Shawl/Scarf Research Paper

Stacy Morales

Professor Lung

Art 2130

December 8, 2016

History of The Shawl: Kashmir Shawl

The Regency Era (1800-1837 was influenced by George the third and became known as the period of costume and fashion. This time period consisted of lightweight robes in which garments and other accessories were used to make this wear warmer. Tulle shawls were delicate and light and suited fine for evening dresses. White muslin net shawls were embroidered with tambour work, which is something resembling a drum in shape. In Norwich Connecticut, silk warp and wool weft twill shawls were made with a design similar to a Chinese design.

Kashmir shawls were the warmest regency shawls that were mainly made of cashmere wool. Kashmir is a historical region in northwest India. The shawls were originally denoted of a woven fabric rather than a particular dress piece. The most beautiful quality made from fine wool with woven and embroidered patterns were genuine Kashmir shawls. Shawls were traditionally worn as a scarf, a mantle and a turban. They were the most useful and attractive accessories. The draped shawls highlighted classical effects that women in England strived for. Kashmir shawls were considered a prize in this era. Changing tastes in fashion through this era meant the fashionable way of wearing Kashmir shawls changed throughout the years. Eventually the shawls were copied by manufactures in Britain. They were especially found in near the towns of Paisley and Norwich. Paisley made reversible shawls that were woven, and later Norwich cut costs to beat their competition and started to print the shawls. By the Edwardian Era, Paisley printed even cheaper shawls and bought shillings that were worn by the lower class. Once the lower class started wearing the Kashmir shawls the upper class started to reject them.

In India, the shawls were essentially worn by males. The fineness of the shawl was seen as nobility. The origins of the industry in Kashmir are unknown. More than a hundred years ago, the founder was Zainulabidin. He was said to have introduced Turkistan weavers for the purpose of the Kashmir. Traditional weaving in India was considered the proper technique, which has similarities in Persia and Central Asia. Western textile historians call it the twill- tapestry technique because of the similarities in traditional Europe tapestry weaving techniques. Wooden spools insert the wefts of the patterned part of the fabric. Wefts threads alone already create a pattern, but do not run the full width of the cloth. Weaving back and forth round the warp thread only where a certain color is needed. Twill tapestry technique was slow and required a lot of labor. The patterned section of a shawl was produced on a single loom. If a wealthy person requested a shawl to be made it meant that it might take eighteen months or more to complete. When designs became more complicated a new practice was introduced of dividing the work of a single shawl among two or more looms. This helped the process of a shawl to be produced faster. With the help of two or more looms the process sped up rapidly. After various parts of the design on the shawls were made, they were handed over to the needle worker who joined them together. The joins were so tiny and fine that it is almost impossible to see them.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the needle worked shawl was ornamented with the needle on a plain-woven ground. The type of shawl with an entirely needle worked pattern in the nineteenth century was unknown. It had not occurred the merchants that simulation of the loom woven patterns by a much more simple process of needle embroidery on a plain ground required less time, skill, and outlay. Ali Baba, a seamster, produced the first needle worked imitations for the market at a third of the cost of loom woven shawls. Saving money was a big part, which as a result made huge profits and this branch of the industry rapidly expanded. The material for Kashmir shawls was traditionally fleece that is derided from animals. The animal as a natural protection against the cold climate grew the fleece.

Overall the shawl is a great part of history and is being used now in trendy ways all around the world. The shawl is very common and is worn by people of all ages, gender, and color. It can also be worn in various ways such as around the neck, around the head for religious purposes, or in any way that suits peoples interest.

