Coat, Central Asia, Uzbekistan. The Textile Museum. The Megalli Collection.

Textile collector Murad Megalli of Istanbul has donated a collection of 148 Central Asian ikats to The Textile Museum. The gift includes numerous men’s and women’s ikat coats, over garments, pants, cradle covers, hangings and various fragments. All of the ikats are from Uzbekistan and date primarily to the Nineteenth Century.

In announcing the gift, director Daniel Walker said, “We are honored that Mr Megalli chose The Textile Museum as the repository for such an important collection. The gift should be a point of pride for those who love the museum, for it serves to validate what they already believe, that the museum is worthy of support and remains a serious collecting institution.”

The gift represents one of the largest additions to The Textile Museum’s collection of Central Asian textiles. All of the textiles are silk ikats with interesting and graphically striking patterns, making the collection important both for scholarship and connoisseurship. Among the designs are some that are very unusual, such as black and white combinations, and others clearly recalling the textiles from which they were inspired, such as Persian and Ottoman textiles of previous centuries.

Cradle cover, Central Asia, Uzbekistan. The Textile Museum, The Megalli Collection.

Illustrating the Central Asian penchant for strong colors and bold patterns, these ikat fabrics were produced by highly skilled and specialized dyers in the urban centers of Uzbekistan for consumption by both urban and rural populations.

Murad Megalli, managing director with JPMorgan in Istanbul, has had an interest in Oriental textiles since the late 80s. His passion for textiles and collecting them flourished over the years under the influence of Istanbul and the region.

Of choosing The Textile Museum as the recipient of this gift, Mr. Megalli said, “A key consideration in donating the ikats to The Textile Museum was conversations with Bruce Baganz, president of the Board of Trustees, and director Daniel Walker. Their vision and enthusiasm for broadening the museum’s audiences convinced me that the collection would be used to further understanding of ikats within a cultural context.”

The majority of items in the collection are ikat coats called khalat, which were produced in the urban centers of Uzbekistan by professional male tailors. Some of these coats are quilted and all are embellished with decorative edges. These coats are worn over other layers of clothing, including a long shirt and baggy pants, and held in place by a leather or embroidered belt with metal buckle. Women’s coats have a slightly different cut. A young woman would wear lighter and brighter colors, while an older woman would wear darker colors. Children’s coats are smaller replicas of the adult coats.

Large hangings were used to cover alcoves, as bedding or were hung on a wall as decoration and to keep the room warm in cold days. They are also used to divide areas of the room for separate activities.

Coat, Central Asia, Uzbekistan. The Textile Museum. The Megalli Collection.

Ikat is a resist dye textile-patterning technique that requires careful planning before weaving starts, as the colors on the yarns, which are used to weave the textile, are what create the desired pattern once the textile is woven.

The process involves arranging yarns in the order in which they will be placed on the loom, separated into bundles, and tightly binding areas to be protected during the dyeing process; these areas resist penetration of the dye when immersed in a dye bath. The process of resisting and dyeing is then repeated for each additional color that will be used in the pattern. Once dyed, the yarns are transferred to the loom with great care taken to ensure preservation of their alignment, thus keeping the design intact.

This technique can be done only in the warp, like these Central Asian ikats, or in the weft, or, less commonly, in both warp and weft. The resultant designs range from highly complicated compositions involving several colors to more subtle three-tone patterns. Because silk warp yarns are resisted in the dyeing, the Central Asian weavers chose to use satin weave to produce the fabrics, completely hiding the weft yarns and thus giving prominence to the ikat patterning on the luxurious silk warp.

The Textile Museum is at 2320 S Street, NW in Washington, DC. For information, 202-667-0441.