So many books, so little time. I've been meaning to start the huge project of putting an annotated bibliography of my library on the website and it feels pretty daunting. So for the time being, I'm going to add books as I acquire them or consult them for the Caftan Project. They are sorted by category.
Textile History and Technology
Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean Elizabeth Wayland Barber is my hero. She is the expert on textiles. I put off buying this book for a long time because it was expensive, but it was worth it. She examines all the evidence of textiles and textile technology for Europe, the Mediterranean and the Near East. Even if you have no desire to weave on your own (and reading this book might change your mind) the knowledge on how fabric developed is mind-blowing. She is great at explaining complex techniques so that non-specialists can get it. Amazing.
Area Studies: North China
The Mummies of Urumchi This is another by Dr. Barber. Amazingly well-preserved mummies and textiles from prehistoric northern China. These folks have red hair and are wearing plaid, buried with examples of kumihimo braiding and what is commonly known as 'Cherokee finger-weaving'. That isn't all. It's a great window into all the stuff we don't know about Central Asia. Dr. Barber explores the technical details of the garments and uses them and linguistic evidence to paint a picture of these people when they were alive with such great compassion. Her conclusions about the origin of the shroud of the young girl moves me to tears even thinking about it. Also a fantastic primer on basic weaving technology i f you don't want to tackle Primitive Textiles.
I Timur and the Princely Vision This is a book of 15th century Persian paintings. Paintings from the Safavid period abound, but surviving paintings from the 15th century are rarer and this is a fantastic book for details of clothing and daily life. There are several paintings in this book that I am using as models for entire outfits. There are a few extant textiles and objects of daily life of the courts, but it's the paintings that shine. Great detail and reproduction values, lots of figures beyond the king enthroned. Lots of servants, horseman, tribal people, foreigners etc. So often in books of Persian painting, the paintings are reproduced whole on one page, so the detail is lost and then the one detail is of the king enthroned or whomever is of highest status and so you can see details of their clothing, but not of anyone else. In many of these paintings you can clearly see seam lines, pleating, creases and closures. Quite wonderful.
Tsars and the East This is an exhibition catalog of items sent to the Russian Tsars as gifts from Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran. Embroidered, beaded and pearled garments and textiles, an extant cloud collar with lots of technical information that deciphers the restoration history of the piece, lots of arms and armor, horse tack and jewels everywhere. Quite a bit of it is 17th century, but still being made in the older style. There are some detail photos of the later items that can shed light on the techniques used in older pieces. And did I mention the jewels? Everything is very sparkly.
When Silk Was Gold One of my very favorite books. Extant textiles from Central Asia and China from the 8th to the 14th centuries. This is a tough period for extant textiles and these are amazing. Equally amazing is the level of technical detail. Microscopic views of weave structures, re-drawings of fragments so that you can see what the original textile looked like, technical details of embroidery. Highlights: An extant Tang dynasty child's coat and pants from Persian brocade, a belt purse made of scraps with visible buttonhole stitching, fragments of coat fabric with the cloud collars woven in, a pair of 10-11th century silk brocade ladies boots that were brocaded to shape with accompanying line drawings (I will make these one day!), tons of brocaded silks and silk embroideries, Mongolian patchwork quilting. This book makes me so happy.
Tsars and the East This is an exhibition catalog of items sent to the Russian Tsars as gifts from Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran. Embroidered, beaded and pearled garments and textiles, an extant cloud collar with lots of technical information that deciphers the restoration history of the piece, lots of arms and armor, horse tack and jewels everywhere. Quite a bit of it is 17th century, but still being made in the older style. There are some detail photos of the later items that can shed light on the techniques used in older pieces. And did I mention the jewels? Everything is very sparkly.
When Silk Was Gold One of my very favorite books. Extant textiles from Central Asia and China from the 8th to the 14th centuries. This is a tough period for extant textiles and these are amazing. Equally amazing is the level of technical detail. Microscopic views of weave structures, re-drawings of fragments so that you can see what the original textile looked like, technical details of embroidery. Highlights: An extant Tang dynasty child's coat and pants from Persian brocade, a belt purse made of scraps with visible buttonhole stitching, fragments of coat fabric with the cloud collars woven in, a pair of 10-11th century silk brocade ladies boots that were brocaded to shape with accompanying line drawings (I will make these one day!), tons of brocaded silks and silk embroideries, Mongolian patchwork quilting. This book makes me so happy.
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times When Elizabeth Wayland Barber was researching for the book Primitive Textiles, she collected enough information on the social history of weaving in Europe, the Mediterranean and Near East that she wrote this book. Great info on how and why certain technologies developed when and where they did and why textiles work was so important and why it became 'women's work'. I can imagine myself in ancient Crete gathering flowers for dye with my daughters or in Eastern Europe weaving a string skirt to ensure fertility and sensuality. My copy is marked on almost every page. So much information, and she makes a really wonderful case for why attempting to recreate ancient objects with the ancient technology is so vital for a true understanding of history and culture. I admit it, I'm a fan girl.
