Owner
Nargis Bekmuhamedova
Nargis is an architect-turned-designer based in Samarkand. She has fused her passions of vintage fabrics and good food by creating the Arts Café Studio, located just next to the gloriously-domed Bibi Khanum Mosque. She makes beautiful jackets and accessories using antique textiles. The suzani is the classic Uzbek hand-embroidered 'dowry' object, usually large enough to cover a double bed, often used as a decorative wall hanging. The silk embroidered designs represent weeks and weeks of labour by the women of the family in preparation for a wedding or a birth. These days high-quality suzani are increasingly hard to come by; they are keenly sought by antiquarians and textile collectors and even damaged pieces fetch high prices. Nargis finds pieces that are beyond repair and cleverly cuts them so that the patterns follow the form of the jacket in a flattering manner. Like the suzani fabric itself, all Nargis' work is hand-stitched to a high quality. Only the fragile base fabric of the suzani is reinforced with intricate machine work. Many of the suzani fabrics date from pre-1950.
Tashkent street, 3. Reference point "Bibikhanum"
Tel: +998 91 5393849
Email: [email protected]