Blue Coat with Floral Motifs

The careful composition of this coat belies that it is constructed from a number of different fabrics. The main textile is a blue silk satin ground weave featuring delicate flowers in rows of alternating direction. The primary border features another complex weave, patterned with other colorful flowers and white birds. Smaller bands composed of black cotton, printed cotton known as qalamkari, and salmon-colored silk round out this magnificent coat. Paintings from the late Safavid to Qajar periods show women in courtly settings wearing such delicate, outer-garments. This coat could have been worn in such a context and would certainly have been layered over other richly patterned dress textiles.