Scholar Cornelia Aust analyzes the historical connection between the Jewish kaftan and the Polish... more Scholar Cornelia Aust analyzes the historical connection between the Jewish kaftan and the Polish aristocracy during the 17 th and 18 th centuries. This article expands on her work to illuminate the significant influence of the Ottoman Empire on Polish Sarmatian and, subsequently, Jewish fashion. The research will trace the slow provenance of the Hasidic kaftan in reverse, showing first the Polish Jewry's adoption of aristocratic dress, then the Polish aristocracy's imitation of Ottoman fashion a century earlier. This paper will subsequently examine Ottoman dress from the 15 th and 16 th centuries to show its original forms and stability over this period. Contemporary images and 19 th century lithographs of Polish and Jewish kaftans will be compared with painted portraits from Istanbul in 1618. As Aust shrewdly describes eastern European Jewish fashion as "out of time;" this article shows Jewish dress as additionally "out of place.
Recent scholarship frames craft as distinct from art and as an encapsulation of cultural expressi... more Recent scholarship frames craft as distinct from art and as an encapsulation of cultural expression at a given moment. Building on that framework, this thesis analyzes the shifting attitudes towards the production of handmade textiles among Eastern European Jews in the US in the twentieth century, as influenced by their migration. To demonstrate the textile environment at that time, this thesis examines pre-and post-migration primary sources and autobiographical writing, including Mary Antin's The Promised Land, supplemented with interviews of first-and second-generation immigrants to Chicago. In contrast with stereotypes about craft as historically stable, defining craft as regional also reveals change over time. The study further finds that some forms of handmade objects, namely lace, to transcend the scholarly craft/art distinction. Lastly, this research demonstrates how textiles carry memory, as historical records, and how they transmit experience past their moment and locale of origin unto new places and times.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on the intersections of cra... more The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on the intersections of craft activism as it stands within larger DIY craft culture and the professional-amateur divide. It uses a wider body of literature to highlight a contradiction between the ethos of “Do It Yourself,” or DIY, which touts self-sufficiency and a romanticization of the handmade, and the very real connection between DIY gathering sites, whether virtual or in-person, and neoliberal consumerism. The piece discusses Do It Yourself culture as a whole, with special attention as to how physical and virtual DIY sites connect with consumerism, then overviews interrelatedness of the DIY lifestyle and professional-amateurism, paying specific attention to collaborative projects between professionals and amateurs. Using those prefaces, the paper focuses on an activist DIY subculture that attempts to resist the neoliberalism pervasive in wider DIY. It concludes by outlining real instances of craftivism and h...
Scholar Cornelia Aust analyzes the historical connection between the Jewish kaftan and the Polish... more Scholar Cornelia Aust analyzes the historical connection between the Jewish kaftan and the Polish aristocracy during the 17 th and 18 th centuries. This article expands on her work to illuminate the significant influence of the Ottoman Empire on Polish Sarmatian and, subsequently, Jewish fashion. The research will trace the slow provenance of the Hasidic kaftan in reverse, showing first the Polish Jewry's adoption of aristocratic dress, then the Polish aristocracy's imitation of Ottoman fashion a century earlier. This paper will subsequently examine Ottoman dress from the 15 th and 16 th centuries to show its original forms and stability over this period. Contemporary images and 19 th century lithographs of Polish and Jewish kaftans will be compared with painted portraits from Istanbul in 1618. As Aust shrewdly describes eastern European Jewish fashion as "out of time;" this article shows Jewish dress as additionally "out of place.
Recent scholarship frames craft as distinct from art and as an encapsulation of cultural expressi... more Recent scholarship frames craft as distinct from art and as an encapsulation of cultural expression at a given moment. Building on that framework, this thesis analyzes the shifting attitudes towards the production of handmade textiles among Eastern European Jews in the US in the twentieth century, as influenced by their migration. To demonstrate the textile environment at that time, this thesis examines pre-and post-migration primary sources and autobiographical writing, including Mary Antin's The Promised Land, supplemented with interviews of first-and second-generation immigrants to Chicago. In contrast with stereotypes about craft as historically stable, defining craft as regional also reveals change over time. The study further finds that some forms of handmade objects, namely lace, to transcend the scholarly craft/art distinction. Lastly, this research demonstrates how textiles carry memory, as historical records, and how they transmit experience past their moment and locale of origin unto new places and times.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on the intersections of cra... more The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on the intersections of craft activism as it stands within larger DIY craft culture and the professional-amateur divide. It uses a wider body of literature to highlight a contradiction between the ethos of “Do It Yourself,” or DIY, which touts self-sufficiency and a romanticization of the handmade, and the very real connection between DIY gathering sites, whether virtual or in-person, and neoliberal consumerism. The piece discusses Do It Yourself culture as a whole, with special attention as to how physical and virtual DIY sites connect with consumerism, then overviews interrelatedness of the DIY lifestyle and professional-amateurism, paying specific attention to collaborative projects between professionals and amateurs. Using those prefaces, the paper focuses on an activist DIY subculture that attempts to resist the neoliberalism pervasive in wider DIY. It concludes by outlining real instances of craftivism and h...
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Papers by Elena Solomon