Mauritania’s style is shaped by the desert: flowing cloth, protective layers and richly worked silver and leather.
The melhfa
The melhfa is a long rectangle of cloth, roughly four to four and a half metres by one to one and a half, worn by women across the Sahel and Sahara. It is wrapped around the head and body, usually in natural fabrics such as cotton, and being loose and airy it protects against sun, sand, heat and cold. Mauritania’s culture page notes loom-woven fabrics are culturally significant and names a long cloth worn by women, spelled melfa there.
Jewellery and leather
Mauritanian silversmiths make ornate Berber-style jewellery worn by both men and women; Mauritanian pieces tend to be more embellished than Tuareg ones and may include pyramidal elements. Leatherwork, traditionally made by women, covers bags, saddles, cushions and tent decorations, and remains an important nomadic craft.
Robes
The wider boubou family of robes is worn across West Africa, and some Mauritanian caftan-style boubous are decorated with resist-dye techniques.
Sources: Wikipedia: Melhfa, Wikipedia: Culture of Mauritania, Wikipedia: Boubou.
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