Women's dress

Turkmen

Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Tashauzskaya Oblast, Kunya-Urgench district

1950-1951

Costume, Costume, women's

Cloth: silk; cloth: calico; threads: plant fiber: cotton

length 127.0; width in shoulders 40.0; width of hem 86.0; length of sleeve 62.0; length of cut 32.5

РЭМ 6620-8

Sewn and embroidered by Denge Turlanova, age 28, worker of a disabled persons’ co-operative in the city of Kony-Urgench, Turkmen of the Ushak branch of the Yamoud tribe. Such dresses of the “keteni” fabric were usually worn by girls and young women as festive or wedding garments. The fabric’s feature is the yellow selvages, which were not tucked in the seam during sewing, but remained outside to decorate the dress, emphasizing its design features. The fabric was called Teke fabric, and a dress of such fabric, “teke keteni koynek.” In the mid-20th century the fabric was made from natural silk or rayon at textile factories and combines in Ashgabat, Tashkent, and Margilan; at that time, it was widespread over the whole Turkmenia. A girl’s dowry could include 20 to 30 dresses of panne velvet, crepe-back satin, or satin, but one or two had to be of “keteni.”