Description
Middle East, Textile;
Woven silk and metal thread trimmed with plain weave silk, silk satin and printed cotton.
These short trousers are largely formed of two folded widths seamed to produce the legs. A small section of four fragments of the same fabric form the apex of the inner crotch. On the inner cuff of the legs a band of different silk protects the main fabric and both sides are finished with a narrow bias cut pieced band of plain weave black silk. The waistband is formed with plain weave silk in two colours, pink [faded] and madder red on the exterior, and a resist printed cotton with a black field on the inner.
Main Fabric: plain weave patterned silk. On a gold yellow ground a series of offset isolated botehs, edged with flowers and infilled with a floral spray in [faded] red, blue, green and dark green, and some white details. In one row the boteh motifs face to the left, in the next row to the right. A small flowering spray stands between the motifs, and small isolated curving sprays at the top and midway echoing the same colouring. It appears that originally the yellow ground was in fact silver metal thread on a yellow silk core, but very little remains. On the reverse, the white silk for the details is carried from edge to edge.
Silk: warp = light pink, Z-twist; weft = white, light green, dark green, blue, yellow, no discernable twist.
Metal Thread: silver strip very open S-wound on yellow silk core.
The fabric may have been sized on the reverse to stiffen it.
Cuff Band: plain weave black silk, bias-cut, pieced.
Cuff Protection/Facing: approximately 4.5 cm pieced, striped silk satin, alternately [1] white stripe with pink [very faded] flower with black edged white leaves or white flower edged in black, and pink leaves and [2] green stripe holding either light blue [very faded] edged in black, yellow leaves and pink root or white flower edged in pink, yellow leaves and white and black roots.
Waistband: two types of silk fabric, 3 cm deep:
[a] faded pink plain weave silk
[b] madder red, plain weave silk but every 5th or 6th warp thread is thicker.
This is topped by 3 cm [then folded and continued 7 cm on the inside] of resist printed cotton, pieced.
Inside the waistband; plain weave resist printed cotton with a red selvedge with 2 narrow black stripes. The ground colour is black with a small repeating pattern in white, light blue, yellow and red of a geometric shape alternating with a very small 4-pointed star in offset rows.