?
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