Rich woman's skirt of striped dark blue and peach with six dark blue bands decorated with lozenge supplementary weft designs in red, peach and green.

Collection type: Object
Description: Rich woman's skirt of striped dark blue and peach with six dark blue bands decorated with lozenge supplementary weft designs in red, peach and green.
Long description: Rich woman's skirt of striped dark blue and peach with six dark blue bands decorated with lozenge supplementary weft designs in red, peach and green. The cloth is formed of two panels of woven cotton, each panel having alternating lines of dark blue and peach-coloured warp threads, and a dark blue weft. The two panels are stitched together with peach-coloured yarn. There are five dark blue longitudinal stripes which are decorated with pairs of repeating lozenges woven in supplementary weft. Two bands are decorated with red wool only, the other three with peach-coloured cotton, red wool and small areas of green wool. Along the bottom of the skirt are more short lines of small triangle designs, woven in peach cotton, red wool, and green wool supplementary weft. The warp ends have been twisted and knotted into a fringe at both ends.
Geographical reference: India
Asia > Southern Asia > India; Nagaland; Ungma village
Cultural groups: Ao Naga
Person: Field collector Robert Niel Reid; PRM source Robert Niel Reid
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1942
Date collected: 1937 - 1942
Acquisition information: Donated: 1946
Materials and processes: Material Cotton Textile Plant, Material Cotton Yarn Plant, Material Wool Yarn Animal, Process Spun, Process Dyed, Process Woven, Process Supplementary Weft Woven, Process Stitched
Dimensions: Length: max 1300 mm, Width 671 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1946.7.49
Research and responses: Although I have not seen this textile, it is likely that the decorative patterns are made using supplementary weft technique rather than embroidery. The two techniques are often confused in NE India and Burma textiles. Supplementary weft is in fact much more common but is often wrongly described as embroidery. [SHD 7/6/2000]
Objects in the original Reid collection have gone to various places. 1946.7.96 - 1946.7.124 were sent to the Musee de l'Homme in 1946. 1946.7.85 - 1946.7.95 seem to have been intended to be sent to Paris, but did not go. 1946.7.5 - 1946.7.84, the remainder of the accessioned collection, were kept at the PRM from the beginning. A further group of items never accessioned were sent to the National Museet in Copenhagen in 1947 (the latter group are listed in a single record with REID in accession number field). [SD 27/6/2000]

Search terms: Clothing Textile, Status, Textile, Status Object, Skirt