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Image features a robe of gold metallic cloth with foundation fabric of terra-cotta silk. Edges trimmed with knitted silk in red, blue, yellow, black and white. Lined with silk and cotton ikat fabric in red, white and yellow. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Wearing Wealth
Author: Sumru Belger Krody In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and...
Image of Man's Robe
Five-Clawed Dragon
Dragon robes (ji fu吉服, lit. auspicious dress) originated in the Liao dynasty (907-1125), and were regulated as court dress under the Ming (1368-1644). The Qing dynasty (1644-1911) continued this usage, and standardized the nine-dragon design (the ninth dragon was positioned beneath the robe’s overlap). The dragon robe was worn with an ensemble of hat, surcoat,...
Dressing the Table
Table frontals were used on numerous types of Chinese tables: altar tables, dining tables, and magistrate’s desks. They covered the fronts, sides and legs of tables, and often coordinated with a set of matching chair covers. Such furnishings made furniture more flexible: the decoration could be adjusted for the season, the type of festivity, and...
Made By Many Hands
Suzani, meaning “of needle” in Persian, are large-scale embroideries central to Central Asian domestic culture. Young girls learned to sew at an early age, often beginning to work on textiles intended for their own marriage dowries. Suzanis were considered the most important textiles in a dowry. Indicators of skill and family wealth, they were status...
Imitation Embroidery for Export
This fabric, printed in Manchester, England for the African market, has a design which imitates the embroidered gowns worn by Hausa men in Nigera. The design of the embroideries is believed to have been influenced by men who learned the art of calligraphy from studying the Qur’an, and reflect an identification with Islam. They are...
Man's Hat (ashetu) (Cameroon), mid- to late 20th century
Hat Hair
The spiky projections on each side of the ashetu hat reflect the tufted hairstyles once worn by high-ranking men, frequently represented in sculpture. They can also be interpreted as physical manifestations of the inner head, considered to be the center of intelligence and spirituality. The ashetu hat is worn by the Fon or king, at...
Man's Cap (laket) (Democratic Republic of the Congo), late 19th–early 20th century
Full Dress Uniform
If you think pompoms are whimsical, think again. This photograph, from the remarkable Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art, shows titled soldiers known as iyol, who have earned the exclusive right to wear pompoms on their hats. [1] Elisofon, the famously colorful American photojournalist and filmmaker, traveled extensively around Africa...
Kente Prestige Cloth (Ghana), early to mid-20th century
Juneteenth (Emancipation Day)
Kente cloth is recognized around the world as a symbol of African identity and pride. But these colorful and majestic cloths were originally worn exclusively by members of the powerful ruling court of the Asante. A large community of artisans work in the village of Bonwire in the service of the royals to create the...