Wassim el Hodayebi
Royal Academy of arts
fashion design year 2
The Hague 10th of may

A collaborative project between Jalil, Jamilla, and their newborn son Osama. As a fashion design student, I believe that it’s very important to work with a pure source of inspiration so for this project I reached out to my neighbors in Marocco (Hrerta) to see what is their vision on clothes.

A short introduction about Hrerta

In this essay, I want to find out more about how the place and context change the meaning of clothes I mainly want to focus on a specific region Hrerta a village close by Essouira in Marocco.
 I have chosen this place because it means a lot to me the certain uninscribed values people have there which I got to know since my father brings our family here once every year for two months. You can describe Hrerta as a village where people mainly live by farming, growing vegetables, making argan oil, and building houses. It’s an Arabic area but in between the different villages, there are different dialects. Children are able to go to school in the village or in the city of Essaouira which is around 20 km from Hrerta. But only for a short time people get educated there, so the older generation stayed un education in the sense of learning different languages and reading and writing. There is a basic needs store but for the big groceries, people go to the market every Sunday or Wednesday. The climate is mainly in summer around 35-44 degrees with a strong wind and almost no rain which makes the landscape during the summer very dry. In the winter there’s more rain and around 20 degrees so that’s the time the landscape is very rich with grass and plants.

As a close bystander of the village, I have observed a way of living that was different from what I was used to as a student living in the Netherlands growing up with a different way of consumerism and a mobile phone. There is a kind of zero waste climate in Hrerta since many modern products are not there which resolves in people being very pragmatic in what they use wear and buy. There is no such thing as stores where people buy brand new clothes from their favorite brands or look online to see what is popping. We are actually going to see “What is Hrerta wearing today”.

First interview through the phone with Jalil and Jamilla in Hrerta. 

Phone call with Jallil and Jamilla our neighbors which just got their first child. 

In the conversation, Jamilla was answering the questions about Jalil's wardrobe because she is most of the time the one who makes the final decisions. Since jalil doesn’t want to spend time buying clothes. 

Jamilla explained that she knows she’s buying the right size when the pants fit her waist circumference or if the pants folded in half fit around her neck. 

Jalil only likes white and black only Osama their newborn child likes colors.

Jalil likes a hood to cover his head in the evening since it can get cold sometimes. 

When I asked if they have any preferences about brands they said it doesn’t matter if it fits it fits you wear it and that’s it.

The clothes they buy can be second-hand or new, only underwear they buy is always new which they buy in the medina or at the market.  

The last clothes Jamilla bought for Jalil were two pairs of jeans which she bought for 200 Dh which is approximately 20 euros this is quite expensive with the average income they have. 

How long does Jalil wear his clothes? as an answer she told us that Jalil eats his clothes the same way as an argan three, this is a saying they use because the tree has very pointy branches which rippes the clothes.  

On special occasions like a wedding, Jalil told me he was just wearing some white pants with a white shirt. 

In collaboration I asked Jalil and Jamilla if it was possible for them to send me pictures of them wearing their daily clothes, besides that, I mentioned that it was for my school, they know I am studying fashion so I assumed they did their best to come up with their best clothes. the only thing which was hard for them was to find a phone with a camera after asking around they managed to send me the pictures on WhatsApp. for this project I wanted to write down minimum instructions and allow authenticity without unfiltered photos.