Chicago Tribune | No more kaffiyehs: Radical-chic confusion

Chicago Tribune No more kaffiyehs: Radical-chic confusion

AMSTERDAM -- As the slave to fashion that I am, it's my duty to report the urgent news from the front lines of Europe's "radical chic" world. The latest developments in rebel fashion, I'm afraid, are rather grim. Yes, as I push against the North Sea wind along Amsterdam's narrow streets, the checkered black-and-white Palestinian kaffiyehs wrapped around the necks of fashion rebels appear to be on the way out, with no visible replacement in the horizon.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat never faced the public without one positioned over his head and shoulders. The desert headwear was originally meant for covering men's heads in Middle Eastern deserts, but it took the fashion world by storm on the chaotic runways of anti-globalization street protests, with protesters jauntily protecting their faces from tear gas as they threw rocks at the establishment.

In a clever juxtaposition--a geographical and political melange of styles--the preferred top to go with the black-and-white scarf was a Che Guevara T-shirt. The bearded Guevara, icon of Latin America's leftist rebels, would be astonished to know how many capitalists have profited from selling his likeness. But the pensive visage of Fidel Castro's revolutionary comrade is strictly summer fashion. In the winter the T-shirts are mere lining, underwear really.

Arafat and Guevara remain symbols of the struggle for the downtrodden, but when it comes to keeping a fashion trend alive, it is no secret that you need an effective marketing campaign. It's not just style or Tommy Hilfiger or Giorgio Armani that sells. You need models, marketing and a message.

Nike has Michael Jordan and Fidel Castro has Che Guevara-Wear. A stroll down any Cuban street brings you face-to-face with larger-than-life images of Guevara, his message and, above all, those dark eyes staring into space and that cool beret covering his hair. As for kaffiyeh sales among trendy Western rebels, we have a marketing crisis in the works.

As long as Arafat was alive, it didn't matter what he and his Fatah party did, the kaffiyeh made it onto the front pages of newspapers and fashionable rebels continued to order more groovy black-and-white scarves online. Then came Arafat's death, the Palestinian elections on Jan. 25, and everything changed.

The Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, the party that won control of the Palestinian Parliament, does not wear black and white. Horrors! Hamas, Fatah's rival, favors Islam's green.

That throws a stylistic monkey wrench into the wardrobe choices of the radical chic. To be truly hip, you must keep up with the message your clothes send. You can still wear a "Bush Terrorist" T-shirt. You can try the red shirts of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez or the everyman jacket of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But when the wind is blowing in Amsterdam, you need more, and an Arafat kaffiyeh runs the risk of confusing your public. Does black and white mean you don't support Hamas? And if you don't support Hamas, does that mean you have forsaken the Palestinian cause? It's so tough being a rebel!

Luckily for radicals in Amsterdam, the shops are full of options. There is the always-popular sweat shirt that reads, "I went to Amsterdam and all I got was stoned.

"----------Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs--and occasionally fashion.