Splendid Ankle Length Gold-Embroidered Velvet Coat

[Phil van Kleur]

Here are three photos of one of the most spendid items I've got. I found it in a charity shop in Oxford about ten years ago. It's a dark navy-blue velvet coat — would one call it a caftan? — lavishly embroidered with gold thread, and with about 32 gold ball buttons. I don't know where it comes from, though I have found photos of something rather similar from Lebanon.

 

[Midge]

It looks to me like it's from Uzbekistan. Traditionally, coats like this are worn for weddings there.

 

[Phil van Kleur]

It looks to me like it's from Uzbekistan. Traditionally, coats like this are worn for weddings there.

That's very interesting. I wonder how it got to an Age Concern shop in Oxford.

I just Googled "Uzbkistan wedding coat". Some of the ones I found looked more elaborate, but the first picture on https://www.cntraveler.com/galleries/2014-07-31/wedding-voyeurism-from-bukhara-to-oaxaca , "Wedding Voyeurism: Street-Side Weddings in Uzbekistan and Oaxaca", looks as though it could be related to mine.

 

[Midge]

Who knows - somebody could have taken it with them when they emigrated to the UK? I am sure there are more and less elaborate ones. We went to a workshop where they were doing the embroidery when I visited Uzbekistan, they had all sorts of colors - black, purple, dark blue, dark green, dark red... And the embroidery is traditionally done by men!