I don't think I am going to shed any light on Rachel's core question of the reason for the differences in style of the ceremonial Yi textiles shown at the beginning of this thread. I did contact my dealer friend (Martin for short!) to see if he could shed any light for us. He has got back to me but, although he has quite an interest in Yi textiles, unfortunately
Quote:
"To be honest I don't have any in depth knowledge of these gowns apart from what I have read, and the few I have seen but never bought".
However, because he is interested he keeps his ears to the ground and his eyes to the internet and has found some links which he shared with me along with some comments on Yi textiles. He has said I can share his comments, links and photos with the forum as I thought it might be worth collating some of the info and building an interesting thread for us all to refer to. [I fear that the links will, in time, not work as items are sold].
Joe Loux's website often has fine examples, well photographed and here are links to three textiles:
http://www.joelouxasianandtribalart.com ... leeveless/ Martin comments:
Quote:
"I see a few of these styles, also expensive but quite varied in colours and design, usually fringed with batik patterning. Different townships appear to have their own styles eg. Wenshan and Malipo."
http://www.joelouxasianandtribalart.com ... ging_p_b=2 Related is this style:
http://www.joelouxasianandtribalart.com ... ging_p_b=2 Martin notes that a year or so ago he showed me this last style of female top from the same area thought to be Gelao or Yi/Lolo. A related style is pictured in 'Writing with Thread' on the Gelao P. 390-391: I am posting his pics below.
He then goes on to say:
Quote:
"The apparent difficulty in classifying these groups can be further muddied by the skirt style which is very reminiscent of Sichuan (Nuosu) Yi skirt styles. It has 3 sections: waist band, flat central panel, and lower pleated section. This differs from most other minority skirts found in Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan which are mainly 2 part in make up: waistband and pleated section...I might have strayed a bit here"
See his example of skirt below.
Quote:
"Of course just to the east of Malipo is the Napo Yi style-which is just a single layer of a multi layered outfit"
See example below.
(Just in case you wonder, as administrator of the forum I can add more than 5 photos to a thread!)
I am going to make a separate post of some photos that Martin took of a Malipo Yi ritual robe which he
didn't buy about 4 years ago and believed to be genuine. (I gather it was priced then at circa £2,000!!!).
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Pamela
http://www.tribaltextiles.infoon-line tribal textiles resource