Daily and general garments and textiles

Daily and general garments and textiles

This is a specially designed tailcoat with gold work embroidery worn by the USA artist, Michael Jackson (1958-2009) during his 'Bad' concert tour of 1987-1988. The tailcoat in question is heavily embellished with gold thread embroidery in the form of stylised foliage motifs. The raised areas were created with card templates and then covered with various forms of purl and pearl-purl threads.

The Textile Research Centre (TRC), Leiden, has a waistcoat from Afghanistan, locally called a waskat. The waistcoat dates to the late twentieth century. The waistcoat, worn on festive occasions, is made of red velvet with gold braid passementerie in geometric patterns. This style of decoration is generally associated with the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Textile Museum of Canada houses a cotton angarkha coat that dates to about AD 1900. It is 119 cm long and 191 cm wide. It has been decorated with chikan work.

In medieval Europe, a special form of armour was being worn, called either a jack or a jack of plate. It was the medieval equivalent of a bullet-proof vest. A jack of plate takes the form of a doublet with a series of small iron plates sewn (quilted) between layers of canvas and sometimes felt. This type of armour may weigh about 7.5 kg.

The British Museum in London houses a blouse, made of cotton and decorated with embroidery. The garment measures 41 by 71 cm. It is attributed to the Banjaras from Himachal Pradesh, India. The blouse was acquired by the Museum in 1993.

The British Museum in London houses a bodice that is made of cotton and decorated with embroidery, coins and shisha work. It is attributed to Banjaras from Rajasthan, Western India. The bodice measures 60 by 63 cm. It dates to 1918 or earlier.

The British Museum in London houses a man's waistcoat that is made of cotton and decorated with embroidery, mainly with geometric motifs. It is attributed to Banjaras from Central India. The garment measures 75 by 24 cm (excl. shoulder straps). It dates to the early twentieth century or before.

The British Museum in London houses a skirt that is made of cotton and decorated with embroidery and shisha work. It is attributed to Banjaras from Rajasthan in India. It dates to 1918 or earlier. The skirt measures 90 by 50 cm.

The British Museum in London houses a woman's neck cover that is made of cotton and decorated with embroidery (long and short stitch), cowrie shells and pompoms made of silk. It is attributed to Banjaras from central India. The neck cover measures 30 by 23 cm. The object was acquired in 1991.

The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin houses a bast fibre tunic from among the Ainu in Hokkaido, Japan. It dates to the second half of the nineteenth century, or earlier, and was acquired by Max August Scipio von Brandt (1835-1920). The fabric is made of the bast of the Atsui tree. The tunic measures 123 x 115.6 cm. The embroidery is worked with cotton.

A bertha is a collar made of lace or another thin fabric. It is generally flat and round, covering the low neckline of a dress, and accentuating a woman's shoulders. It was particularly popular in the nineteenth century, but bertha-like garments were also worn in the seventeenth century and are still being worn, as for instance with bridal dresses.

The National Museums of Scotland house a late-nineteenth century bidang, a woman's skirt, from Borneo, Indonesia. It is made of cotton and decorated with shells, beadwork and embroidery.

The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin holds a bison hide with some simple embroidery. The hide measures 271 x 218 cm. It was acquired c. 1832-1834 by the German explorer, Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867), from the Gros Ventre region (North Central Montana) in the (modern) USA.

The collection of the Textile Research Centre (TRC), Leiden, includes an early twentieth century's woman's blouse (locally called a pirahan) from Iran that is decorated with badla work and applied beads. The blouse measures 54 x 30 cm; the sleeves are 32 cm long. This type of blouse is sometimes associated with Jewish brides. Badla work is called in Irab khus-duzi.

The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem, houses an embroidered bodice from Zeeland, in the southwest of the country. Locally called a beuk, and more nationally called a kraplap, this type of garment consists of two panels sewn together along one side with an opening in the centre for the head. The beuk is made of linen and embroidered in cross stitch with silk. Cotton is used for the sewing.

The British Museum in London houses an embroidered, woollen boy's coat (92 x 158 cm) that originates from Chitral in the extreme north of Pakistan and was acquired in 1987. Coat is made of strips of densely woven and fulled wool, embroidered with woollen thread using chain stitch. Embroidered patterns recall patterns on Kashmir rugs.

The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem, houses an embroidered bodice from the island of Marken, in the former Zuiderzee, now the IJsselmeer. Locally it is called a bruidsrijglijf. It is made of silk and embroidered with silk. The red band along the bottom is made of wool. Small bustle-style cushions were suspended from this band to broaden the apperance of the hips.

The National Museums Scotland holds a buckskin shirt with painted decoration and quill embroidery. It dates to the early nineteenth century and was owned by Chief Wanatak, who died in 1837. the Museums also hold Chief Wanatak's leggings acc. nos. A.1942.1 A and B.

The so-called catte embroidery of Mary Queen of Scots is a slip in the form of a cross, decorated with an embroidered figure of a ginger cat that is wearing a crown and is playing with a mouse, on a checked floor. The catte embroidery is now in the Royal Collection, London. It was worked by Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587; her monogram of a combined MA can be seen to the left of the cat).

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, holds a late nineteenth century, densely decorated chapan (coat without front fastenings) from what is now Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The coat, measuring 144 x 98 cm, is made of plain weave cotton with silk thread embroidery, and lined with a silk (resist-dyed) ikat material.

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