Dry Humour on the Wet Coast

They meet under the cover of night. They hold radical ideals and try to exist outside of the mainstream society the hold in contempt. Many of them want to be agents of change. They’re easy to pick out of a crowd, with their distinct style of dress, namely, the black and white checkered scarf that usually adorns their necks. Yes, the presence of the Keffiyeh is a sure-fire way to identify one of these radicals.

We’re, of course, talking about hipsters. The fashion-forward indie-rockers that have firmly embed themselves into contemporary Western Society. What did you think we were talking about?

Like the fashion sense of most counter-cultures, the clothing choices to the skinny-jeaned sub-set has raised more than a few eye browns in the past few years, what with the controversial scarf that so many of them are seen wearing.

If you talk a walk down Robson on any given day, you’ll come across a bakers-dozen of these people wearing the scarf in question. I spoke to one of these people the other day a block away from the Vancouver Art Gallery. She was an attractive 20-something with long blonde hair, thick-rimmed librarian-esque glasses and an ultra-sheik black leather jacket. The girl, who asked to remain nameless, went on to say that she’s been on the receiving end of much criticism for wearing what she does.

“I picked up this scarf in Paris, a lot of people where them there,” she said. “I think it looks great, but older people always give me a hard time. One old guy even called me a terrorist. I don’t know why.”

When I told her the cultural-cache behind the Keffiyeh, it was all news to her. She just thought it was a handsome neck-wrap.

The Keffiyeh, or shemagh, isn’t anything new to the world of fashion. The middle-eastern accessory has been popping in and out of the collective consciousness for decades, with artsy-types in Europe and the United States wearing them in the ’70s and ’80s and Japanese youth culture embracing the item in the ’90s.

For centuries, Arabic men have been using the Keffiyeh (also known as Shemagh, ghutra, or hatta), usually a wool and cotton blend, as a practical item handy for keeping the sun off of their faces and sand out of their mouths.

It was during World War II when the Western world began to take notice of the item with British soldiers stationed in the mid east. They were impressed the handy nature of the garment and adopted it for their own uses.

But in a post-9/11 world, these seemingly harmless pieces of fabric are raising the ire of Jewish groups, conservative pundits and right-wing civilians the world over.

To many in the Western world, the Keffiyeh is seen as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, with the black and white being the most potent pattern to behold, what with it being the every present head-gear of the late Yassir Arafat. So it shows to logic that if you’re in support of the Palestinians, you’re against Israel, the West and are in turn a terrorist in training waiting to find your first target to bomb. Some right-wing bloggers have gone as far as to call this subversive brainwashing by islamo-fascists.
It’s enough to make you nostalgic for the days when wearing a hammer and sickle or Che Guevara t-shirt was the height of political fashion dissidence.

The successful American clothing retailer, Urban Outfitters, has been on of the more public companies at the receiving end of complains as of late. The store, known for catering to the tastes of the young and hip, had been carrying Keffiyehs on their shelves, toting them as “Anti-War Peace Scarves.” In January, the company caved under pressure from Jewish groups offended by the retailer’s choice to carry the item. So now instead of Peace scarves, shoppers can find generic, but similar looking, scarves sans the volatile sentiments. On an ironic note, Richard Hayne, owner of Urban Outfitter and it’s two sister stores, Anthropolgie and Free People, is an active conservative Republican and even donated to the Rick Santorum campaign. Would someone like that really try to further the terrorist agenda?

In an attempt to diffuse the socially offensive nature of Keffiyehs and to further the discussion on what makes for jihadi clothing, Dutch artists have been spreading an image of Anne Frank, the Jewish icon who gave a face and voice to the suffering masses of World War II, wearing and red and white Keffiyeh. The artist behind the design is calling it an ideal image of peace and understanding. The Hague-based Centre For Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) is calling it a tasteless falsification of history. The drawing of similarities of persecuted Jews in Germany and Palestinians in Israel is a bitter pill to swallow for Jews and pro-Zionists alike.

Now the image is starting to pop-up around New York and other major cities around the world. At least it might get people talking, and hipsters might find out a little bit more about the political statement they’re wearing around their necks.