Faculty of Arts exhibition:

From trousseaux to trade: Gujarati embroidery 1988-1997

In the late 1980s Dr Emma Tarlo (Ferguson Centre Research Fellow) conducted anthropological research into the embroidery traditions of rural women in Gujarat in Western India.

This display gives 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.

The pieces on display were products of the 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 trousseaux displays some of the new art forms that were becoming increasingly popular amongst young village women at that time.

The embroidery exhibition will be on display in Arts Marquee 1.

Follow this link to see images of Gujarati embroidery online

Follow this link to find out more about the Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies

• Arts Open Day home
• Arts events
• Arts showcase
• The OU's official Open Day website