The outfit is affectionate and gentle, like the embrace of a lover. Parlors of a luxurious oriental palace, wrapped in soft folds of barely weighty fabric. Charming lines and patterns… It's all about him – oriental silk, samples of which were presented at INTERFABRIC exhibition by a company from Uzbekistan ABR Matolar.
The representative and founder of the company Shukhrat Yusupov told about the production of this fabric, which has always been valued at its weight in gold.
– What is abr fabric and why is your company called that?
- Creating our fabric is a kind of art. It is created according to a standard, adopted in the USSR for abr fabrics. They are created manually.
Abr is a master of drawing, and our company is named after him. We are restoring national long-forgotten prints that are coming back into fashion today.
There are more than six thousand items in our collection. I'm not afraid of this word, these are "living" fabrics, with a great history. Each drawing has its own symbol and meaning.
– Is it really in each?
- Yes, but so far we have studied only about three hundred prints. We still have a long work ahead of us.
– Why has silk always been expensive?
- This is 100% silk. Very delicate, we call it the "princess" of fabrics. Long ago under the tsar there used to exist Turkestan province, where hundreds of patterns were collected. Their photographs took up five albums. Among them, it is shown how dobratkashi - masters manually collect dozens of threads, weave a canvas. Today they are also made by hand, on a good machine. The fabric turns out to be 50 centimeters wide, of a certain density. Then the next master - kachi - combs these bundles so that the canvas is uniform. Then the artist draws the ornament with dots. Then the fabric is sent to the dyers. How many colors are in the print, so many times the fabric is dyed. The whole process is slow and very painstaking.
– Do you work only with old prints?
- Our masters are constantly coming up with something new. The company tries to keep up with the times. Artists draw some ideas from old prints that art critics offer them. It turns out a kind of collaboration. We are waiting for everyone to visit our company, you will see how this beauty is created, and you will understand that you have never seen anything like this before.
– Is there a demand for these fabrics?
– In the American and European markets, where we supply our fabrics, the demand for them is great. They know more about abr fabrics there than in Russia. At this exhibition I was once again convinced that they are not familiar with our products here. Everyone knows about Italian and Chinese silk, but not about Uzbek. But abr fabrics are a completely different world, it's art.
We are glad that we were able to take part in such a serious forum as the INTERFABRIC exhibition – this is a very good opportunity to enter the Russian market. During the few days of the exhibition, many acquaintances took place, new contacts appeared, which, we hope, will develop into a partnership in the future.