My friend Leesa just asked me what I know about ikat fabric pre-1600 so I jumped at the chance to talk about one of my favorite kinds of fabric.

Ikat is amazing and I am a bit obsessed with it. It's like hippie tie-die went to university and got a ph.d in physics. The basic process is this: all woven fabrics (as opposed to knitted, felted, twined etc) are formed by the intersection of threads under tension, with one parallel thread group situated at right angels to another. From a weaver's perspective as she weaves, the lengthwise threads are called the 'warp' and are held under tension. The weaver creates cloth by passing the weft thread in some variation of an over-under-over pattern to create cloth.

So the simplest weave is an even number of warp and weft threads and the weft threads follow a pattern of under one, over one repeated.  If you had that little plastic loom as a kid that came with fabric loops that you wove into a potholder, that is a basic plain weave fabric.

But humans are clever and so there are an incredible number of techniques that have been used to add additional color, texture and pattern to cloth.

Ikat creates a pattern by tie-dying the warp threads.  Before they are put on the loom. Because the dyed pattern shifts a bit as the warp is set up on the loom and the weaving progresses, the patterns have 'fuzzy' edges. In Central Asia, the technique is called abr-bandi, which  means 'cloud bands' or abrband meaning 'tying a cloud'. Ikat is also produced in Indonesia and that is where the term comes from, but for this post I am just talking about Central Asian abr-bandi.

Here is a really brilliant article with gorgeous pictures of some of the steps: http://www.tafalist.art/ikat-weaving-cloud-tying-from-one-generation-to-the-next-in-uzbekistan/

So far, the earliest Central Asian ikat I have seen personally is from the 10th century. I'd like to push that back farther, if anyone knows of evidence that I'm missing, please share.

This is a veil from 10th century Yemen. It has fringed edges and the calligraphic border was gilded in a similar way to the caftan worn by Hanzade Sultan that we were talking about a couple of days ago.

This was likely the product of a workshop that made many of the same fabrics because there are at least three of these in the same colors and pattern in three different museum collections and they do not appear to be cut from one really large piece. (The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the David Museum and I can't remember the other one.)

You do also see ikat depicted in Persian miniature painting a few hundred years later. They are almost always shown as night clothing or home furnishings like blankets.

Ikat became really well known in the Western world in the 18th and 19th century when Central Asian weavers made the transition from small patterns, frequently arranged as stripes, to very large scale patterns.  These larger patterns are stunning, and reminiscent of the Ottoman transition from small motifs to very large.

Here is a link to a gorgeous slide-show of 18th-20th century ikat caftans that really show off the technical virtuosity of the weavers. 

https://www.hali.com/news/power-pattern-central-asian-ikats-david-elizabeth-reisbord-collection-lacma-los-angeles/#jp-carousel-24303

One of the things that really amazes me is that in the ikat industry in the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia (modern day Uzbekistan) the production of ikat is divided into up to 100 tasks from silk work to finished fabric. These tasks are then each controlled by a family-based guild.  One to bind the warp, one to dye the warp, another to place it on the loom and another to do the actual weaving. Which makes sense when you think about it. I have also heard that this is still practiced in some of the villages there and that they loop the freshly-dyed warps along the outsides of the house overnight to dry.

Can you imagine waking up with the dawn to watch the light dance over the silk? I don't know about you, but that is pretty high on my bucket list.

The other tidbit I think is neat is that one of the preferred binding material for warps currently is the tape from cassette tapes.  It has just a little bit of stretch so it allows the bindings to be wrapped tightly to more easily control where the craftsmen want the color to go. Simple string was used in period.

Fortunately, the modern home decorator fabric market is currently obsessed with ikat, so it is easier to find.  However, the modern 're-imagination' of traditional ikat uses the larger scale patterns and a mostly pastel color palette. That doesn't mean that you can't find good period-appropriate ikats for historical clothing, you just have to pay attention to scale and color. Also, ikat is still produced in places like Guatemala and Indonesia using cotton and with a more saturated color palette. Contemporary quilters are having a ball playing with ikats and indigo resist-dyed cottons in general, so if you have a quilt shop nearby, go check it out.
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I currently don't have solid documentation for the use of ikat in the clothing of people of high rank although I can find many examples of patterned stripes used by those of high rank. So I typically buy cotton ikat in smaller scale patterns and use them for field garb or as under-layers. Though I have a chunk of silk ikat that I can hear calling my name from the other end of the house.

