Once upon a time before the black chador of the Islamic fundamentalists and the western dress of an American shopping mall, before the Israeli War of 1967, Bethlehem was considered the “Paris” of Palestine. Before western dress began to take hold in the cities, women left their homes dressed in embroidered silks. Syrian women wore wide-legged, low-crotch pants and caftans, a style that dates back to the Persian era. l’Orient des femmes on display until May 15, 2011 at the Musée du Quai Branly is a fashion route through the Fertile Crescent, the Near East, from the north in Syria to the Sinai desert in the south. The clothing designer,…