Samurai Vest

This vest was made of textiles and cloth. The construction included freehand paste-resist decoration also known as 'tsutsugaki' which are trimmed with colored silk gauze 'monsha' including gold weft thread accents. The fabric of the vest can be seen as having been dyed indigo blue. This dying practice was used for fashionable reasons, but also because it increased the strengths of the textiles and became an insect repellent strategy for those that wore it. This article of clothing was meant to have been worn by a high ranking samurai as the blue color was restricted to be worn by merchant class individuals.