Wednesday 13 April 2016

Textiles of the Islamic World by John Gillow

Book review: Textiles of the Islamic World by John Gillow · Lisa Hjalt


For Christmas I got the book Textiles of the Islamic World by John Gillow, who is a well-known author, lecturer and collector in the field of textiles. First I was browsing, going back and forth just a tad too eagerly, and mainly feasting on the illustrations - gorgeous motifs and patterns - but gradually I started taking in the wealth of information. For anyone interested in textile design this book is a treasure, especially if one is interested in Islamic culture and how Islam spread to various corners of the world. The text is rich in details, e.g. on embroidery and weaving techniques, but Gillow manages well to avoid an overload of information. For a non-scholar in textile design, like myself, the book was entertaining and I can only hope to do it justice in a single blog entry. The images I snapped show just a portion of the fabrics and patterns I kept coming back to during the reading. A small portion.

Continue reading & view more photos »

[Book cover: 17th-century Ottoman embroidered textile. Private collection. New York]

1 comment:

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