Love this from Babylon & Beyond:

Put on a pair of gold encrusted BQ shades — the world’s first sunglasses especially tailored for piously dressed women in the Persian Gulf.


The brand’s name BQ comes from the word burqa — a face-covering harness worn by women in the Persian Gulf region in nomadic times. BQ’s debut collection features modern replicas of the traditional accessory in the form of large, dark aviator-style sunglasses.

BQ pitches the proposition that burqas were traditionally a type of protection from the sun as well as a religious face veil.

The Dubai Fitch branch in Dubai is behind the idea (and it’s remains just that for the moment, though they are taking pre-orders here and you can see what you would look like in a pair here). It hopes BQ will become a hit among young fashionable women in the region by mixing trends with tradition. Great to see conceptual beginnings of home grown (or at least locally inspired) brands emerging. What I would love to see is a contemporarizing redesign of the Burqa that turns it from controversial symbol of retardedness to future fashion icon.

Fitch produced the video below with Emirati Khulood Al-Atiyat discussing the Burqa’s history and place in contemporary society. She sees it as an integral part of Persian Gulf heritage and hopes it isn’t lost to globalization.

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