Denim Blue & Wine Red Silk Ikat Fabric – Palmettes

Two deep colours on one cloth: a denim-blue ground and wine-red palmettes with white cores, the red bleeding softly into the blue at every feathered edge. It is one of the darker silk ikats we weave and one of the easiest to wear — the blue takes the place of black in a wardrobe and the red lifts it. Sixty per cent silk in the warp for the sheen, forty per cent cotton for the body.

Product details

• Product type: handwoven ikat fabric, sold by the metre
• Origin: Margilan, Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan
• Weaving technique: warp ikat — the threads are tie-dyed before weaving; handloom, no power looms
• Composition: 60% silk, 40% cotton
• Width: 42 cm (17 in)
• Pattern repeat: about 225 cm
• Main colours: denim blue ground; wine red; white
• Design / motif: palmette and pomegranate motifs on blue
• Sold by: the metre — one unit is 1 m (1.09 yd), cut in one continuous length from 1 m up
• Condition: new, uncut from the bolt
• Care: dry-clean recommended; if washing, by hand at 30 °C with a mild detergent, dry in the shade, iron on the reverse

Suitable uses

Jackets and coats, an evening kaftan, trousers; cushion fronts against tan leather or grey wool. The colours hold up in a room with strong daylight. More cloths of this kind are under Silk Ikats.

Handmade note

Handwoven on a wooden loom, so expect what the loom leaves: motif edges that feather where the warp shifted, a hairline of colour variation along the length, and a selvedge that is not perfectly straight. The pattern is dyed into the thread, not printed on it, and shows on both faces — the test described in our handwoven versus printed ikat guide. Colours differ slightly between dyelots, so order the full length you need at once.

Cut to order and dispatched from Bukhara within 24 hours by Uzbekiston Pochtasi tracked airmail: USA 9–18 working days, Europe and the UK 8–16, elsewhere 10–20.