It is usually made out of either chiffon, silk (which are both usually the sheerest variation of dirac) or velvet (one of the least see-through), amongst many other materials.

Baati/dirac shiid is yet another variation traditionally worn as a house dress and is made of cotton.

This version is very popular within the entirety of East Africa due to Somali trading within those countries and is seen as a staple clothing.

[2][3] It then gradually spread to the rest of the Somali regions, slowly replacing the usage of a much older, traditional layered article of clothing called Sadex Qayd and it's single-layered offshoot Guntiino.

The dirac was then adopted by neighbouring countries such as parts of Kenya, Yemen and Ethiopia, as well as Tanzania, Zanzibar and Oman due to Somali traders/merchants and the general diaspora that migrated to these regions.