Wedding dress
Jillayeh
Amman, Jordan
Jordan Museum for Costumes and Jewellery, Department of Antiquities
About Jordan Museum for Costumes and Jewellery, Amman
Late 19th century – early 20th century
71.056
Linen and silk; hand woven and hand embroidered
Height 142 cm, bottom circumference 153 cm
(Beit Dajan) near Jaffa – Palestine
Long black dress, wide at the bottom with narrow sleeves, rounded neck and open chest. Silk linen appliqué, hand embroidery with cross-stitch on the sides, back panel, chest, and sleeves with embroidered folkloric patterns. On the chest: necklace, cypress tree. Side: ivy, amulets, “feathers”. Front: small cypress tree on silk. Back: ivy, cypress tree, pillows, pasha tents. Sleeve: ivy, feather, triangle (amulets). Palestinian women's costumes varied according to each Palestinian city and geographical area. Costumes in the mountain regions were different from those of coastal and desert areas, and had a distinguished embroidery. This costume represents village style. Girls started preparing their trousseau (clothes, shawls and other belongings they collected for their marriage) at the age of ten. Married women's costumes were heavily embroidered. Palestinian weavers used traditional spinning processes using manual spindles to prepare the cotton and linen threads imported from Egypt. Ashkelon city weavers used light vertical hand looms (Majdalawi looms) to produce linen fabrics, while silk fabrics were spindled and woven in Syria.
Huda Kilani "Wedding dress" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;jo;1;en
Prepared by: Huda Kilani
Copyedited by: Daniel de la VegaDaniel de la Vega
Daniel de la Vega is a copy editor based in Portland, Oregon. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2014 and has since done editing and localization work on everything from college applications to magazines to video game dialogue.
MWNF Working Number: JO 001
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