Khawlan Embroidered Dresses (Yemen)

Large indigo-dyed, daily dress from the Khawlan region, Yemen. First half 20th century. Large indigo-dyed, daily dress from the Khawlan region, Yemen. First half 20th century. Courtesy Textile Research Centre, Leiden, acc. no. TRC 2012.0375.

Khawlan lies between Amran and Hajja, to the northwest of Sana`a, the capital of Yemen. Local women wear a daily and a festive version of an embroidered dress. Until the 1960's, both the daily dress and the festive examples had broad sleeves and were made from indigo dyed cotton cloth. By the end of the twentieth century, the sleeves on festive dresses had become much narrower and were often made of dark blue or black cotton material.

The embroidery on the daily dresses is concentrated around the neck opening and down the garment's front. In addition, the vertical seams are decorated with narrow bands of decorative stitching, usually in white and red perlé cotton thread. The festive dresses have a much larger quantity of decorative needlework down the front of the garment and along the top of the sleeves. Popular colour combinations for these dresses include light blue, green, orange and white.

Sources:

  • MAURIÈRES, Arnaud, Philippe CHAMBON, and Éric OSSART (2003). Reines de Saba: Itinéraires Textiles au Yémen, Aix-en Provence: Édisud.
  • RANSOM, Marjorie and Gillian VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD (2016). 'Embroidery from Yemen,' in: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood (ed.), Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World, London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 520-559, esp. pp. 531-534.
  • STONE, Francine (1985). Studies on the Tihamah: The Report of the Tihamah Expedition 1982 and Related Papers, London: Longman.

GVE

Last modified on Thursday, 25 May 2017 16:03
Published in (Pre-) Modern Middle East and North Africa
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