For the brown challenge, I made a pair of salwar to wear with my 16th c. Persian clothes. They are made of a lightweight, block-printed cotton from India that was originally cream with black, which I then overdyed to brown. The pattern is incredibly simple: two tapered tubes. They're held up by a separate cord or thin belt. The cut is the same as the closest extant items I'm aware of, which are Ottoman Turkish pants from the same time period. Those ones were very high status, and made from brocades that look fairly stiff. Persian silhouettes are generally softer and more fluid that Turkish ones, and cotton and block printing were both available. I choose this print because it preserves at large scale the design aesthetic - large individual motifs, well separated by blank space, and largely symmetrical. The motif itself is probably a bit too complex, but is not glaringly bad.
The Challenge: September - Brown
Fabric: 2.5 yds block-printed cotton
Pattern: none
Year: 16th c. Persian
How historically accurate is it:Matches (limited) information - materials speculative.
Total cost: $40.
02 October 2015
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