Left: Can be used as a Scarf/shawl

Right: Can be used as a turban/hijab

How to Knit a Scarf Video (CLICK ME)

References

Brief history of shawls(link)

1800 Accessories(link)

Pannier Dress

Stacy Morales

ART 2130

Professor Lung

November 8, 2016

Pannier: The 18^th Century Fashion

Throughout the 18^th century, women’s dresses constantly changed. The concept of beauty changed along with it. In England, a noticeable appearance in the 18^th century was the widespread fashion for very large skirts and dresses. One of those large dresses is called a pannier. The word pannier is named after the French word “panier” meaning a basket since women would resemble baskets fastened around their waist. To expand the width of dresses, women in every social class would wear hooped pea coats, which is referred to as panniers. Even servants would wear small hoops. These panniers were made of wood, whalebone, metal or reeds and were designed to hold out the petticoat and the skirt. The skirts were expanded to widths as large as several feet at each side. Under the dress would be a well-crafted laced stays that stayed with the help of as many as 40mpieces of whalebone. The dresses were backstitched by hand and were very decorative. The decorations were very exaggerated. Some of the decorations used were sparkle, lace, and rhinestones with bright colors. The stays supported and raised the breast, and were narrow at a sharp point to slim the waist. The pannier would be so large that two women could not walk through the doorway at the same time or even sit next to each other on a couch or at a table. Wearing this type of apparel was not comfortable for women and made everyday activities such as walking, sitting, getting into a carriage was very difficult. The iconic silhouette at the time was a rectangular shape dress that enhanced the smallness of the waist and enlarged women’s hips. The rectangular shape of the dress is called “Holland covered panier.” The width of panniers ranged from modest to extreme. The larger panniers were generally worn for formal occasions because they represented a women’s status. The wealthy women represented the larger and more dramatic dress. The wealthier women could afford someone to tailor a giant looking dress, which at the time was very expensive. Brocaded silk dresses gives the examples of the extremes to which panniers were sometimes taken in the mid 18^th century. This dress gained popularity among British aristocrats because it gave off the wealthy social status of the wearer.

Although these extremely large dresses were considered fashionable, they were often pointed out as ridiculous and women were getting made fun of for wearing overlarge dresses. Typically men would make rude comments to women about their dresses. Among the men that worried about the large hoops, some saw that as an indication of independence and masculine control over their social and sexual lives. At the time women’s role of a higher social class was to take care of their husband and their family. They criticized panniers because they were supposedly creating private spaces for women since the dress was so huge. Wide skirts grew its popularity in the first half of the 18^th century, but later the size of the hoops for everyday wear began to reduce and eventually the crinoline replaced it.

I decided to take strong bendable wire for the width of the pannier dress and shape it into a square. I want to make it look as wide as possible so I spread the wire as far as it could go. I tied pieces of wire together to form the square shape that I wanted. I bought white fabric to use as the first layer of the dress: the undergarment. I wrapped the wire around the Barbie doll and covered the wire with the white fabric. As I positioned the wire I decided to open the Barbie’s legs so the dress can be as big and bold as possible. Since the Barbie is very light as far as weight goes, I wanted the dress to be proportionate to the Barbie’s body so I limited the use of the wire and layered more fabric instead. I bought three different types of fabric because the panniers were typically layered. After I covered the wire with the first layer of fabric I then used the gold silk fabric as the second layer to give it that beautiful royal feel to the dress. Since the third fabric is see through the gold fabric will be acting as the base showing the third layer of red-laced fabric. The red-laced fabric I decided to use is perfect for this dress because it looks very high class and exaggerated as far as the decorations on the lacing. It has beautiful flower patterns with sequence designs on it and as I did my research I saw that it resembled what the wealthy people would wear at the time. There are four colors that symbolize royalty: red, blue, purple and gold. I chose red and gold because it is a perfect color combination since they are considered two of the “royal” colors.

