coat; festival-costume; jacket BM-As1998-01.183

Period:Unknown Production date:1960-1980 (circa)
Materials:cotton, job’s tears, silk, paper,
Technique:sewn, embroidered, appliqué, dyed, spun (textiles),

Dimensions:Length: 60 centimetres Width: 160 centimetres (across arms)

Description:
Jacket; for festival, possibly for unmarried or married woman’s festival costume. Base cloth of coarse hand-spun cotton, undyed, with staining. Decorated with applied pieces of silk-like cloth and cotton backed with paper and embroidered in satin stitch in floss silk. Where edges of applied pieces are stright, overlaid with strips of material on which are sewn shiny black indigo dyed strips with cut-out diamond pattern. Front design of bold red central square, two facing images in greens of spiralling creatures. Neck edge bound in red and brown cloth. Reverse has similar central square, divided into sub squares, witih similar embroidered motifs. At bottom are four short strings of Job’s Tears seeds, handing from small cloth roundels.
IMG


Comments:For married or unmarried women?Text from Corrigan 2001: 62: rongjiang/danzhai county, qiandongnan prefecture. Festive Jacket. Copious jacket with central front opening. This is not a contemporary garment, and its provenance is unknown. The base cloth is coarse hand-woven cotton and the decoration consists of applied pieces of silk-like cloth, which are sewn with satin-stitch motifs in floss silk over papercuts.