Gaudi Saudi Party

Last weekend a teacher friend of ours turned 40 and to celebrate her birthday, she threw a “Saudi Gaudy” themed party. The so-called “Princess Souq” in Riyadh was at one time rumored to be the place where the royal princess would send her old clothes. I don’t know if there is any truth to this but nevertheless, the Princess Souq is a place where you can purchase second hand clothing, and they offer a niche market of extravagant party dresses. Imagine a mix between a Quinceanera dress and Project Runway. If sequins are good, then feathers are better and there is no such thing as too much embellishment. So part of the fun of this party is going to the souq to pick out the most outrageous, over-the-top, gaudy dress you can find. Then, all the women get dressed up in their party gowns, and the men serve as cocktail waiters for the party.
The girls organized a big bus to drive them out to the souq to go dress shopping, along with one or two male escorts to discourage leering undesirables. Unfortunately, I was in the hospital giving birth during the shopping weekend and miss out on the fun. But because the dresses are so cheap, some as low as 50 riyals (approximately $13 USD), the ladies purchased extra dresses to distribute to anyone who couldn’t make it. I was therefore able to don a leftover dress that was resplendent with tulle, gems, sequins, feathers, and a train!
On the night of the party, two friends came over to my villa for hair and makeup and I haven’t
had such a fun, silly, girl-time as this in a long time! While Justin took Harris on a walk around the neighborhood, my friends and I piled on loads of heavy eye shadow and blush, and teased our hair to ridiculous levels. If “over-the-top” was the look we were going for to compliment our equally superfluous dresses, then we accomplished our goal. We met up with about a dozen other ladies at another woman’s villa to laugh at and admire one another’s dresses before making our way to the party.
The commercial center in our compound offers a lounge that can be reserved for private parties and this was the location of our event. However, the commercial center is also ground zero for our students to hang out on a Thursday night so the trick was waiting until the coast was clear of teenagers before making a run for it to the lounge, in hopes that you could get through the doors without being spotted by a student in your tremendously gaudy dress and ridiculous hair and makeup. [We were seen by several students, who just slowly shook their heads at us]. Hey, when you live on a compound you have to make up your own fun sometimes!

Inside the lounge were about 60 teachers from school, all decked out in their Princess Souq bargains. There was a table of chicken shawarma and beverages, music and a dance floor, and of course a giant photo booth. As the night progressed, so too did the trail of embellishments that were gradually falling off of the cheaply made dresses. This was a really fun and creative event that was a great way to celebrate my first “mom’s night out” after having the baby, and it was great to have so many other fun-loving ladies to be silly with.