A couple more links:

Global Ikat
https://www.clothroads.com/ikat-the-world-over/

Types of Ikat
​https://www.clothroads.com/fooled-by-ikat/

I've been getting requests for a while about setting up an Etsy store and I've finally done it. 

It's called JadisSilkRoad.

So far, I have all my available Persian tajs listed included the Laurel Wreath one and the Baronial Coronet.

I'll be adding a few pieces of garb and some jewelry next.

In working on the book the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time looking at extant Ottoman caftans and I thought I'd share a few of the lesser known ones with you.

The information and images about these caftans comes from:

Tezcan, Hülya. Fashion at the Ottoman Court: The Topkapi Palace Museum Collection. Istanbul: Raffi Portakal, Portakal Art and Culture House Organisation, 2000. Print.

This source also has excellent images of extant women's hats.

One of the challenges of working with extant garments is the uneven way that historical garments have been saved, conserved, studied and displayed. Women's garments, even the garments of royal women, are less often conserved and displayed.

So here are 3 extant Ottoman caftans. All 3 caftans were made for the daughters of Ottoman sultans. These garments were created for women who lived in the royal harem at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and that is where they have been conserved.  They are identified as 'inner caftans', meaning they would have been worn over the gomlek (undergown), possibly in several layers based on the weather and the formality of the event. For formal occasions, an outer caftan of more precious fabric would have been worn as the final layer. And in bad weather, a ferace was worn as an overcoat.

The first two caftans were made for Ayse Sultan, who was the daughter of Sultan Murad III; she died in 1605

​In addition to details of cut and patterning, what fascinates me is that both caftans were made from the same two lengths of cloth, one with the blue fabric as the main fabric and one with salmon.

I have no idea if these caftans were worn together or if the shorter salmon one was simply made up out of the remaining cloth leftover from the more formal blue one.

Another interesting thing is that the silver dots are not applied by weaving, applique or embroidery but instead by gilding. The gilding process is the same for silk as it is for paintings on paper and we have several examples of this process on pre-1600 garments in Europe as well as Asia.

So another question is: how common was this fabric? Did Ayse have the only two pieces or was this a more common pattern available either in the palace or more widely?

The third caftan was made for Hanzade Sultan, daughter of Sultan Ahmed I. She died in 1650.  This pink silk caftan was also made in the standard Ottoman style.

There are also some interesting variations in cut, tailoring and possibly fit. The first two caftans were made for the same person. We don't know if they were made at the same time, just cut differently or if the garments were made separately as her body size and shape changed.

In addition to differences in length, the blue caftan has the 'bump out' shape at the top of the gores while the salmon one appears to have gores that are a simple triangle shape.

Both of Ayse's garments have front gores that appear to start in the general vicinity of the waist. The garment made approximately 50 years later for Hanzade has a front gore that extends to the neck. It isn't clear from the way it is folded and displayed if Hanzade's had 'bump out' or traditional gores.

The differences in gore style for both the front edge and the sides changes the way the garment fits and hangs as well as changing the silhouette by emphasizing or smoothing the hips.

Another interesting thing is that if you just glance at the most famous extant Ottoman caftans, it appears that all garments had huge pattern motifs.  However, this style of weaving was very complex and very expensive so it was reserved for people of very high status at very formal occasions.

However, when you look at Ottoman paintings of figures where multiple layers of garments and many people of varying rank and it becomes apparent that the huge 'classically Ottoman' motifs were actually quite rare. Small motifs in the so-called 'international style' stayed fashionable, as did plain fabric and fabric with more subtle textured, stamped or woven effects.

If that whole rabbit-hole intrigues you, start with the exhibit catalog for The Sultan's Garden: the Blossoming of Ottoman art. The entire exhibit and book are dedicated to explaining the shift from small motifs to large as a deliberate strategy to  create a 'brand for' the newly emerging Ottoman empire.  Absolutely fascinating and I was lucky enough to attend the symposium and exhibit tour led by Walter Denney and Nurhan Atasoy. 

https://museum.gwu.edu/sultans-garden-blossoming-ottoman-art

https://www.amazon.com/Sultans-Garden-Blossoming-Ottoman-Softcover/dp/0874050375/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544883462&sr=1-2&keywords=sultan%27s+garden

Yikes, I didn't realize this book had gone up in price like that.  I recommend inter-library loan,but it really is amazing. It also has the only known Ottoman block printed textiles.