SF Chronicle: No more kaffiyehs / Radical Chic confusion among the fashion rebels

No more kaffiyehs / Radical Chic confusion among the fashion rebels
Frida Ghitis
Sunday, March 5, 2006 Chronicle Sunday Insights

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 blowing frigid air along Amsterdam's narrow streets, I still see some determined fashion rebels tightly wrapping their checkered black and white Palestinian kaffiyehs around their necks.

Sadly, the kaffiyeh, appears to be on its way out, with no visible replacement in the horizon. Perhaps the desert headwear-turned fashion scarf has lost allure as the political winds of the Middle East have blown it out of the corridors of power.

Most will remember the kaffiyeh when they picture its most famous wearer, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who never faced the public without one neatly positioned over his head and shoulders. Only his closest confidants ever got a glimpse of his uncovered head.

The kaffiyeh 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 bearded wearers jauntily protecting their faces from tear gas as they threw rocks at the establishment, represented by policemen wearing their hopelessly old-fashioned riot gear.

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. But the pensive visage of Fidel Castro's revolutionary comrade is strictly summer fashion. In the winter he is mere lining, underwear, really.

Arafat remains a symbol of the struggle for the downtrodden, even if his actions did not always live up to the ideals. Still, 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 that sells. Whether it's Tommy Hillfiger attire at the Olympics or Giorgio Armani designs on the runways of Milan, style alone does not do the trick. You need models, marketing and a message.

Nike had Michael Jordan and Che Guevara-Wear has Fidel Castro's Cuba promoting him. A stroll down any Cuban street brings you face to face with larger than life images of the man, his message and, above all, his face. Yes, there are those dark eyes staring into space, and that cool beret covering his hair, which is probably messy, what with all that work saving the oppressed.

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 to the front pages and the fashionable rebels rushed online to order more groovy black and white scarves. After he died, his heirs in Fatah still ruled the Palestinian Authority, and the black and white still fluttered proudly over televised shoulders in Ramallah. Then came the Palestinian elections on January 25, however, and everything changed. The green was in, the black and white was out.

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 European and North American radical chic. To be truly hip, you must keep up with the message your clothes send. You can still wear one of those "Bush Terrorist" T-shirts. That states pretty clearly where you stand.

You could try the red shirts of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, or the everyman jacket of Iran's 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." Maybe that will have to do until spring comes and we can all break out those Che Guevara shirts.

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