References

http://www.fashion-era.com/paniers.htmhttp://www.fashionintime.org/history-womens-hooped-petticoats/2/https://historyofeuropeanfashion.wordpress.com/category/baroquerococo-1650-1800/

Trading Tea

British Colonies in India

Stacy Morales

Professor Lung

Art 2130

October 11, 2016

British Colonies in India

Trade was a great part of India and has been carried by the influence of British traders. It was all controlled according to the British rule also known as the British Raj. Indian economic opinion was aware of widespread belief among the Indian people. The belief was that the development of the country had various stages, which eventually led to the trade policy. Before the British rule, India had great and successful manufactures. It was a great agricultural country. The products of the Indian looms supplied the markets of Asia and Europe. The Indian industry portrayed enjoying its golden age. It was not a country in which labor occupies most of the agriculture instead India had widespread and flourishing manufactures. Since the trade policy came, India had a large downfall, which traced back to the British government. There was a commercial policy that discouraged the import of a couple Indian manufactures in the early years of the British rule. This helped the rise of manufactures in England. The policy of the British rule was to make India obey the industries of Great Britain and to make India grow raw produce. Some example of the raw products that were exported was pepper, indigo, etc. Growing raw produce supplied material for the looms and manufactures in Great Britain. The destruction of the Indian industry was carried out into problems involving traffic laws excluding the import of Indian goods into England while forcing the Indian manufacturer. England adopted a free trade and tripled worse possibilities for the industrial expansion of India by the rising of England’s free trade policy. England had a tax upon cotton fabrics, which resulted to “dropping out” of being one of the competitors of two of India’s biggest rivals, which was China and Japan. England gained so much power that it became the wealthiest province of India. The responsibility for the fiscal policy of the country was in their hands. Each provinces under the British rule stayed separate fiscal countries. India as a whole was split up into economically different areas. This continued on from the 1600’s to the 1800’s. From then on India has been a single economic nation. Its boarders have been extended as well. The policy of free trade was taking action of the government in regards to the Indian trade and tariff. The commercial policy of England, under its conditions, which admitted Indian goods into its own market, has three time periods, which distinguished the differences in time in which the England policy arose. The first period protected the manufactures of the country in England. The second secured a balance of trade as a result for imports and exports to be allowed. The third extended all possible growth of trade. Around the 17^th century the tariff itself did not pass, but around the 18^th century the control of trade finally passed to parliament. The British rule mainly consisted of bringing in revenue, but as time went on the course of trade increased. The duties of importing goods inflicted the purpose of assisting to native manufactures. In the 19^th century the conflict of the new manufacturing interests and the old agrarian party led to the Industrial Revolution in this time frame. When Europe began trading by sea with the East, the Portuguese conquest around the end of the 15^th century the foreign trade of India was in the hands of the moors. Moors are a mix of Muslim people with Berber and Arab descent. The Muslim influence took a great part of India. The coming of the Portuguese trade was carried on between India and principle markets of the West. This had three main trade routes: Arabian coast, Persian Gulf, and the cities of Persia and turkey. A couple of manufactures played an important part in Indian exports. The main manufactures were cotton, chintzes, muslins, silk cloth and thread. The goods that made up the articles of foreign commerce were dyes, drugs, spices, teas, and stones. There were villages of handicrafts supplying needs of the poor local population. There were also ministers that handcrafted to fulfill the needs of the few wealthy people. Even though the wealthy people and the poor people are considered separate their handcrafted goods came from the same place. India’s foreign trade in the 17^th century and in the 18^th century was mainly focused from an Indian export point of view, which was to export raw products. Overall the result of the British was that it ended up colonizing India for power and taking over trade.

