Selvedge Magazine

Issue 123

Camel caravans crossing desert dunes, merchants trading silks at bazaars – these are the stereotypical images that come to mind when we think of the Silk Roads. But the reality goes far beyond these tropes. Rather than a single trade route from East to West, the Silk Roads comprised overlapping networks linking communities across Asia, Africa, and Europe, from Japan to Britain, Scandinavia to Madagascar.

In this issue, we take Uzbekistan as a pivot point from which to explore Central Asia, from Almaty in Kazakhstan to Istanbul in Türkiye. We highlight stories of textiles from across the continent that underpin the importance of Central Asia to the history and future of textiles.

Selvedge magazine was established in 2004 by Polly Leonard

"I launched Selvedge in 2004 to celebrate our cerebral and sensual addiction to cloth while promoting skillfully made and carefully considered textiles. I fall more and more in love with textiles in every issue, enamoured by the stories and lives of the talented makers we feature. These stories, told through the pages of the magazine, acknowledge the significance of textiles as a part of everyone’s story. I believe that the most interesting and evocative textile stories deserve to be shown in the best possible light and aspire to create an aesthetically beautiful experience."