Object History
This dress was made for shaikha Hamda bint Saeed bin Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, at the age of eleven and captured in a wonderful photograph with the young shaikha wearing it in 2013. It was gifted by her mother shaikha Shaikha bint Mohammed bin Khalid al Nahyan to Dr. Reem Tariq el Mutwalli and was eventually added to The Zay Collection.
Dr. Reem is a close friend of the mother, Shaikha Shaikha bint Mohammed bin Khalid al Nahyan is married to her maternal cousin Admiral Pilot Sheikh Saeed bin Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Commander of the Naval Forces, they have 1 daughter and 4 sons.
Shaikha Shaikha bint Mohammed is a graduate of class of 2019 from Sheikh Zayed private academy for girls. She is a leading supporter of tennis in the UAE and hosts the Sheikh Mohammed bin Saeed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Tennis Tournament for Emirati women. An avid supporter of The Zay Initiative through many donations and gifts, showing her commitment to supporting women empowerment and the preservation of cultural heritage in the region.
Sheikha Hamda bint Saeed bin Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, was born in 2002, she is currently in her first year of studying business intelligence at Zayed University.
Object Features
Before the 1980s, it was common to employ contrasting colours and techniques within the components of the traditional dress. Women used to wear a thawb that contrasted with the tunic dress (kandurah). Soon this evolved into a matching set known as (thawb_wa_kandurah). By the 1990s, it developed further, as the two pieces were merged into one, attached at the neckline to become a combination overgarment tunic called (thawb_kandurah) reserved for social events.
This example is called thawb_kandurah (myaza’) because of the panelled construction of the overgarment. Traditionally, this style evolved out of frugality, when garments were made from several pieces of expensive fabric remnants. Over time it came to be recognized as a style in itself called myaza’.
The fabric is comprised of a series of multi-coloured light French silk chiffon panels in white, grass green, and light pink. This garment is machine embroidered (mkhawar), in a gold metallic thread (zari), with arabesque flora and fauna motifs. The embroidery accentuates the neckline (bidhah), central axis, and paneling joints of the overgarment, as well as the sleeve cuffs of the white satin silk inner tunic (kandurah). The embroidery is then further accentuated with Swarovski iron-on crystals (fsus).
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