Modern Iranian Chador-e Shalee and Review

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Asalaamu alaikum and hello dear readers;

Those who have followed my blog for a while know that I’ve done posts on the various types of modern chador which are trendy now in Iran, one of them being the chador-e shalee (literally… chador with attached shaylah). Many of you cooed over the beautiful colored ones from Mici clothing company in Iran, as did I. Well, when I was in Iran this past July, I went on a hunt for the chador-e shalee and melli designs (modern chador designs) since you can’t get them outside of Iran, unfortunately.

First, I must say I did not find any chador-e shalee in any color other than black (ditto for the melli style). Of course, I was not in Tehran, so maybe that’s why. But while I saw a lot of Iranian women in the chador-e shalee, all were black.

Anyway, I digress; I had told my husband about them, and being the typical man, he really couldn’t care less—LOL—and thought I was slightly crazy for even caring about these new-fangled modern types of chador. Although I had an ally in my husband’s brother’s wife who liked them as well (although she stuck to her traditional chador). When I was out and about in the bazaar area, I saw a lot of women in either the shalee or melli style. I can honestly say that I saw just as many in those styles as the traditional chador, if not maybe even more. I think they are a real boon to families in smaller cities/rural areas as they are much less expensive compared to the traditional meshki chador and no need for a manteau to boot (which, to add, the cost of everything has risen horribly and I was shocked to see manteau being double/triple what they were when I was last there!).

Unfortunately, I had a difficult time finding shops that sold the shalee and melli chador designs off the rack. For the melli design, I learned that most women just alter their chador at home into the melli design or take the crepe fabric to a tailor. I saw many tailoring shops with signs offering melli, qajari, and shalee sewing services. I only found one shop in the small city we were in selling them ready-made. If I had gone to nearby Esfahan and looked, I could have found a wider selection, but we were only in Esfahan twice and shopping was the last thing on my mind. Sorry!

The ones I found had either black satin edging or this funky gold or silver geometric trim. They came in a few different lengths, and I got one of the satin trim and one silver trimmed one. I asked for the longest sizes in both, knowing full well they wouldn’t be floor grazing anyway. The silver trimmed one just hits the floor (shockers) while the satin trim hits a bit above the ankle.

These zip up the front so you can pop over a tank top and jeans if you want or leave open, over a manteau. For these, I saw most women keeping them zipped shut (unlike the melli which was normally worn open, over a manteau). The crepe is a very lightweight, everyday, basic crepe…maybe Chinese or Japanese. Price was pretty cheap when compared to a manteau. I admit I didn’t wear it too much while we were IN Iran because I favored the chador-e melli for going out as I was used to the overhead abayaat that anything which wasn’t more of an overhead-ish sort of garment made me feel strange. But since returning to the US, this satin-edged one has seen a lot of wear as its quite practical for everyday wear. The overhead part is very light and frankly, it does look like you’re wearing an abaya or something with a black shaylah draped over another shaylah. It surprisingly doesn’t slide around too much. I would have loved to have found these in a dark walnut brown or a nice dark pine green. le sigh.

Here is a picture I found of a Afghan family in Iran, the wife has on the same design.

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Thanks for reading! You know I love feedback and hearing from my Readers so please feel free to leave me a comment or two.

-Bailey Umm Ibrahim