HALI NEWSLETTER No. 443

[View this email in your browser]( [News] A magazine subscription is the gift that keeps giving all year round. This festive season, treat yourself or someone else to HALI magazine, the quarterly publication for those with an interest in antique carpets and textiles, anthropology, tribal art and the history of design and making. From only £66/€88/$100, subscribers receive four printed issues of HALI a year. Subscriptions include searchable access to all previous editions through the HALI Archive. Unique content is reserved exclusively for the magazine. To buy a gift subscription, add your selection to the basket and you will be able to enter the details of the gift recipient at the delivery options stage of the checkout process. If you only want to read HALI in its digital form then subscriptions are available from only £49.99, compatible with computers, iPhones, iPads, Androids and a host of other devices. Digital subscriptions include access to the HALI Archive, a fully searchable online resource featuring every issue since HALI began in 1978. [Get a subscription to HALI.]( DOMOTEX is offering a range of incentives for an exclusive group of North and South American buyers visiting the show in 2024. As a selected buyer, you are cordially invited to attend the show in January in order to benefit from: - Two hotel nights at [Motel One Hannover-Oper]( at a subsidised rate - Free airport pick-up - Ticket to DOMOTEX - Congress Card granting use of Hannover’s tram and bus services free of charge * Places are strictly limited, terms and conditions apply [Fill in this form to apply for the DOMOTEX VIP Buyer's package.]( Once you have entered all your details please save the form and send it to events@hali.com. DOMOTEX is the world's leading trade fair for carpets and wood flooring. It brings together key players in the carpet and floor coverings industry under one roof. Visitors to DOMOTEX will have the opportunity to talk to exhibitors from all over the world, make important business contacts and view the latest trends. [News] mailto:membership@orts.org.uk mailto:membership@orts.org.uk The Oriental Rug and Textile Society presents 'Changing Hybrid Fashions in 19th and Early 20th-Century Singapore', a talk with Peter Lee, author and Honorary Curator of the NUS Baba House– an historical house museum managed by the National University of Singapore. This will be held online on 20 December 2023 at 6pm GMT. Singapore might be a relatively new metropolis, but it inherited a freewheeling, volatile and diverse Southeast Asian legacy of hybrid port city culture that was several centuries old. Singapore instantly became a melting pot of people, goods and ideas, once it was founded as a colonial settlement in 1819. With no single cultural arbiter, and away from motherlands, its residents began to dress and shop as they pleased, sourcing from an array of available global goods perhaps wider than anywhere else in the world. Singapore residents were also able to combine ensembles of textiles and garments from across the globe in their own individual way, and often used them in completely different contexts from where they originated. These inconsistent and individual styles raise questions about the idea of traditional dress in Asia, and elucidate how Singapore was an early centre for an egalitarian attitude to fashion, that is fast becoming a norm in an intensely globalised and connected world. [Email to enquire about registering for the talk.](mailto:membership@orts.org.uk) [News] Welcome back to [#RugFactFriday]( where this week we continue our exploration of suzanis, a name derived from the Persian word for 'needle'. An old issue, HALI 30 from Summer 1986, features an article from Cathryn M. Cootner, who delves into the intentions behind, and the process of, their manufacture. Cootner explains: 'Suzanis were not only one of the major artistic creations of the settled peoples in Uzbekistan in Central Asia, now a Soviet Socialist Republic, but they had an important domestic function within the household. The most precious item in the dowry was the suzani to be used as the nuptial bedspread and these beautiful textiles also decorated the mosques and Emir’s courts in the ancient cities of Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand. They were given as royal gifts and were used to drape over the bier as a final tribute to the deceased.' Continuing: 'The art of suzani embroidery is a collective rather than an individual expression. While one can only guess at the prevailing circumstances surrounding the making of a particular embroidery, certain conditions seem to have held true in all localities. Suzani making was a family occupation. Young girls learned the craft from mothers and grandmothers. The designs were drawn onto the cloth either by a family member or a professional local designer. The cloth was divided into several vertical strips, usually between three and five in number, which would be sewn together again after the embroidery was completed.' We will continue our exploration of these embroideries in Chapter 3 next week. Shown above is a suzani with floral sprays, Shakhrisyabz, South West Uzbekistan, Central Asia, 1800–1850. Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.89, Gift of John and Fausta Eskenazi in honour of Louise W. Mackie and in celebration of the museum’s centennial. [Buy a digital subscription to read HALI 30.]( [Follow Us] [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Been forwarded this email and want to receive it regularly? Subscribe to this newsletter]( Copyright © 2023, Hali Publications Ltd., All rights reserved. [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences](