Object History
Dr. Reem Tariq el Mutwalli spotted these undergarments (sarwal) on one of her field trips at Sharjah market in 1990.
Object Features
These printed cotton underpants (sarwal) sport decorative ankle-cuffs (badlah) that recalls the hand adorned (talli_badlah) in its overall shape and size. However, in this example, the adornment is achieved using the less-expensive more contemporary method of machine embroidery (khwar) in silver metallic thread (dag_khus). All the while mimicking the basic badlah_talli with a centre portion (bayt) decorated at the top in a jagged edge (talli_minsharah) motif, and (talli_ftul) motif is repeated on the side borders (traf).
The baggy waistline is gathered and fixed in place with elasticated ribbon replacing earlier more traditional cotton cords (nsai’ah). The more tapered legs with embroidered ankle-cuffs are opened and closed with the aid of a zipper. Earlier versions used traditional cotton thread ball buttons (igam) and more recently, metal snap studs (siq_w_biq).
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