A ROBE By Any Other Name
“What shall be done unto a man whom the king delighteth to honor?”
“Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and a horse that the king rideth upon and the crown royal which is set upon his head” (Esther 6:6-8)
For Nomadic tribes in particular, the wool robe served as a source of protection against the harsh winters, protecting travelling men, women and children on their journeys across the Steppes (Khazeni 2010). The robe maintains the traditional style of the chapan, (or Khalit in Russian), a Central Asian garment that was worn as a tunic or robe (Khazeni 2010, 590). Chapans made of silk and cotton were made by settlers while nomads used wool as their main source of clothing (Sumner 2010, 371). The simple explanation for this choice of fabric is found within the nomadic lifestyle, which prioritised survival in harsh climatic conditions as opposed to settlers who lived in oasis towns with little need for heavy clothing made of wool (Sumner 2010, 372). Therefore, the first layer of the story that this robe tells beyond its illustrated stories is a story of social life. Simply put, the ways in which people lived dictated their clothing choices.
Beyond its survival purposes, the robe also served as an object of distinction, signifying an individual's association with a tribe, religion or political group. Regardless of what these robes were called and their varying purposes, each culture and people had its own version of the robe. Marco Polo’s encounters with the Mongolian court act as a source into the dress styles of the once-nomadic group of Mongolians. Through their conquest of surrounding nations like China, the Mongolians were introduced to the clothing styles of their courts, one particular clothing style being the nasij cloth or Tartar cloth, a gold brocade that soon through the Nomads selective borrowing of this external element, became a largely coveted item in Mongolian culture (Allsen 1997, 23). The gold brocade was soon revered as an object measuring the success of individual Mongols. Marco Polo’s reports of the “Tartar cloth” soon reached the European continent where the cloth, even though not from the Tartars themselves, was made popular by their use (Allsen 1997, 4).
Textiles in this case, can be understood as both a signifier of the conditions one must wear such clothes in, as well as the branding purposes similar to the decoration of Mordecai as found in the book of Esther in the Bible. For the Mongols, the use of the nasij cloth allowed them to align themselves as a powerful civilization but their roots from life in the Steppes also highlighted the importance of having clothing that could accommodate for the surrounding weather conditions.
As you observe the following images depicting variations of robe styles across the Central Asia and the Middle East, consider the following possibilities for similarities in the robes:
- encounters (both peaceful and discordant) between peoples and cultures as a source of exchange for textiles, motifs and styles.
- similar fashion choices as a reaction to climate and geography.
- differences in fashion as a possible indicator of political, religious or cultural alliances.
