Kuffiyah Kraze and Arabphilia in Ironic T-Shirts: Arabs Steal Che’s Iconic Thunder
Is it finally kool to associate the kuffiyah with palis and other Arabs? To buy a shirt described as an “Armed and Dangerous” look and one that portrays Palestinians as “Victimized”???? I wonder what Stand With US will have to say about this, especially since the shirt is being sold on Urban Outfitters’ website.
This is a bold move for Urban Outfitters, which last year, under pressure from the Israel advocacy organization Stand With Us, temporarily halted nation-wide sale and distribution of their “anti-war woven scarf,” ahem kuffiyah. However, this time, if the Zionist coming attacking once again, what will they say? It’s not like they can hide the shirt’s prominently displayed Pali-ness-I mean the shirt does stamp the Palestinian flag right on the front of it. Well, it could always euphesmatically re-name the flag like it did the scarf, perhaps calling it “art deco design African nationalist” flag shirt.
The shirt is also being sold on French site Ma Garde Robe for $56.19-that’s 39 euro if you were concerned.
However, more interesting than UO’s sale of the shirt, is the clothing company that manufactured the shirt: Los Angeles-based Men and Women’s Freshjive clothing line.
A good chunk of their collection is sold on Karma Loop. After looking through Karmaloop’s full collection of Freshjive tees, other even more interesting and controversial images materialized. Going for $22.00 is a tee with an image of a young Yasser Arafat (with dark-lens glasses and a kuffiyah as well-go fig!) with the phrase “The Good Ole Days” running under the pic. The last halting Arab-related image I found in Freshjive’s newest collection on Karma Loop was a $23.00 T-shirt called “The Oil Rules” tee featuring a swarty Abdullah-looking Saudi Royal decked out in traditional garb-a
white kuffiyah, aqal, darkly-tinted avatar sunglasses, sweeping robe, a cigar in one hand and a enigmatic can in the other.
In assessing this new phenomenon, of featuring radical Arab figures as the ironic iconic t-shirt emblem du jour, I ask: Is this a counter movement to the presumed ignorance surrounding the kuffiyah kraze or just a fetishism of the cool West-despised anti-hero?
Lastly, it’s an interesting statement for a Woman and Men’s clothing line to carry to such images for exclusively for their male line. Instead of Yasser, the women get Tina Turner and and a bubble gum wrapper as part of their ironic t-shirt choices.
[Tarbouch Tip: Aseil]
