AP Wire | The Wertime "Silk & Leather," Show at the Textile Museum

AP Wire | 10/10/2005 | Exhibits offer ideas on Asia garments: "Exhibits offer ideas on Asia garments

CARL HARTMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Anyone who thinks Western fashion houses need new colors and designs might get some useful ideas from three sumptuous shows of traditional Asian dress at Washington museums this autumn.

Already on view at the Textile Museum are clothes developed over millennia by the hard-riding people of central Asia - hat, boots, sash, tunic, trousers and caftan - the last a long, loose, long-sleeved garment, worn by both men and women.

John T. Wertime, guest curator of the show called "Silk & Leather," described the ancient warriors of central Asia who sometimes spent days in the saddle, fighting or checking out new pastures for their herds. They needed clothes that would both protect them from the cold and keep their legs from chafing against their horses' flanks. Their coats had to give them room for driving a war chariot and for wielding bow, arrow or heavy bronze sword while mounted.

This "steppe style," Wertime pointed out in an interview, also had the advantage that it needed no clasps or buttons to keep on. In ancient Europe garments like the Roman toga were usually made of a single piece of cloth draped around the body. They needed constant adjustment or a clasp to hold them in place. One solution was the fibula, something like a giant safety pin.

"You know the Venus de Milo," said Wertime, referring to the ancient Greek statue, nude to the hips. "The arms are broken off, so you don't know what she was doing with them. Some people think she was wearing a single piece of cloth that just slipped from her shoulders."

That wouldn't have happened to a central Asian woman, wearing a basic shift-like gown put on over her head.

The steppe style came into contact with the clothes of more settled peoples, like the Chinese. More than 2,000 years ago the central Asian nomads developed a taste for Chinese silks. In the same period, the skills of embroidery spread into central Asia.

These features made the garments more elegant and colorful without changing essential forms, Wertime said. The elaborate caftans are the stars of the show, along with embroidered boots to be worn indoors and hats that range from little embroidered beanies to tall cones, one adorned with feathers.

"Silk & Leather" will be on view through Feb. 26, 2006.

On Wednesday, the Textile Museum will open a show of Japanese rozome. It's a kind of batik, with wax applied to parts of the fabric that the maker wants to keep unaffected when it's soaked in dye. The rozome artist applies both wax and color to the fabric with a brush, enabling more subtlety in the tints and making the result into a single artist's work rather than a team job. It's a technique more than 1,400 years old, revived early in the 20th century. The work of 15 Japanese artists will be on view.

The exhibit, organized by the Massachusetts College of Art, was hailed as the first of its kind in North America by Masuo Nishibayashi, Japan's consul general in Boston.

Why don't the rozome artists just brush pigments on canvas as other artists do? asked Betsy Sterling Benjamin, who joined in organizing the show.

She answered her own question:

"It's the love of deep color, when water-soluble dye penetrates to the root of the fiber, changing its nature forever, the chemical action that allows the striking glow of dyed fabric. Rozome artists are painters addicted to the meditative stroke of hot wax on thirsty cloth, luminous color and a quiet solitary studio."

"Rozome Masters of Japan" will close Feb. 12, 2006.

Admission to the Textile Museum is free, with a "suggested contribution" of $5.

On Oct. 29 the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will show the big, bold designs of robes favored by Turkish sultans of 300 to 400 years ago, There will be 68 of them borrowed from the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul - velvet, brocade and cloth made of gold and silver thread.

Among the exhibits is a plain silk satin robe worn by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent - a contemporary of Elizabeth I of England, whose empire stretched from Morocco to Iraq. The sultans, leaders of the Islamic faithful, nevertheless tolerated the export of luxurious silks for ceremonial robes of the Russian Orthodox church, including Christian images made by Turkish weavers.

Some robes were lent to the show by the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Like other Smithsonian museums, the Sackler does not charge admission.

"Style and Status," as the Turkish show is called, will close on Jan. 22, 2006.

ON THE NET

Textile Museum: http://www.textilemuseum.org

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery: http://www.asia.si.edu"