This complex study focuses on richly patterned, silk-and-metal woven sashes—the most picturesque accessories of a man’s luxurious outfit from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in cultural realms of both East and West.  It examines sash development in Safavid Persia, its place of origin, and in the Polish –Lithuanian Commonwealth where its popularity spread through contacts with Ottoman Turkey and the Armenian community. Wrapped around the waist either individually or in pairs, or as a set of three entwined sashes in contrasting colors (depending on the region), the sash clearly identified a wearer’s social status.

Here, the interdisciplinary approach is presented through the prism of Polish history and tradition, exploring not only cultural and artistic relationships with its Oriental prototypes, but not as yet explored technical and technological connections.  The great impact of Persian sashes on contemporary fashion and the weaving industry in neighboring states stimulated Polish production and made the sash, referred to as ‘kontusz’ sash, an iconic element of a Polish nobleman’s national attire.

An extended historic context of this work discusses flourishing trade of luxury Oriental textiles, including silk sashes, taking place between Polish and Eastern centers in the fifteenth century. It highlights the significant role of Armenians merchants and weavers in transmitting an Eastern model of the sash to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Technical and artistic context describes materials used in sash production, including dyes typical of cultures, and introduces weaving terminology and compositional features of the sashes.

Individual sections dedicated to Persian, Polish and Turkish-Armenian sashes examine design and weaving structure of nearly 100 sashes viewed by the author in museum collections in Poland, Russia, the United States and England. For the first time, highlights of the development of the sash in contemporary court fashion and evolution of its composition and technique are described. Close examination of the repertoire of motifs, materials and weave structure provides the basis for their typology, allowing us to identify three distinct stylistic technical types: sashes with flowering plant (‘Type 1’); sashes with floral ovals (‘Type 2’); sashes with stars (‘Type 3’).  In-depth analysis of common taqueté, lampas and Gros de Tours weave structures, unveils several unusual patterning techniques and combinations of metal threads.

An overview of these three groups, enriched with photomicrographs and weave structure diagrams, reveals their outstanding beauty and extraordinary craftsmanship. Comparisons of stylistic and technical aspects trace the impact of the Eastern sash on development of Polish sash design and weave. It also recognizes the unique character of Polish sashes, seen in personalized interpretation, and unparalleled imagination of Polish designers and weavers. These artisans transferred their original models to neighboring countries, increasing their production to France, Germany and possibly Italy. In this way they raised their status as creative continuators, who although imitating Eastern aesthetic, introduced their own ingenious innovations.          

In the absence of scholarly publications on the subject of both Persian and Turkish-Armenian sashes, a lack of information regarding detailed technical analysis for all sashes, and the limited number of reproductions depicting authentic examples of Eastern sashes, the most important sources used in this study are the sashes themselves as well as existing printed and archival sources supported by scholarly reference literature. This work, a careful, meticulous comparative analysis of silk sashes from three cultural realms—as yet not occurring in literature—aims to make  a major contribution to the history of European and Eastern textiles.