06 February 2008

Ikat at the V&A

The exhibition of Central Asian ikats is on until 30 March. It lifts the spirits. (I went to see it back in January, with some others from CQ.)
On the left, a man's robe; the woman's robe on the right has more shaping. They're lined with printed cotton imported from Russia and England, among other places. The ikat fabric is silk (dyed) threads covering a cotton warp. The silk is tied and dyed up to seven times, and has to be spread out in groups of long threads and marked up before each dyeing. The white areas have to be carefully guarded!

This darker robe might have been worn by a woman in mourning. Ikat cloth was also made into wall hanging, lined again in cotton.
Most garments in the exhibition are from 1875-1900, but there are also some more modern ones - with simpler designs and chemical dyes.
My favourite - these simple circles. The white ones have red dye at the sides of the green circles in the centre.
The woven panels are narrow and patterns don't necessarily "match". And what's that white, wavy line?

2 comments:

Tonya Ricucci said...

those are really beautiful. how lucky you are to get to see these twice!

YankeeQuilter said...

What gorgeous fabrics! I may need to take a roadtrip up to London before the exhibition closes. When I was up there in the fall I spent an entire day in the V&A!