Traditional Wear

From Switzerland to the world


Middle East and Africa

AG_Cilander_Traditionelle_Kleidung

Traditional wear, from ghutra and yashmagh to dishdashas through to Sudanese toubs, have a long tradition at AG Cilander. For over five decades, we have finished textiles in accordance with the strictest quality standards in this highly challenging area, and have built up a broadly based market presence in the Arab and African regions. We impress our customers in the luxury sector, for example with African damask, probably one of the most precious textile fabrics there is, print applications such as gold print/gold edging, colour-intensive digital printing or scent finishing. During finishing, end finishing, crease resistance, simile mercerising processes and permanent high-lustre finishing play a major role.

Product range (extract)

  • Traditional clothing for Arab and African markets
  • Customised labels/print applications such as gold print, gold edging
  • Digital printing for the most precise, colour-intensive (Sudanese voile), print-intensive colours
  • Ghutra (quality criteria including a high degree of whiteness; perfectly straight fibres; large-scale moiré pattern; long-lasting crisp feel that will withstand extreme weather conditions)
  • African (damask, high-gloss cotton)
  • Scent finishing, rose scenting

requested for the following and more

  • African damask
  • Ghutra, yashmagh
  • Dishdashas
  • Jacquard fabrics

AG Cilander's USP

  • High degree of whiteness in ghutra
  • Moiré

Swiss
Ghutra

The success story of Swiss ghutras: A reputation for quality that spans decades


The success story of Swiss ghutras began over 50 years ago in the Swiss textile industry, and continues to this day. The term "ghutra" refers to a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. The voile fabric used to produce these traditional head coverings must fulfil certain essential quality criteria: A high degree of whiteness, perfectly straight fibres, a large-scale moiré pattern, and a long-lasting crisp feel that will withstand extreme weather conditions. AG Cilander focussed all its efforts on developing finishing processes that would perfect these features and, as a result, has made a name for itself as the finishing provider for high-quality ghutra voile in the Middle East.

At the time, in Switzerland, there were still spinning mills, doubling mills and weaving mills in operation; together with AG Cilander as a finishing specialist, these mills formed almost the entire value creation chain for a high-grade Swiss-quality textile product. Collaborative projects between Swiss and Arabic companies resulted in factories being established in Switzerland that would cover the parts of the value creation chain that had previously not been included. This means that the products offered were 100% made in Switzerland to top quality standards. Since then, almost all the workshops that were involved in starting this success story have ceased to exist. AG Cilander, as a textiles finisher, is the only company to have withstood the crisis in the eastern part of the Swiss textiles industry.

The Swiss ghutra – or "swissri" as it is known in Arabic – continues to be synonymous with top quality and is in high demand in the high-priced segment.

Products for the "Traditional Wear" sector are finished at Cilander using the following processes