This beautiful textile is an example of an amli shawl, a technique where small woven pieces are hand sewn together and then further embellished with embroidery. Every step of the making process was labour intensive and required high skill levels meaning that amli shawls were highly prized luxury items. Unlike many other styles of shawl […]
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Japanese hiki-furisode-style robe, of ombre dyed silk crepe with padded hem and long sleeves and lined with bright red silk. The robe has blank spaces for crests in the small circles either side of the front opening. The beautiful mauve ombre provides a backdrop for the delicate painted motifs depicting auspicious cranes along with pine […]
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Leek embroidery was a style of embroidery created and popularised by Sir Thomas and Lady Elizabeth Wardle through the Leek Embroidery Society. Thomas Wardle was an influential silk dyer with a particular interest in Indian silks and natural dyes that influenced his research and experimentation with dyeing processes and materials. He worked alongside several key […]
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This Qing era robe has a typical straight cut, loose fitting body with square sleeves. The simple shape is designed to make efficient use of narrow widths of silk so that as little as possible of the expensive silk fabric is wasted when the garment is constructed. The main fabric is a lightweight silk with […]
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Sleeve bands were decorative cuffs and would have decorated the bottom edges of the sleeves on a traditional robe. They often featured designs that were a near perfect mirror image of one another so that when the hands were clasped in front of the body and tucked slightly into the opposite sleeve, the designs would […]
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Sleeve bands were decorative cuffs and would have decorated the bottom edges of the sleeves on a traditional robe. They often featured designs that were a near perfect mirror image of one another so that when the hands were clasped in front of the body and tucked slightly into the opposite sleeve, the designs would […]
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This yellow brocaded silk was probably intended for use as garment fabric – perhaps as a woman’s gown or a man’s coat or waistcoat. The silk has a damask weave creating a self-coloured background pattern overlaid with vibrant, colourful floral sprays that have been added with additional brocade weaving. The brocade is further enhanced with […]
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Panel of laid work embroidery with a design of peacocks and an urn of flowers, worked by Rachel Kay Shuttleworth in 1921. This framed panel of embroidery is worked in a technique known as laid work where long stitches are laid down first to fill in the shapes and then secured with smaller couching stitches […]
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A Chamba rumal of cotton muslin embroidered in colourful silk threads with a design depicting four figures on horseback and floral borders. Chamba rumal embroideries take the first part of their name from the small town of Chamba in the Himachal Pradesh region of India and began being produced there in the 17th century. The […]
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A framed colifichet embroidery depicting St Aloysius de Gonzaga worked in fine silk floss on a ground of parchment. Colifichet embroideries are a rare type of double-sided embroidery that are stitched meticulously so that each side appears the same. As shown in this example, they were usually specially framed so that both sides of the […]
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