Suzani, the embroidery brides carried across the Silk Road

Suzani takes its name from the Persian word for needle. In Bukhara, Samarkand and the towns between, a bride's household embroidered large cotton or silk panels for her dowry: sun and moon discs, pomegranates for fertility, vines that never quite close, because only one maker is perfect. Work started when a daughter was born and the panels were joined for her wedding.

The cloth is worked in strips on a frame, often by several women at once, then sewn together, which is why the pattern jogs a little at the seams. Chain stitch and couched silk cover the ground almost completely on the richest pieces. Old suzanis hang in museums; new ones are still made the same way in Bukhara's workshops.

Ikat, dyed thread by thread before weaving, comes from the same streets. A real suzani from a Bukhara needle lists on 1VIM with the maker's pin on the old Silk Road, and the door price shown before you pay.