Mirror Tapis (Tapis Kaca)

This tapis was found in an antique shop in Tanglin Shopping Centre, Singapore.  It glimmers in the light because of the mirrorrs and metallic threads.  Here, I use it as a table cloth.

Tapis are elaborate skirts made in Lampung province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Women wore them with matching jackets during special events and ceremonies. Tapis were high-status ceremonial textiles that indicated the social rank of the wearer and her family. People also gave these skirts away as prestige gifts to indicate a family’s wealth and social standing. Tapis therefore were associated with power, status, and wealth.

The more elaborate the skirt and those with the most gold-wrapped threads denoted the highest rank. Widows’ skirts, however, had limited decoration.

Traditional colours on tapis cloths include dark red, browns, indigo blue, dark green, ochre-yellow, and cream. The main decorative materials comprise horizontal, coloured stripes, gold- and silver wrapped threads, beads, pieces of felt and woven wool, and coloured yarns. The metal-wrapped threads, felt, wool, and coloured threads are couched (attached with stitches; 'cucuk') onto the surface of the cloth.

The metal-wrapped threads are fastened to the fabric with threads sewn in a pattern, a decorative technique called 'sasab'. Sometimes the gold-wrapped threads were attached to paper-card before being couched onto the fabric. In addition to couching decorative materials to the cloth, the weavers also used brightly coloured yarns to embroider patterns onto the skirts. 'Cermuk' (pronounced chermuk) was the application of mirrors and mica to the tapis cloth. Since tapis are elaborate productions, making one could take up to a year.

Hmong Runner

I bought this runner from a shop in Chinatown, Singapore.  The owner bought the textile and sewed a golden Thai silk textile around it.  

Hmong living in Thailand, Laos, Burma and Vietnam number around 1 million and are divided into four sub-groups; the White Hmong, Striped Hmong, Red, Blue and Black Hmong. It is from the Hmong in Laos that most of our antique silver jewellery and textiles come. The Hmong were the first hill tribe group to successfully cultivate opium and are known to be shrewd entrepreneurs.

Today opium poppy cultivation by the Hmong is much reduced as result of government and international pressure and cash crops such as coffee and fruit trees have taken its place.

Despite the pressures to conform to life in the 21^st century, the ancient Hmong culture remains deeply woven into the fabric of their beings and they remain profoundly and proudly Hmong.

Mru woman tubeskirt

This skirt is bought from a local antique textile dealer in Singapore.  It can be hung on a textile hanger for display.  It has very fine workmanship. It came from Bangladesh where the Mru live in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the borderland between Burma, Inda and Bangladesh.

The skirts are narrow - 24 cm in width - and tubular in construction with a hand sewn fell seam.  The skirt is worn fairly low slung on the hips and coming to the top of the thighs. Bead and coin belts are worn at the top of the skirt to secure it. The one block of woven pattern is worn in the centre-back of the skirt -  The top and bottom of the skirt are edged with fine beads worked into the weaving. Originally the skirts were the only clothing worn with the breasts left bare. Later a shawl was tied across one shoulder.

The Mru are primarily located in the region where the borders of India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar intersect. Some live in one of the nearly two hundred villages located in the tropical forests of the Chittagong Hills in southeast Bangladesh. Most however, are concentrated in the plains and hills of western Myanmar's Arakan Yoma district, or in the Jalpaiguri district of northeastern India.