Kuwaii cotton
120 g/m² · summer weight
Woven in Kuwait, unbleached, with a slight slub that keeps the cloth from clinging. The default for daily wear from May to October.
EST. 1979
Doha · Riyadh · Geneva
Cut once, kept on file.
A kandura is a simple garment made difficult by the heat. We cut them by hand from cotton and wool, measure you once, and keep the pattern so the second order can be placed by telephone.
Cloth
Three bolts, and
no fourth.
A kandura fails in the heat, not in the mirror. We keep three cloths because those are the three that survive an August afternoon without going transparent or grey.
Swiss wool blend
185 g/m² · winter weight
Wool with a little polyester so the pleat holds through a wash. Heavier than it looks, and considerably cooler than it sounds.
Cotton-silk
140 g/m² · evening
For a bisht or a wedding kandura. It takes the gold thread without puckering, which is the only reason we keep it at all.
The cut
Four measurements,
and one argument.
-
01
Measure
Neck, shoulder, chest, length. Four numbers, taken standing, in the cloth you intend to wear underneath. Twenty minutes.
-
02
Argue about length
It should finish at the ankle bone, not the floor. Every client asks for an extra two centimetres; we cut the first one short and let the mirror settle it.
-
03
Cut and sew
One cutter, one tailor, four weeks. The collar is the slow part — it is built up in three layers so it stands without starch.
-
04
File the pattern
Your paper pattern goes into the cabinet with a number. Reorders are cut from it without a second fitting, for as long as we are here.
Pieces
What we make.
01
Kandura
The daily garment. Straight collar, three-button placket, no pocket unless asked. Cotton or wool blend.
From QAR 850
02
Bisht
Worn over the kandura for an occasion. Wool, gold thread at the shoulder, cut wider through the body so it falls open.
From QAR 3,400
03
Shirt & sadou
The layer underneath, and the woven band some clients still prefer to the modern collar. Hand-loomed in Al Hofuf.
From QAR 320
“The cloth should be the last thing anyone notices. If a man walks into a room and the first remark is about his kandura, something has gone wrong in the cutting.”
Yousef Al-Mansoori — second-generation cutter, joined 1988
Fitting
Come in, stand
still for twenty minutes.
A first fitting takes forty minutes including the cloth conversation. Allow four weeks for the garment. Reorders are ten days and can be placed over the telephone.
Doha
Souq Waqif, Building 14
Sat–Thu, 09:00–13:00 · 16:00–21:00
Riyadh
Al Dirah, King Faisal Road
Sun–Thu, 10:00–22:00