Fabricating Stories
People can fabricate stories, spin lies, weave a web of
deceit, lack moral fibre. Lives can be interwoven, or hang by a thread. They can be dyed in the wool, or wool can be
pulled over someone’s eyes. A person can have tangled nerves, or lose the
thread of an argument. These idioms derive from the ancient art of weaving.
Considering the Indus Valley has been producing cotton textiles continuously
for at least 7,000 years, there are far fewer references to weaving in South
Asian languages than one would expect. Tana bana or warp and weft, describes
the intricacies of a situation, jitni
chadar utna phailao ( only stretch as much as the size of your sheet) warns
against over-reaching ambition.
The more sinister associations with spinning and weaving emerged
from Greek mythology. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and crafts, punishes her
rival Arachne by turning her into a spider to have her webs forever destroyed.
The three Fates control destiny by spinning the thread of life at birth,
measuring how long a person lives or cutting the thread of life. These and
other myths reinforced weaving as magical often with dubious moral intentions.
Textiles are also a form of storytelling. In a Roman tale
Philomela was raped and her tongue cut out, but she weaves her story so her
sister can take revenge. The 11th C Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
conquest of England by William the conqueror.
In recent times the Afghan war rugs, first woven during the invasion by
USSR, incorporate tanks, helicopters and landmines as design motifs, weave
conflict maps and depict the destruction of the Twin Towers of New York.
Chilean Arpilleras were secretly embroidered images
depicting missing persons and torture during the Pinochet military regime.
Mexico’s Bordamos Feminicidios embroidered stories of women killed between 1885
and 2009. The underground railroad
quilts were said to depict escape routes for slaves in America. The motifs on
wedding clothes embroidered in Pakistani villages reflect the personality of
the bride to be for her in laws, and often depict the surrounding landscape, including
thorns and dogs paw prints. The adage, ‘when life gives you scraps, make a
quilt’ evokes the beautiful Ralli quilting of Sindh.
Many feminist artists have turned embroidery and quilting
into an expressive art depicting their domestic lives or motherhood. Eva
Hesse’s sculptures made fibre into a mainstream art material.
Clothing styles tell their own story. Gandhi’s loin cloth
was an act of cultural resistance as was the wearing of home spun khadi. The
Gandhi cap was stitched by Bi Amma and later adopted by Jawaharlal Nehru. The
sumptuous fashions of the Mughals can be seen as historical texts of invasion.
Stitched clothing was introduced into a culture that only wore unstitched wraps.
Pajamas and coats from Central Asia, brocades and embroidery from Persia were
reinterpreted by local craftspersons, creating a confluence of cultures, the
Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb. Romantic names were given to the highly refined Dhaka
muslin – baft hawa (woven air), shabnam (evening dew), and aab-i-ravaan
(flowing water). The British textile factories, unable to reproduce their
quality, ensured that weaving Dhaka muslin became illegal.
The extravagant fashions of Marie Antoinette and her
courtiers symbolized social inequality during the French Revolutions. Princess
Diana wore her famous headline grabbing Revenge dress after Prince Charles
revealed in an interview that he had been unfaithful during their marriage.
Amelia Bloomer, inspired by Turkish women’s shalvars,
popularized trousers for women in 1885, but it was not till women took over
men’s factory jobs during WWII that more women wore trousers, soon becoming a fashion
statement of independence by Coco Channel, and Hollywood actresses. Women were
not allowed to wear trousers on the U.S. Senate floor until 1993 and the phrase
‘ who wears the pants’ remains a symbol of domestic authority.
Napoleon’s hat, the Mao suit, Z A Bhutto’s announcement of
the Shalvar Kameez as a national dress, the tartans of Scottish nationalists
and Che Guevera’s beret acquired political dimensions, as has the euphemism
‘wardi’ ( uniform) in Pakistan.
Clothing was always an identifier in tribal cultures, such
as the red shukas of the Maasai tribes, the feather headdresses of Native
Americans, the turbans of India and Pakistan, and even the crossdressing Khwaja
saras. Today fashion houses create their own ‘tribes’ announcing style or class
as an exclusive identity.
Durriya Kazi
October 18, 2024
Karachi
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