![]() Once all these steps are done, the chechia is ready for shipping. Chaouachi shows his logo, a triangle of sorts in the inside of the hat. Here, the chechia is treated to improve its density and then boiled and dyed, most often in vermillion, the bright red colour.Įach craftsman also sews its own unique logo to each cap. When the knitting process is over, the white knitted hats are taken to al-Battan, a warehouse 40 kilometres west of Tunis, which dates back to 1901. “Most chechia makers continue because it is part of their tradition, it would probably be more lucrative for them to do something else.” The women are able to do about three caps a day and need 12 caps to earn 10 dinars (about 6 euros). “If I was a mother, I wouldn’t teach my daughter to do this,” al-Amine says. “If the know-how is not transferred, the risk is that it will be lost,” she says but highlights that at the same time the job is very tough, many women don’t want their kids to follow in their footsteps. The women’s knitting, for example, is one part of the production procedure that she is concerned could die out. There are many steps of the production process that are unique and must be protected, explains al-Amine. Most of these women are situated in the regions of Bizerte and Ariana. The imported wool is provided to women, most of them who work from home, knitting the initial white hats, the so-called kabbouss. First, the wool is imported from Australia or China as the wool from the sheep in Tunisia can not assure the right quality. He carefully describes each step of the little red hat’s journey before arriving to the vendors’ hands. Today there are only about 20 left, struggling to keep the business alive.īut there is much more to the production of the chechia than the tiny shops that fill the chechia alley and the production process, which hasn’t changed much over the years, explains Chaouachi. “But the number of craftsmen has decreased,” he says and describes how the market place, the Souk of Chaouachine, located between the Kasbah and the Zitouna mosque in the medina, during its glorious days, hosted about 30,000 chaouachis. The small boutique, no bigger than 4 by 2 metres, is beautifully decorated in traditional Tunisian style. ![]() “The procedure remains the same,” explains Nasser whose last name, by coincidence, is Chaouachi, and who has had his chechia shop for 40 years. Al-Amine thinks it worked, but remains concerned about the cap’s future. The aim was to show that the traditional hat could be trendy and chic and appeal to a younger audience. “We asked people to take selfies of themselves with the chechia,” she explains. Three weeks before the event, ”Keep Calm and Wear a Chechia” was launched, a campaign encouraging people to send their chechia photos and become a part of the workshop’s exhibition. The workshop touched upon the production process of the chechia, its history and, the most important aspect, according to al-Amine - its people. “In the beginning they were reluctant but then they became very positive and enthusiastic.” “The craftsmen really enjoyed it,” explains al-Amine, who was involved in the arrangement of the event, which was hosted by the Medina Preservation Association (ASM). Reviving the chechia was a central theme during a three-day workshop, on 13-15 March, in the old city of Tunis, known as Medina. “I am concerned about the future of the chechia,” admits Sihem al-Amine, an architect who is passionate about restoring the heritage of the headwear. Some fear that in a few years, the chechia will be nothing but a fading memory. However, today the cap is often considered old-fashioned and the demand for it is decreasing across the country. The national hat has become a Tunisian trademark, among the symbols of the country's rich heritage. The flat-surfaced, traditional red woollen hat, known as the chechia, is a fairly common sight on the streets of the old city of Tunis.
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