I was watching Lawrence of Arabia, and for some reason that I don’t understand, all of the Arabs in the movie are wearing thick, black clothes. Lawrence is the only one wearing white! They are in the Arabian desert, and spend alot of the time trying not to overheat or dehydrate. Why do they wear black, if black draws in heat?
From Ethnic Groups of Egypt
“The men dress for the harsh extremes of the desert, wearing layered flowing robes that protect them from the sun’s intense rays and yet that allow the air to circulate through their garments keeping the body temperature cooler. Their heads and neck are covered to shield them from the sun and wind-blown sand and to reduce the loss of moisture. The women wear black dresses and embroidered headdresses or bright and festive colors.”
Doesn’t really answer the question of why but explains why they don’t get hot.
This is true but wouldn’t wearing white flowering robes work all the better, as for not getting hot.
I’m not sure why it works this way. One thing to note is, while black absorbs light more than white does, clothing actually doesn’t actually transfer much heat because of its low heat capacity. White clothes will reflect more light, but they will also allow more light to pass through, where it can be aborbed by the skin, which has a much higher heat capacity. Of course, heavy-knit white clothing won’t allow much light to pass, but the clothes the Bedouin wore (and wear) is quite light. If they were white they would be little better than transparent. Better to let them absorb all the light, letting air circulate through - it’s not like your clothes are going to burn you, in any case.
I just got back from Pakistan, where I was for a couple of weeks. The native garb there is very similar to the robes in LOA. It’s called a “Shelwar Kamis” (sp?), which is a pair of very baggy pants and a loose shirt that comes down to past your knees. The sleeves and legs are long. It’s hot as hell there, and the garb is pretty effective. The bagginess keeps air flowing around you, and the long sleeves keep you from getting sunburned. You do sweat a lot though. I bought a black set and a white set, and I can tell you with some certainty that black is hotter.
Black and white are not the most common colors; muted light colors are more the norm.
The truth is I bought the black set with Omar Sharif (Ali) in mind; he looked so cool in Lawrence. Now that I think of it, are you sure everyone was wearing black? I recall them being kindof muted, perhaps dirtied light colors. Auda Abutai wore dark and King Faisal wore white as I recall.
Love that movie. Named my current company “Akaba” with Lawrence in mind. (“Akaba’s over there, Ali. It’s only a matter of going.”)
and because it is so in a movie it means it is so in real life? and bad guys always ride black horses and good guys ride white horses?
The arabs I see in news seem to wear lighter colors…
I also love that movie. Most of the Arabs in the movie wore dark colors. Lawrence was the only one I remember in pure white robes. The responses have basically answered the original question, so thank you, it all makes more sense now. I think we all have a better grasp of the world now that we know why they all didn’t dress in white. I truly believe that the movie gives a completely accurate representation of Arabian dress. Maybe Lawrence just dressed in white to show he was the good guy.
I remember reading about this somewhere, but don’t for the life of me remember where. Someone looked into this very question, and the answer I recall is that the black clothes promote better air circulation. Okay, I can’t back that up right now, but that was the answer I recall seeing. Wish I knew where - I’d post a link.
Hot air rises so I would guess that that would promote better circulation. One of the first A/C systems in the south was based on this idea. I think it was This Old House who did a piece on a place (in Georgia ?) where the A/C system was a skylight with a circular gas light directly below it. When the gas appliance was lit it heated the space below the open skylight, the rising air would suck air through the downstairs window. Now picture the robes as a house. The collar being the opening at the top where the hot air comes out with the cooler air flowing in next to the feet. Just my WAG.