Turkish Fabrics
Turkish fabrics loom large in the evolution of fabric with its weaving technique, specialty of material, pattern richness.
It is limited to tell about the origin of Turkish fabrics. The first samples of Turkish weaving art has bright colors and rich ornaments. We can see the samples at the pictures of the Buddhist caves in Eastern Turkestan from 5th century A.D. A sample belonged to Anatolian Seljuk Turks is a fabric with a twin lion figure and medallion which has the written name of Aleaddin Keykubat in Lyon Museum. Some travelers such as Ibni Battuta and Marco Polo mention about Seljuk’s fabrics highly. Also, Turkish masters had used fabric patterns in tiles with miniature figures in detailed.
Ottoman Fabrics
We can see the improvement of Ottoman fabrics from collections of Topkapi Palace and Mevlana Museums. Because, keeping minimum one of Ottoman Sultan’s caftans was a tradition. Manufacturers were under the close supervision and organization,. Therefore, Ottoman fabrics had reached to the highest quality. Turkish fabric technique had shown improvement in two sections; as the fabrics which had been woven in public and others which had been woven in palace looms. Hand loomed fabrics still can be seen in Grand Bazaar. Grand Bazaar has become quite touristic place with nearly 4500 stores. But, back streets of Grand Bazaar are still traditional and it is best place to find finest fabrics.
One of them is Ikat fabrics. Ottomans had used this special Ikad fabrics especially for Kaftans. Ikat probably carries the character of different cultures independently. It might be one of the oldest forms of central Asian textile decoration where the Turks had migrated from. Its weaving styles vary widely. Lots of design motives must have ethnic, ritual or specific meaning or have been developed for export trading. Traditionally, Ikat have been symbols of status, wealth, power and prestige in Turkish culture. Also each pattern with flowers animals has the meaning which explains story life of women.