December 01, 2001 - June 05, 2002

Threads in Time: Costume and Textiles of Pakistan

An amalgam of the rich textile arts of Pakistan featured over two hundred items of dress. This was a compelling collection of styles from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. There were stunning exhibits generously loaned by museums, private collectors and master craftsmen of traditional folk and urban garments, accessories ranging from purses, hats, shoes, shawls, dowry bags, turbans, sashes and spreads to unusual animal adornments. 

A special display included the reconstruction of a traditional goat’s wool tent from Balochistan, a gidaan, with its spreads, backdrops and trappings together with a wooden house from the Indus Kohistan area, replete with yak wool floor coverings, implements, tools and men’s embroidered woollen robes (chogha). While a catalogue was not compiled, a number of the objects on display have since been published in The Flowering Desert: Textiles from Sindh, copies of which are available in the Museum shop at a special price.