The studio collection has some examples of ikat-dyed robes from Uzbekistan but it is their linings that hold a fascinating story.
Russia has a long history of printing on textiles. Its proximity to Asian and European countries meant that advances in printing (and other processes) were easily absorbed and altered to fit local tastes. During the reign of Peter the Great, when Russia experienced rapid modernisation and industrialisation, the emperor encouraged the manufacture of textiles: canvas for his navy, and linen and cotton mills.
By the 19th Century Russian printed fabrics were available locally and were generating an interest abroad, mixing diverse influences together to produce colourful cloths with nature-inspired themes. The town of Ivanovo grew into an industrial city, centred on the manufacture of textiles, and it became known as “The Russian Manchester“, a reference to the English cotton-producing city.
In 1865, General Konstantin von Kaufman, seized Tashkent and became the first governor general of Russian Turkestan. The era is captured in photographs sent back to St Petersburg and published in the Tashkent Album. Cotton had long been produced in the country but, as the two maps shown on the photographs line above show, Russia saw the potential of the area and cotton became a major crop, responsible, at least in part, for the emptying of the Aral Sea. Today Uzbekistan is the 9th largest exporter of cotton in the world.
In Russia, the availability of cheaper cotton and the invention of roller-printing, copper rolls etched with designs that were inked and run over cloth to produce hundreds of yards of printed fabric, meant that colourful material was readily available at a price that almost everyone could afford and this allied to the local taste for bright and colourful clothing. As William Eleroy Curtis, an American writer penned in 1911 when speaking about clothing from Russia and its territories:
“No matter how humble or hungry a man may be… his coat is made of the most brilliantly coloured material he can find.”
So, a robe, like those in the collection with their faded linings, reveals a complex history of industrialisation, war, conquest, labour and economics. What a treasure hidden in plain sight!
Read more:
The Russian love affair with Italian textiles
The Russian Manchester – Ivanovo
The Glory of Russian Costume show, New York 1977
Naboika printed fabric in the British Museum
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