> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What to wear in Western Asia - URL: https://www.smdp.com/what-to-wear-in-western-asia/ - Published: 2008-03-28T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T19:03:22.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import LAST WEEK, I WENT TO ARMENIA. I was so underdressed. I had a feeling that I would be. I packed jeans and long sleeved T-shirts, an army-green parka and my Ugg boots. Armenian women do not wear Uggs. They also do not wear Chuck Taylors. And they never wear flip-flops. “Flip-flops?” my 21-year old translator Elisabeth asked. I tried to explain, “They’re sandals. They have a piece of plastic that goes between your toes.” I drew a picture of one in my little pocket notebook and showed it to her. “Oh!” Elisabeth exclaimed. “They’re made of ribbon.” “Rubber?” I asked. Elisabeth giggled. “Yes. Rubber.” Did I say Armenians “never” wear flip-flops? What I meant was they don’t wear flip-flops other than to stomp grapes for wine-making. I don’t know how they do it, but Armenian women walk around in sleek knee-high leather boots with pointed toes and stiletto heels in colors like red or white or metallic gold, even if they’re only going to the market to buy a loaf of bread. The average Armenian does not own a car. She goes on foot or rides the Metro, or crams into a minibus called a martrushka with 13 other passengers. But stiletto heels are not practical for tromping up the stone steps of Greco- Roman temples, hiking up snow-covered hills, or climbing in and out of deep dungeons, pagan fire pits, and 7th century baptisteries. Another thing Armenian women never wear is yoga pants. Walking through the capital city Yerevan, I noticed a mannequin wearing a pair of black yoga pants with pink trim. The next day, I mentioned the pants to Elisabeth. “Yoga?” Elisabeth asked. “It’s an exercise. From India. It’s like stretching. It’s very popular in Santa Monica. But women where I live wear the pants everywhere.” “Oh no,” Elisabeth said. “No one wears them here.” “Then why is the store selling them?” Elisabeth shrugged. Most women in Armenia wear slacks or skirts, but some do wear jeans. When I was 8 years old, my father’s half-brother Ramses came to visit from what was then the Soviet Union. While Ramses was here in California, he bought a dozen pairs of Levi’s. I remember seeing him packing them into his suitcase, asking my parents why Ramses needed so many pairs of pants, and my parents trying to explain the black market. The Soviet government would let Ramses import one pair of Levi’s for each member of his family, but Ramses was really going to sell each pair for a couple hundred dollars. That was a lot of money in the late ‘80s. It’s still a lot of money when you consider that Armenia’s minimum wage is about $2 an hour. “People would rather go hungry than go out in bad clothes,” Elisabeth said. In the ‘90s, when grunge was in, and ripped jeans were trendy, my Armenian grandmother would criticize my brother and me for the way we were dressed. She would gasp and tsk-tsk and argue that we were telling the world that our family was-n’t taking care of us. “Everybody wears their pants like this, Grandma.” But not everybody wore their pants like that. In the 1930s, my great-grandmother scraped together enough money so that her daughter could learn a trade. She sent her to a seamstress. Later in America, my grandparents would operate a tailoring shop, and people would bring my grandmother pants to patch. On Monday, at the airport in Yerevan, I bought one last souvenir: a T-shirt that reads “Hye M Yes.” (“I am Armenian.”) The irony: Women in Armenia don’t wear T-shirts. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 28, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032808.pdf?ref=smdp.com)