Selvedge - Issue 123: Silk Road

Spring 2025 - A richly nuanced journey and a delight for the eyes and mind.

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.