The people-watching in Pittsburgh is pretty good. There are the clue-free CS majors, the flaring drama majors, the stressed-out science majors and the busy-busy professors. But sartorially, Pittsburgh has nothing on the rainbow of sartorial diversity in Doha.
Today I saw women in full abayas with their entire faces covered by their scarves, women with their scarves perched artfully on the backs of their heads, women not wearing scarves, one (female) professor wearing a turban, women wearing jeans, women wearing shorts, short skirts over jeans, long skirts–and in colors from black (the majority) to blues and purples. Even the black skirts and dresses usually had jewel-toned hems in purple, red and green. At the mall, I saw men in dark grey robes, Diesel jackets, startlingly white thobes, with their heads covered by gutras, scull-caps, baseball caps and nothing but hair.
I am hoping, in the next few months, to start decoding what different colored gutras and scarves mean. I think much has to do with taste, but there may be signals as to where someone is from in what colors they wear.
This is much more fun than trying to distinguish between girls wearing H&M and girls wearing Gap back in the states.
Inspirational Quote:
“Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.”–Jane Austen
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