Object History
This heavily metal foil embellished tribal Turkmen women’s ceremonial robe was purchased from the Sharjah Islamic Market (suq), recently named The Blue Souk, by Dr. Reem Tariq El Mutwalli in 1998. It was eventually The Zay Initiative enhanced its collection.
Object Features
This is a metal foil embellished green woollen and red silk tribal – possibly Turkmen – women’s ceremonial robe from Central Asia.
Possibly a wedding jacket it is primarily made of green and red wool and completely covered with small thin metal – either brass or tin – discs with embedded floral motifs. The discs are (appliqued) to the garment with thick woollen threads in black and red. The discs could be distinguished by their sizes in roughly three variants and are arranged in a gradual formation. However, none of the discs are identical in size or shape as they were all hand carved and cut and not moulded or die cut.
The cuffs of the sleeves are made of (crimson) red silk. The lining of the piece is a thick printed cotton fabric with large floral motifs in shades of pink, blue and green over a red base. The edging of the lining is done with broad strips of thick woven cotton in colourful stripes. The piece is completely hand stitched.
Although not much is known about this piece it is possible that this piece originated and/or belonged to an Afghan Turkmen tribe as existing samples of similar jackets and robes present around the world are mostly sourced or attributed to the Turkmen tribes of present-day Afghanistan.
Links
- Valérie Bérinstain, Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, Zaira Mis, Marcel Mis. Asian Costumes and Textiles from the Bosphorus to Fujiyama: The Zaira and Marcel Mis Collection. California: Skira, 2001.
- Suleman, Fahmida. Textiles of the Middle East and Central Asia (British Museum) The Fabric of Life. London: Thames and Hudson, 2017.
- Embroidery from Afghanistan Fabric, folios. Sheila Paine. Washington: University of Washington Press, 2006.
- Sukhareva, Olʹga Aleksandrovna. Suzani: Central Asian Decorative Embroidery. Samarkand: SMI Asia, 2013.
- https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/clothing-COM_7759?lang=fr#COM-10186
- https://books.google.ae/books?id=L-ViFsLAQb0C&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
- https://nationalclothing.org/asia/112-turkmenistan/605-traditional-women%E2%80%99s-tahya-headwear-in-turkmenistan.html
- https://trc-leiden.nl/collection/?trc=TRC%202000.0120
- http://karakalpak.com/sawkele02.html
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