Dressing for Eid, from the first morning to the last visit

Eid is the one day of the year when you dress to be seen by everyone at once: the neighbours outside the mosque, the family at lunch, the cousins who drop in until midnight. Nobody changes three times. So you need an outfit that stands up for twelve hours, survives a tray of makrout on your lap and still looks right in the last photograph of the evening.

Morning: white, crisp, comfortable

The morning belongs to the men and the children who leave early, and for them the rule has not changed in generations: a light gandoura, pressed the night before, and clean shoes. Ours is cut from a cotton and linen blend that does not cling when the sun climbs: Cotton-linen gandoura. Wear it with trousers in the same colour rather than jeans and it goes from prayer to the café without looking like a costume.

For boys, the shirt and saroual set with its embroidered collar goes with babouches or white trainers, depending on age and patience: Fanous boy’s Eid set. Take a size up if it has to serve at a wedding this summer as well; our children’s sizes are cut with a four-centimetre hem allowance, to be let down when the time comes.

Lunch: the piece that makes the photograph

It is at the table that the women’s outfits are seen, and that is where embroidery belongs. A crepe blouza dress with a lace front is easier to wear than a full karakou and holds its shape through the meal: Crepe and lace blouza dress. Cinch it with an embroidered belt if you want the old silhouette without the weight: Embroidered hzam belt.

If you wear an abaya, choose one that works for the occasion rather than the everyday one. Ours is embroidered tone on tone at the collar and cuffs — quiet enough for the mosque, rich enough for the sitting room: Embroidered evening abaya. An embroidered stole laid across the shoulders rather than knotted is enough to shift the mood between morning and afternoon: Embroidered occasion stole.

Girls: running first, posing second

A little girl spends her Eid running from room to room with her cousins. Her party dress needs a full skirt, a cotton lining that does not itch and a fastening she can open herself: Qamar girl’s party dress. The sleeves stop at the elbow, so she can eat without dipping the lace.

What to plan before the last day

Alterations in Eid week are the most requested of the year. In our boutiques hems are done in forty-eight hours until the twenty-fifth day of Ramadan, then in twenty-four hours while places last. For an online order, count the delivery time to your zone and add two days: on the last weekend the carriers run full.

Finally, try everything on the night before, shoes included. The morning of Eid is not the moment to discover that a long dress trails three centimetres on flat sandals.