Abayas: A Whole New Fashion Item to Explore

When coming to Saudi Arabia and starting at KAUST, I was concerned about the abaya and making sure I bought one the right one.

So I did some research- which mainly involved trying to see what women were wearing on the local news sites. From what I could gather, they were wearing plain black robes with plain black veils.

Oh, how I was wrong. There is nothing plain about them.

I did buy this one and totally love it.

In my month here, I've learned that the abaya/robe is more like a long jacket that you wear 
when you leave your home and they have some really nice ones. I had assumed they 
were all black and drab, but most of them are decorated -- and they don't have 
to be black.

I think black is like our standard corporate suit that never goes 
out of style, but many women wear ones that have color, some sort of decorative accent on them. 


I’ve been watching my co-workers and checking the abaya fashion sites (yes, I actually do this) and it seems chocolate brown was hot for the winter months. But now that the weather is getting 
really hot, I'm seeing off-white, lavender and other colored abayas on the Saudi girls.

Now I’m getting excited. This is a whole new fashion arena that I never knew existed.  

In addition to the colors, you also have different styles that range from the button down, to the zip up, to belted, to umbrella sleeved, to the pullover. There are work abayas and some for casual wear.

And they wear them with dress shoes and heels and not flat sandals like I thought.

Oh yeah. I'm kind of regretting giving away most of my stilettos now, but they probably aren’t practical for running around the campus.

Then there is the veil. I admit I'm still trying to master that part as I seem to get caught up in it, but without it, it looks like you forgot something.

I’m sure if I had to wear an abaya and veil everyday, I would be less excited, but I only have to wear it for shopping or dinners when I go to the city and
 traveling. So basically, when I put it on, it means I’m going to go someplace fun -- so I might as well look fashionable when I go.

All the abayas featured on this page are from Aab Collection, my favorite abaya shop so far.