For the wealthy'': on affordable fabric

The paper discusses the features and centers of production of fabric, which for several centuries was imported from Asian countries to the territory of Russia and was very popular. Starting from the 16th century, objects of textile occupied an important place in the trade-economic relations of Moscow Russia and Central Asia. Among them is the matter of doroi, known in Russian as ''dorogi'' or ''dorogilnaia''. According to sources, it often appeared among the gifts that were presented to the rulers of Moscow, Russia, on behalf of the Central Asian khans. This fact is a convincing evidence of the high quality of the fabric. It was the thinnest and lightest of all silk fabrics, which were then produced in Central Asia. According to ethnographic works, the production of doroi used thread, consisting of only eight silk strands. To compare, other well-known silks were made of threads 4-5 times thicker. The Tajik name of the fabric means ''opulence, prosperity''. Population of the Central Asia used doroi to sew women's dresses, scarves, head scarves, men's belts and turbans. Scarves made of such fabric produced in Bukhara looked like a spider's web and were among the main local products. Doroi had different decor, its price was different, and it was used for different elements of clothes. It could be striped, plain and patterned. There were dark, red, wine-colored and yellow colors of the fabric. The dresses and shawls from doroi were trimmed after they were sewn. They were painted in a bright red color and ornamented by stitching. As a result, the fabric had simple geometric patterns in the form of rings and diamonds, of bright shades of other colors. The mountainous areas of Tajikistan still have certain points of such manufacturing of women's head scarves. Today, however, instead of thin silk doroi cotton gauze is used. Turkmen women used the plain colored fabric for sewing expensive and elegant dresses and gowns-cloaks. Production centers of doroi in Central Asia were Khujand, Bukhara, Kitab, Margilan, Karategin and Darvaz. It was also produced in the Caucasus and Persia. In Iran the fabric with this name is still produced in the handicraft way, however, this textile is ornamented like atlas, adras, shoyi. Thus, we can state that doroi was one of the traditional fabrics for many nationalities, including Tajiks, Russians, Persians, Qyzylbashes, Azerbaijanis, Aghuls.

Keywords

Authors

References