This practice may reflect the quintessentially Victorian interest in naturalism – ordering and categorizing the natural world – and it is not seen in existing Mughal embroidery.Įlytra embroidery was used predominantly on white cotton dresses (Fig. Using the full wing-casing – which is sharp and not at all flat – as decoration made a dress less versatile than if they were cut into smaller, smoother sequins, but it did attract more attention.Ī particularly unique aspect of the Western dresses is their biomimicry: Elytra were sewn onto gowns in imitation of live beetles (Fig. Elytra are relatively tough, but they do break, as can be seen in figure 9. “There are 5000 beetle wings in this dress!” one 1898 article crowed (SFE). Often, a dress’ claim to fame was the sheer amount of elytra used. The Indian style of embroidery, on the other hand, tended to use tiny pieces, and they can be difficult to spot (Figs. They also cover enormous swaths of the dress, making it impossible not to notice the shimmering green. Most Victorian elytra dresses use each elytron in its original state, so that it is clearly a wing-casing, or broken up into large chunks (Fig. This would be the predominant pattern from the 1830s until the 1880s. By the 1830s, large, ornate designs were common and the buteh motif had taken hold (Fig. ![]() Several extant gowns in Scotland, including the one in figure 7, are decorated with pieces of elytra along the edges of the dress. Her peoples, commodities, and products were oppressed, plundered, and appropriated, and the craft of beetle-wing embroidery is part of that legacy.Įlytra dresses experienced their first burst of popularity in England by the 1820s, though Englishwomen in India had likely been donning it since at least the 1780s (Libes 5). India was considered a colony of the British Empire from 1757 until 1947, first under the control of the East India Company and then the British Crown. Only later did a distinct embroidery style for export develop. The earliest elytra-embroidered garments for Western export are done with Indian embroidery styles on Western clothing, like the late 18th-century pumps in figure 6. 5), children’s belts, and even hand fans in museums all sport elytra. Extant men’s jamas, turbans, and shoes women’s cholis and sarees (Fig. The elytra were generally paired with zardozi (gold embroidery) and the embroidery was often done on brightly colored cottons or fine silks (Leslie 85). 4-5), and tiny but present in allover patterns with multicolored foil. ![]() It is common to see them in sequined borders, in buteh (often called ‘paisley’) motifs (Figs. It was done on garments for all genders and ages, and the elytra are almost always cut up into sequins and used as small parts of overall designs rather than as primary materials (Fig. ![]() 3), which is likely where the English fell in love with it. 2), which may be much older.īeetle-wing embroidery was made all over India during the Mughal era, but the court in Jaipur took the art to new levels in the eighteenth and nineteenth century (Fig. While there was a tradition of using elytra in Rajputani painting by at least the 17 th century, the craft more likely stems from the use of elytra in houshold and personal adornment (Fig. Victorian elytra embroidery has its roots in Mughal India (1526-1857). They are harvested ethically and are available for purchase today as a byproduct of the food industry (Homfray). Jewel beetles live across the globe and their elytra have been used for decoration and jewelry by a variety of cultures, including the Jivaro people in Peru and Ecuador and the Naga in India and Myanmar (NHM). Those used for embroidery like this are generally green with a blue-purple shimmer. 1), family Buprestidae, has particularly beautiful elytra that come in a range of colors (Angus). Elytra are the hard casings made of chitin that shield insects’ fragile wings (singular ‘elytron’).
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