SILKS FOR A SULTAN - Turkish Cultural · PDF fileRiggisberg 1 Naturally dyed silk child’s kaftan. Armaggan Nis¸anta s¸i 2 Silk and gold thread brocade, natural materials. After

CONTEXT WORKSHOP

HALI ISSUE 166 25

materials. After a 16th

century Ottoman kemha

in the Topkapı Palace

4 Silk and gold thread

brocade with saz leaves on

scrolling vines. Jacquard

woven, natural materials.

After a 16th century

Ottoman kemha fragment

in the Abegg-Stiftung

Riggisberg

1 Naturally dyed silk child’s

kaftan. Armaggan Nisantasi

2 Silk and gold thread

brocade, natural materials.

After a 16th century Otto-

man kemha in the Textile

Museum, Washington DC

3 Silk and gold thread

brocade with ascending

asymmetric medallions.

Jacquard woven, natural

24 HALI ISSUE 166

IN A RETAIL PARK on the outskirts of Istanbul,a remarkable project has recently reachedfruition thanks to the work of the TurkishCultural Foundation, the Turkish luxury brandArmaggan Nisantası, and Professor Recep Karadagof Marmara University.

On entering the premises, one might believethat you have entered a design studio of a fashionhouse rather the home of one of the world’s mostambitious textile weaving projects: the repro-duction of the complex silks embellished withprecious metal thread made in Ottoman period.These silks, the embodiment of the majesty andpower of the Imperial court, are well-known toHALI through the royal kaftans in the TopkapıPalace Museum (see Nurhan Atasoy et al., Ipek,2001; HALI 34, 1987, pp.24-31; HALI 88, 1996,pp.78-87). However their brilliance is not avestige of an imperial past but today can bebought in the form of faithful reproductions atthe seven-storey retail premises of the newly

established luxury brand Armaggan Nisantası,nestled amongst celebrated labels as Chanel, LouisVuitton and Cartier in Istanbul’s premiershopping street, Abdi Ipekçi Caddesi in Nisantası.

The complexity of the processes undertaken tomake each short bolt of silk is an apt metaphorfor the history of the project’s origin, beginningwith The Natural Dye Research Development andApplication Center (DATU). This centre ofexcellence is housed on the top floor of thebuiding alongside a collection of Anatolianhandlooms rescued and restored by Karadag andhis team. The laboratory has, over the last twoyears, assembled a collection of 400 natural dyeplants from around the world. All of these havebeen analysed in the laboratory which has alsoderived pigments from most, that are subsequentlyused to dye sample material, which are thentested again in order to create the most completerecord of the dyes possible.

Alongside this, the laboratory has also collected

and tested (free of charge) material samplestaken from historical objects in instituitonalcollections throughout Turkey and Azerbaijan,including carpets, textiles, leather and paper, inorder to build a historical record of dye usage;for example 700 samples alone were taken fromcarpets in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi(TIEM) in Istanbul. (The results of the tests ofthe ‘Konya’ group of early carpets now in theTIEM will feature in a subsequent issue.)

The intention is that this unrivalled recordof dye analyses will soon appear on a dedicatedwebsite, and the laboratory is actively seekingsamples of unusual dyes in Turkic textiles andrugs to add to its database. The most obviousbeneficiary of all of this work is ArmagganNisantası, which is also linked to The TCF.Armaggan’s textiles are made from silk and wooldyed on site using these historic dye recipes.Indeed the sight of hanks of wool and silk beingdyed to exact shades of light pink and green in

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SILKS FOR A SULTANBEN EVANS

The silks made by the new Turkish brand Armaggan Nisantasi arequite possibly the best luxury fabrics being made in the world today.HALI’s editor unravels the historic thread.

USHAK CARPETS IN AYASMOSQUEIn 1997 DATU performed dyetests on four Ushak carpetsfound in 16th century SeyhMuhyiddin and Bünyamin AyasıMosques in the city of Ayas,some sixty kilometres fromAnkara.The four fragmentedcarpets are all originally in the30-40m2 size range are splitevenly between medallion andpeony design types (right).

These carpets, all of whichare now in the collection of theVakıflar were analysed forstructure, materials and dyes bythe laboratory in the same wayas the other samples takenfrom historical objects.Theresults indicated the use ofmadder (Rubia tinctorum L.),gall oak (Quercus infectoriaOlivier) or valonia oak (Quercusithaburensis Decaisn), hemp(Datisca cannabina L.), indigo(Indigofera tinctoria L.) orwoad (Isatis tinctoria L.), allconsistent with the results oftests from Ushak carpets in theTurkish and Islamic Art Museum.

front of me was quite mesmerising.In the room next door, the silk is spun and

prepared on huge wheels for weaving on ahandful of huge Jacquard looms slowly clickingthrough their programmed cards, producingbarely two inches per day of these perfectlyrendered patterns. Through the expertise of thedraughtsman and masterweaver Kora Dagci andthe research of Prof Karadag the exact construc-tion, colouring, metal content, weave and patternof the original complex silks has been analysedand reproduced for this production.

The resulting silks are surely among the mostremarkable textiles being made anywhere in theworld today. Although the processes involved arecomplex, the sublime beauty of the finishedproducts simply reflect the freedom andexuberance seen in the patterns themselves.

These silks are a small part of the products,including jewellery, naturally dyed textiles andhomewares, exclusively commissioned byArmaggan Nisantası. However these objectsare distinct from the material elsewhere in thisdistrict in that they are all designed by Turkishdesigners and handcrafted in the company’sown Turkey-based ateliers employing leading,yet anonymous, Turkish craftsmen. All of theobjects reflect the brand’s stated intent topromote and protect traditional Turkish craftskills, but the beauty of the objects is clearlynot a secondary value. With this in mind welook forward to seeing the Armaggan Nisantasıcarpet collection.

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