12 Section Study of art

kiyme-

shek”, which is a unique type of women’s headdress, with 

embroidered chest part, attract an attention of an audi-

ence a great deal. 

Kyzyl-kiymeshek was worn by young 

women, and 

ak- kimeshek by older ones.“ Kok-koylek”, 

which is unique with its peculiar system of ornament 

“sauyty nagys”, was regarded as a traditional wedding 

and festive dress. [1, 92–93]

The Karakalpak ko’k ko’ylek was an ankle-length, 

long-sleeved, unlined woman’s tunic-style dress. The 

entire front of the dress was intensively decorated with 

geometric cross-stitch embroidery, as was the bottom 

part of the sleeves. The back remained undecorated.

Jegde

The dress was hand-tailored from narrow strips 

of indigo-dyed home woven cotton bo’z, called by the 

Uzbeks matar. These were sewn together side by side to 

make the body of the dress and the sleeves. The body 

had a single central front panel and no shoulder seams. 

The collar was round and had a narrow and deep verti-

cal opening at the front, a style normally reserved for 

women of childbearing age to facilitate breast-feeding. 

There were lower side vents for ease of movement and 

sometimes a pocket. In some cases the edges of the 

collar, lower hem, side vents, and cuffs were finished 

with a narrow strip of red textile. Furth more Karakal-

pak 

“jegde” was an unlined mantle, which was worn 

draped like a cloak but was placed over the head rather 

than the shoulders. It had very long false sleeves, which 

were folded so that they hung down behind the back 

where they were fastened together at the cuffs by a 

short cord.

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Karakalpak national clothes differences

13

A Karakalpak woman dressed in a qızıl kiymeshek 

and a jipek jegde. The jegde was normally only worn 

outside of the home. It permitted a woman to go about 

unveiled, but to retain some modesty by being able to 

use the side of the cloak to shield her face from male 

onlookers. There were three main types of Karakalpak 

jegde: the jipek jegde worn by young married women or 

by girls of marriageable age; the aq jegde worn by moth-

ers and middle aged women; and the kempir jegde worn 

by elderly women.