From trousseaux to trade: Gujarati embroidery 1988-1997

In the late 1980s Dr Emma Tarlo conducted anthropological research into the embroidery traditions of rural women in Gujarat in Western India. These photographs give insight into the uses to which embroidery was put in the villages of Saurashtra at a time when local farming women were still producing embroidery for their trousseaux. They also document the emergence of a street trade for second hand trousseaux embroidery which boomed in the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad in the late 1980s owing to a mixture of the changing tastes and aspirations of local village women, the emergence of new ethnic fashions amongst the urban middle classes of India and increased global interest in hand crafted goods. The photographs of trousseaux displays illustrate some of the new art forms which were becoming increasingly popular amongst young village women at that time.

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For further information on the social and cultural significance of village embroidery, see Emma Tarlo, 1996, Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India, London: Hurst and University Chicago Press (reprint 2004). For the history of the street trade in embroidery, see Emma Tarlo, The Genesis and Growth of a Business Community: A case study of Vaghri embroidery traders in the streets of Ahmedabad in Philippe Cadene and Denis Vidal (eds.), 1997, Webs of Trade, Delhi: Manohar.