Yes, a Dirac is predominantly worn by women and I’m just a young man. What do I know about Dirac?
I’ve been selling all types of Diracs for the past 5 years. After immersing myself in our rich beautiful culture for the past couple of years I would now like to spread and share this knowledge. I would love it if you could take a few minutes off your busy life, while I share you with the basics of what a Somali Dirac is.
let's begin with how I acquired this vast knowledge of Dirac. My mum started selling diracs 9 years ago and I would spend time after school and during weekends helping her at the shop. There in the middle of a strong rich Somali community, I began to understand that these different so call Dirac are made of different fabrics.
A traditional Somali Dirac is made up of a three-piece set. Diracs are the main outfit for a Somali wedding. All diracs are 3m to 3.5m long and are either bac Wayne (58 inches width) or bac yarr (44 inches width). All Diracs are made to be free size as their large width allows for any body shape to be modestly covered. As mentioned earlier Diracs are made of different fabrics;
- Fransawi: This is one of the more expensive types of Diracs made of pure silk fabric with lurex print, where it can start from £50 per meter. Because Diracs are usually worn once you can come across more affordable Diracs made up of chiffon or polyester and are still stylish and in season.
- Xareer: also similar to fransawi however without the luxury silk fabric. It’s commonly known to be made of polyester, or other fabrics that are somewhat semi-transparent. Xareer may also have digital prints such as floral designs and shiny sequences and stones.
- Will Dirac: commonly a cotton fabric Dirac with digital prints or hand print
- Maqbal: also similar to Will Dirac however, these Dirac are made up of velvet.
All these Dirac have one thing in common which are, they are all three-piece set. What are they? We have now established what a Dirac is, the second piece is a gorgoro an underskirt for the Dirac which commonly matches with the garbasar also known as a shawl the third piece in colour. All three pieces are what a traditional Somali Dirac is made of.
All these types of diracs will allow each person to express themselves in their own style of Dirac. This type of combination and choice of colours is an art, with getting the right colour gorgoro and garbasar to bring your Dirac to life. Finding the right Dirac isn’t easy but when it does come together you will be turning heads.