Painted and dyed Pichwai scene of shepherd girls on red earth

India 18-19th Century

Height 28 cm, Width 30cm

Surviving fragments of Indian religious-themed Pichwai are often textile representations of Krishna related legends. Krishna is the eighth avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. According to the Bhagavad Purana records, the young Krishna was a handsome shepherd boy loved and respected by the shepherd girls. He frequently played with the young shepherdesses under a Kadamba tree. This theme is heavily favored by worshippers, often depicted in textiles, and hung in temples as decorations. This work of art is part of a Pichwai and uses red cotton as its base, upon which dyes and gilding are applied. The pattern design uses a Kaiguang (flower frame pattern) decorative method to present four shepherd girls under a Kadamba tree. They wear short tops and embroidered colored skirts and are draped in all manner of jewelry accessories from head to toe. Their hands grasp jade vases and stag whisks, evincing the sumptuous elegance of traditional Indian women. Moreover the four corners of this Kaiguang image frame are each decorated with a pair of parrots plus an additional decorative flower pattern and gleaming gold leaf brings the whole tableau alive with an even greater brilliance.

Red base quilt patola sari

India 19th-20th Century

Vertical 450cm，Width 105cm

Patola is the local name in the Gujarat and Surat regions for silk ikat in which both the warp and weft threads are wrapped. Employing the same technique used to make ikat, first one dyes the yarn in segments and then weaves it into patterns. The manufacturing process is complicated and labour-intensive. A delicate handcrafted textile which can't be factory manufactured, it remains a local specialty even today. Both sides of the cloth are decorated with stripes and the main section has a colorful overlapped quilted pattern woven with red, yellow, green, white, and black yarn. In Islamic communities it falls under the rubric of women's high fashion.

印度 19世紀
Paisley pattern pallu brocade sari

India 19th Century

Height 454cm，Width 117cm

Baluchari saris are made in Murshidabad in Bengal. This type of brocade sari originated in the 18th century when weavers wove narrative patterns into sari pallu as decorations. They enjoyed wide popularity in the marketplace and their narrative patterns became their most distinguishing stylistic feature. This particular sari is made of silk brocade. The central portion of the sari pallu is adorned with an exquisite paisley pattern and the surrounding decorated square pattern depicts an action scene of people in European dress in a train compartment, reflecting life during the 19th century British colonial period.

Embroidered long top and embroidered skirt

India 19th-20th Century

Top Length 56cm x Width 98cm
Skirt Length 125cm x Width 180 cm

Indian women dwelling in Gujarat not only wear saris but also three piece outfits featuring tops, skirts, and turbans as daily attire. The nomadic Rabari women in the Kutch district are known for their diligence, skill, and contribution to the family livelihood. They excell at embroidery and, in addition to making beautiful clothes, they further love to adorn themselves with complex accessories. Their halter style cotton top (known as a choli) feature fully handsewn colorful geometric patterns such as circles and squares and are further embedded with small glittering mirrors. When packing a full complement of ornamentation, the top becomes all the more precious and sumptuous and constitutes one of the wedding garments adorning brides.

Ghagra is the term for the local skirt that constitutes the primary article of clothing women wear on the lower body. This dark red fabric features sewn flower patterns with colored silk threads arrayed in orderly fashion, layer upon layer, evoking blossoms in a garden, and coordinates very well with choli resulting in an even richer, more colorful and exquisite look.

Golden base embroidery sari pallu

India 18-19th Century

Silk and gold thread
Length 49cm, Width 64cm

This is a surviving fragment of a sublime sari pallu. The base fabric of this textile is woven from gold leaf thread and silk yarn to create the entire golden background and emanate a dazzlingly bright luster. The top sections feature pearls sewn as the contours of petite white flowers, with the hearts of the flowers ornamented with rubies, and beryls embroidered into the fabric as green leaves. Next gold threads were embroidered in brocade to stitch in the outlines of each entire flower. The full-sized primary pattern contains 24 flowers and plants arranged in three rows.

The border utilizes the same material to embroider a long strip of decorative patterns, connecting branches and tendrils to the flowers and leaves, horizontally arranged atop the plants. As such the border forms a decorative frame encompassing and completing the entire design. Overall the design is an elegant, sumptuous, and unusually rare representative work of art in the Mogul court style.

The sari pallu adorns the last segment of the whole sari. It is wrapped or draped on the most conspicuous part of the upper body where, richly imbued with decorative function, it manifests the wearer's wealth, identity, and status.

Orange base kadam pattern gilt brocade crew neck tunic

India 19-20th century

Silk, cotton, gold thread
Robe Length 107cm，Width 139cm

Northern Muslim peoples brought the dress culture of the Ottoman Empire's nobility into the north of the Indian subcontinent. This crew neck robe design originated from Turkey and is stitched with gilt brocade. It features long sleeves, a round-necked open front tunic with lace, and inside the lapel a piece of fabric is added covering the chest.

The collar, cuffs, and hems are all decorated with embroidered borders and the tunic extends down to the knees. Inside the tunic a girdle and drainpipe type trousers are worn. This constitutes Rajasthan men's sumptuous formal wear.