Wedding ensemble
A late 19th-century wedding garment of red silk covered entirely in gold-thread embroidery, a puzzle of finding subtle differences in a lavish repeated pattern. Full commentary ↓
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Wedding ensemble is a textile by an unknown maker (late 19th century) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 116.2 cm.
In the pictureA long sleeveless outer garment is draped on a mannequin. Flowers, leaves and scrolling vines are densely embroidered in metal thread on a red silk ground, and the front edges and hem are bordered in a dark color. A striped lining shows slightly on the inside. At 116cm long, it falls below the knee.
BackgroundBecause embroidery in metal-wrapped thread was costly in materials and labor, it was concentrated on clothing for once-in-a-lifetime occasions such as weddings. Such garments were handed down from mother to daughter or made as part of a trousseau, and the density of the pattern and the amount of gold thread directly showed a family's means. The Met's record gives the places of manufacture as Tirana, Durrës and Kavajë in Albania, and seven parts including this outer garment make up the ensemble. As clothing from Albania, then part of the Ottoman Empire, it is held by the Department of Islamic Art.
Puzzle tipThe same pattern repeats symmetrically left and right, making this a hard puzzle. Set the frame first with pieces that are not pattern, such as the dark front borders, the hem and the mannequin's neck, then sort the embroidered pieces into inner and outer by how much red ground shows (the red areas grow wider toward the edges).
- Classification
- Main dress-Womenswear
- Medium
- silk, cotton, metallic thread
- Dimensions
- 116.2 cm
- Credit line
- Gift of Burta May Taylor, in memory of her husband, Elliot J. Taylor, 1988
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- Syrian Festive Dresses and Albanian Wedding Ensembles Whose Embroidery Names the Village
Festive dresses from Quteife, north of Damascus, and the mountainous Qalamun region are told apart by their embroidery. Add two gold-thread wedding ensembles from Albanian towns, and we assemble five garments from the Met's Islamic Art department as puzzles.
