Keffiyeh fashion in Germany ("Palituch" in German)

Spotted on the Frankfurt Zeil yesterday: c.a. 8,000 women (and some dudes) wearing the old Yasir Arafat Pali-tuch. Apparently it's this year's must-have accessoire. Shopkeepers seen frantically dumping inventory of Chez Guevara T-shirts.

Begs the question, with Pali-tücher staging such a strong comeback, can 80's era mullets be so far behind?

keep up this is so last week fashion
(incidentally quite popular in UK of late)

Blimey, I hope you're not in the fashion business, my daughter and her mates have been wearing these all year.

Given the number I saw yesterday, we may be at the peak of the cycle.

Go on then, i'll play, wtf is a pali-tuch?

These things: google is your friend!

shemagh ala Bravo Two Zero or someat.

do people actually were these in support of whatever/whoever or just cos they look cool...?

Bluedave - Get yourself down to the little shop next to foot locker and saturn at the top of kaufingerstrasse, 5.99euros and the jobs a good 'un

I was a teenager in the 80s (mind you in Bumfuck, NSW), but I don´t remember these at all. If it had been a trend, I would have worn it.

I can only speak for 1981 Würzburg-area. All the hash smokers had one with their Scorpions leather jackets.

Hmmm...well, they always say if you are old enough to remember a trend the first time, you shouldn´t "do it" again.

Is this a new French restaurant?

It's a revolutionary new restaurant!

Heh, heh. It's Monday.

I'm afraid to say that Germany lags behind a year – see Kafiyah Scarf on a British/American fashion forum, thread started in October 2006. And they don't look any less stupid now they're around the second time.

If you'd bothered to read the thread you'd have noticed that I said my daughter and her mates have been wearing them all year, not just started wearing them. It's fashion, if you don't like it don't wear it, they don't look any more stupid then lots of other so called fashion items, you're probably just too old.

Pardon me, just wanted to confirm your post with an authoritative source . And I'll stick with finding them stupid. Luckily, we don't all have the same taste. That would be so boring.

In the 80s, wearing the Palestinaenser-Tuch was a political statement (and I was one of them wearing it ...)- nowadays, it's a fashion trend (and my daughter is one of them wearing it). I don't think she knows anything about Palaestina (my attempts of political, historical or geographic education have failed so far). I don't think my motivation was much different than hers, I just wanted to be cool.

Think I might still have one knocking around back home somewhere. PLO scarf, worn with German army stylee coat and perhaps a Zig & Zag pin badge, ripped jeans and basketball boots. Christ!

one of my mates was just telling me that he saw none other than jeremy clarkson wearing one. excellent. good to know they really are stylish...

so what do they call those ugly, scarf-like things that a lot of germans, men too, wear tightly wrapped around their necks? they're usually pretty ugly colors, nothing as beautifuil as what i would wear.

Oh, those are probably just ordinary scarves, in case they meet up with a health endangering draft. Quite deadly, you know!

We need a photo!

This is not good, this is not goog at all, Keydeck has triggered a flashback.

Were Polish army boots ever a good idea?

Do you have a photo? That I would like to see.

All I remember was some of the REALLY cool kids had East/West? German Army jackets...

No you wouldn't Renia, you are too young to deal with that level of eyeball searing.

I won't even mention the baggy jumper or the combat pants, but lets just say when grunge came around I was wondering what all the fuss was about.

Oh dear. You've opened the gates. To Fashion Hell.

You know you want one!

Why do bald Germans wear them? Do they know what they look like? Would it be wildly inappropriate to take an indelible marker and draw a line in the middle of their pate? Would they get the message then?

I had to do it...

Is this solely a German male trend: blue jeans below and jacket 'n' tie above? Or do other nationalities consider 'ok'?

Ah, youth and fashion, how we forget.

Doc Martins, skinners jeans and a Ben Sherman or Jaytex shirt.

Just like the picture actually.

Reminiscence is such sweet nectar.

Which one is you? Do tell!

I can hold my hand on my heart and say "Thank Cyndi Laupers purple jodphurs that I'm not in that picture." Guys from my year in secondary school, I'm guessing this is 1988/89, 1990 at latest.

I can't hold my hand on my heart and say "Thank Jim Kerrs unseemly gents ski-pants that I'm no' in this picture." Only redeeming thing is the Watchmen badge, but that hair...one Cure/Smiths album too many.



And I think that's a Vauxhall Viscount in the background.

Thanks for sharing, I´m sure all have skeletons in our closets . Thank God digital cameras weren´t around then...

I dunno about then Renia but i seem to remember a certain Pipi Longstocking photo . . .

Ah, but Pippi is timeless!

Damn, how short my memory is!

I'm not sure, I think the motivation was different back then. For me, having lived through the 60's, 70's and 80's, when Palestinian headscarves, Che Guevara pinups, or hippie-look exotic clothes were an anti-establishment, anti-fashion statement, it's weird seeing it all come around again, marketed by designer labels as a fashion craze.

I wonder what the fashion craze will be 30 years from now? Bin Laden T-shirts? Saddam? George W Bush, anyone?

Her style is timeless with lots of panache. Even the dog is chic! The necklace is the newest must-have piece of jewelry for women.

Is that your prediction for 30 years in the future?

How about combining the two?

I reckon we'll be seeing more of Che again next year with the release of Steven Soderbergh's "Guerrilla", starring Benicio del Toro:

He´s not good looking enough to be Che (at least not in that picture).

I agree, I would have liked to see someone more handsome in that role.

But maybe he will be charismatic? Which is the whole point of Che, really.

True, we'll just have to wait and see...

That's what those ugly things are?

Oh and don't worry mullets are strong, I see them everyday. Men and women and it gives me nasty flashbacks of Billy Ray Cyrus...Also I have even seen kids with rat tails here, ohhhh the horror...

Yep.

Somehow the really ugly stuff never disappears completely ...