In touch with the past
The last two days I have been sewing a kamiz/underdress/chemise out of a lightweight white linen. I have been in a state of wonderment as i have been working with this simple fabric made from flax fibers.
It is a textile which has been found in excavations in turkey at Çatalhöyük, samples of which have been dated to over ten thousand years ago.
Flax fibers have also been found in Dzudzuana cave in the foothills of Caucasus, Georgia. as of this past September they have been dated to approximately thirty thousand years ago in an article in the publication, Science.
As I have played with the scraps of the fabric I think of its use in clothing and bindings over the millenia.
I think of the wrappings on the mummies in Egypt. I think of the undertunics for the vikings. i think of the chemises beneath the opulent gowns and the ruffed collars of Elizabethan England or the merchants of Venice.
I know you are thinking I am a dweeb due to being a costumer. I have sewn clothing with dyed linen before. But, for some reason this particular weight and its white colour is really giving me a sense of connection to those who have come before.
So yeah, here we are in the twenty first century surrounded by advanced technology which has given us space stations, computers and automobiles, and synthetic fabrics like nylon, tyvek, carbon fiber and acetate, but yet we continue to use a textile from thirty thousand years ago.
Simple things amaze me.
It is a textile which has been found in excavations in turkey at Çatalhöyük, samples of which have been dated to over ten thousand years ago.
Flax fibers have also been found in Dzudzuana cave in the foothills of Caucasus, Georgia. as of this past September they have been dated to approximately thirty thousand years ago in an article in the publication, Science.
As I have played with the scraps of the fabric I think of its use in clothing and bindings over the millenia.
I think of the wrappings on the mummies in Egypt. I think of the undertunics for the vikings. i think of the chemises beneath the opulent gowns and the ruffed collars of Elizabethan England or the merchants of Venice.
I know you are thinking I am a dweeb due to being a costumer. I have sewn clothing with dyed linen before. But, for some reason this particular weight and its white colour is really giving me a sense of connection to those who have come before.
So yeah, here we are in the twenty first century surrounded by advanced technology which has given us space stations, computers and automobiles, and synthetic fabrics like nylon, tyvek, carbon fiber and acetate, but yet we continue to use a textile from thirty thousand years ago.
Simple things amaze me.