Bewildered - Age? Purpose? Country?

[amandainvermont]

I was recently invited to look through a trunk of older clothes, ranging from some early pieces and some Victorian bodices to disintegrating flapper dresses. I purchased quite a few garments, including this odd set which has never been worn. The fabric is kind of a stiff cotton and the outside has some gold shimmer while the other side is plain. The last photo shows the outside of the pants and the inside of the top.

There’s something about the texture of the fabric and the print that tells me there’s some age to this. The older woman who offered me the garments said they all came from her mother-in-law.

Could this be 1920’s pajamas? Some kind of souvenir piece? There are no tags and it’s not beautifully made by any stretch, but it’s in great shape. Do the buttons on the pants give a hint? They are hidden and the waist closes with a draw string.

 

[Jonathan]

It looks like it might be ethnographic - something from the eastern end of the Middle East (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan) from the 20s or 30s? This is purely a guess and its really hard to tell without handling it, but the combination of spectacular fabric, simple sewing and plain buttons are an odd combo. And the way the fabric is run laterally is not something you would see in Western dress. The fabric definiately looks Indo-Persian to me, like Kashmiri shawls... Either that or maybe old fabric that some Janice Joplin Hippie type made a pant suit out of?

 

[amandainvermont]

I had the same thoughts Jonathan - only I could never articulate them as well as you have. Thank you. It does have shades of the hippie era .... but there’s something about it that says ‘age’ to me... and authenticity. Here is a photo of the top buttons. There are three and they are fairly heavy.

 

[thespectrum]

It looks like an antique shalwar kameez or kurta pajamas.