Fireworks going up on both sides, a full crowd in front of him, and French Montana standing in the middle of it in a black and white striped jelaba. Not a stage costume. A garment that left our atelier in Marrakech exactly as you see it.
A jelaba on a festival stage
Most of what artists wear on stage is built for stage. Reinforced, oversized, made to read from eighty metres away and then forgotten in a case.
This one is different. The Black & White Jelaba he is wearing is the same piece we sell, in the same fabric, with the same hand finishing. Nothing was made special for the show.
That matters more than it sounds. A piece that survives a festival stage without being redesigned for it is a piece that was built properly in the first place.
The Black & White Jelaba on stage, worn exactly as it is sold.
The jelaba as it leaves the atelier.
What a jelaba actually is
In Morocco the jelaba is not a costume and it is not folklore. It is what people wear. Long, loose, cut for heat and for movement, worn by men and women, in the medina and at weddings alike.
The striped black and white cloth is one of the oldest versions of it. You still see it in the streets of Marrakech, on men who have worn nothing else for forty years.
We kept the fabric and the spirit and changed the proportions. Shorter, squarer through the shoulders, closer to a jacket than to a robe. It reads as streetwear from a distance and as heritage up close, which is the whole point.
The stripe, the black trims, the collar
The stripe is woven fine and tight, so it holds its shape instead of going soft after a few wears. It is the fabric doing the work, not a print.
Everything that frames it is plain black. The collar, the placket, the cuffs and the hem band. That choice is deliberate: black borders make the stripe read cleanly instead of turning into noise.
On the collar sits the Glory Flower, embroidered by hand. It is the only ornament on the entire garment, and it is how you tell one of ours from a market copy.
The embroidered collar, visible under stage light.
Black trims, hand finished.
Why he keeps coming back to Moroccan craft
French Montana was born in Morocco and left as a child. Nobody has to explain a jelaba to him, or what it means to see one on a stage in front of thousands of people.
This is not the first Glory RM piece he has worn. The Montana Jacket came first, hand-crocheted panel by panel by the same pair of hands, in the same atelier.
There is no contract behind any of it. It is two Moroccans meeting through their craft, one working with words and rhythm, the other with cloth and needles.
What the piece actually is
- Fabric. Traditional Moroccan black and white striped cloth, woven fine.
- Finishings. Plain black collar, placket, cuffs and hem band.
- Collar. Glory Flower, embroidered by hand.
- Cut. Oversized and unisex, shortened from the traditional jelaba.
- Origin. Handmade in Morocco, in our Marrakech atelier.
- Availability. Limited edition, sold as a set with matching trousers.
The set is sold out. Here is what is still there.
We made very few of these and they are gone. That is the honest answer, and we would rather give it than pretend otherwise.
If it is the black and white contrast you are after, the Black and White Jacket is available now, hand-crocheted in wool with the same discipline of colour. The rest of the crochet jacket collection is made the same way, piece by piece, in the same room.
And if you want this exact one, the Black & White Jelaba page stays open. Pieces do come back when the fabric does.
Shop the Black and White Jacket · Browse all crochet jackets · Read the story behind Glory RM
Free worldwide shipping. Handmade in Marrakech, 8 to 12 days delivery.