Qizil Kimishek (red head veil)

This garment is a fine example of a qizil kimishek (red head veil), a distinctive and exuberant garment from the Karakalpak people of western Uzbekistan. Made by girls as part of their dowry, the qizil kimishek was the most important part of a bridal costume. A Karakalpak woman continued to wear her qizil kimishek until the end of her child-bearing years, but only for special occasions. Qizil means red, and the word is employed in the name of the garment to distinguish it from the aq kimishek, or white kimishek. The latter was a less ostentatious garment worn by older women. The kimishek is an integral garment, consisting of an embroidered triangular front (aldi), a small head cap, and a diamond-shaped shawl (quyril, meaning "tail") at the back. It was constructed from three different types of fabric, which, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were expensive luxuries that could only be obtained from merchants in big towns. None of these fabrics was produced locally by the Karakalpaks. On this qizil kimishek, the shawl is constructed of a brilliant ikat textile probably woven in Khiva. As is traditional for qizil kimisheks, the ikat is woven with cotton wefts that produce the ribbed texture and also provide the strength necessary to carry the weight of the decorative borders that edge the shawl. This blue-wefted ikat is particularly fine: it features seven colors, and its vibrant ogival lattice pattern is finely articulated through the use of narrow dye bundles. As is customary, the triangular front section of this qizil kimishek features a rectangle of black broadcloth (qara orta), which is filled with embroidery. The pattern embroidered in chain stitch with red, green, yellow, and white silk threads is the 'merged' version of the eight horns pattern (segiz mu'iz). On admittedly slender grounds, the eight horns pattern is associated with Karakalpak living in the northern region of the Amu Darya delta. --Mary McWilliams, 2008