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Tea Act

Gave the British East India company a monopoly of the tea trade in the colonies
This forced the colonist to purchase taxed tea from Britain

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References

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/east_india_01.shtml

http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/eme/18/FC123

http://xerxes.calstate.edu/losangeles/articles/record?id=FETCH-LOGICAL-c1926-aff8604e8b511d07b38b193d95dd9e39527343e3f6f30e62af56145633de72823

Research Paper

Stacy Morales

ART 2130

Professor Lung

9/13/2016

Egyptian Clothing: Kalasiris

Egyptian fashion is one of the earliest forms of clothing that is still being studied and is being known of today. The clothing evolved into many different styles throughout history along with specific wardrobes. There are many types of Egyptian clothing that was used back in the 2700 B.C era, but the kalasiris was unique and versatile. A kalasiris is a piece of Egyptian clothing (mainly robes) that was worn by both sexes. It is very rare in todays era to find clothing that both men and women can wear, which makes the kalasiris versatile. In the beginning it was made for comfort and was used as a form of protection for male workers. It was seen as a way to protect their skin from any scrapes or cuts from working. The kalasiris was mainly made of linen and transparent linen. The women typically wore this garment that covered one or both of their shoulders. If they wore a top it would be a little bit above or below the breast area. It can be a full garment or just a loincloth style garment. The kalasiris was usually a long robe like garment and it was rarely short. The sample I made is short because although it wasn’t worn much I found in my research that Egyptians were very comfortable showing off their body. For example, I mentioned that women would wear a kalasiris below their breast area. This means that they would walk around with their breast showing. Keep in mind that there were no bras in this era. Women and men were very comfortable showing their bodies, which is the reason why I decided to make kalasiris that looks like a loincloth. The sample that I made is worn mainly by men and is made of transparent linen. I used the yarn to make a diagonal pattern just as an example of the style they used to wear. The kalasiris usually consist of a diagonal pattern that ended towards the middle of the garment. Since sewing wasn’t used in 2700 B.C I just decided to pin all the yarn together, as well as the fabric. I spread out the yarn on the garment and glued them apart so it wouldn’t hang awkwardly. Usually the clothing was wrapped together and held together by a belt. I folded the fabric multiple times to get a skirt like shape and show that the Egyptians would layer their linen. Once I saw that my piece of clothing looked like a diagonal shape I decided to pin the fabric corner to corner. I pined a longer piece of fabric in the front to make it look like a loincloth that resembles what Egyptian men used to wear. I folded the longer piece of cloth and glued the corners together so it can be thinner towards the front. I also crocheted a single line of green yarn and rolled it up to make it into a ball, so it can mimic a bead down the middle. Beads were very popular in Egyptian culture thus being the reason why I decided to resemble a bead. I tied the ball of green yarn onto the tips of the white yarn that was hanging towards the middle. Gowns were not very popular during this era, so I used transparent linen layered together since it was worn without a gown. The trends of ancient Egypt gradually changed and their social status and wealth changed over the years as well. The working class wore shorter kalasiris compared to the upper class, such as royalty. The high-class people wore a variety of color in their wardrobe. The poor usually wore one solid color with barely any pattern in it. The main color that men used was a simple beige color. All men wore a kalasiris that resembled either a loincloth or a kilt that varied in length over the years from half way above the knees to below the knees. The male kalasiris I decided to make is short because in my opinion it represents an important part of history of how the garment evolved over time from short to long. The short garment is the roots of its beginning. Kalasisris was a well-known garment and is still being used today as costumes, museums displays, etc. It is still being studied today and will always be an important part of history

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Women kalasiris

male_clothing

Evolving from old kingdom, middle kingdom, new kingdom, and late period

ancient76

Mens kalasiris

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References

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/clothing.htm

http://marybawa.com/ancient/egypt/egypt3.html

http://www.4to40.com/history/index.asp?p=The_Egyptians_-_A_History_of_Costumes

http://world4.eu/ancient-egyptian-costumes/

http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptclothing.html

Abstract

I plan to make a piece of ancient Egyptian clothing called kalasiris. I am planning on buying a sheet like material made of cotton and sew sleeves onto a garment. I want the sleeves to be a transparent material just as how the Egyptians used to wear it. Based off pictures and research the Egyptians also had a belt like fabric wrapped around their waste. I plan on sewing loops onto my fabric in order to put the belt like material. The overall design is going to be very lightweight material and filled with various colors as the Egyptians wore.