In Central Asia, cloth defined a person's place in society. At home, in ritual occasions and on the body, the choice of fabrics was paramount. Robes of honor made of carefully selected fabric were bestowed by rulers and other men of power to signify appreciation and allegiance, to mark holidays and special events, or as bribes. From battle awards to sporting trophies, there was no finer way to reward meritorious individuals.

The fabric sent a clear message understood by both parties. The quality of the cloth was proportionate to the importance of the event and the rank of the individual. Strict dress codes prohibited the wearing of robes above one's station. The ultimate honor was to have the ruler take off his own robe and place it around your shoulders (1). This political and social custom still persists in contemporary Uzbekistan, where robes are given in public ceremonies to foreign heads of state, as well as during private gatherings for marriage and circumcision (2). In mid-19th century Bukhara, textiles were traded for human lives, and more value was given to the former, since a human slave could cost substantially less than a silk velvet ikat robe (3).

Because they were used as currency, it is no surprise that most of the ikat pieces exported from Central Asia in the 19th century were in the form of finished garments. Between 1840 and 1850 alone, 190,000 robes of all kinds were exported to Russia and Siberia (4). The towns of Bukhara and Samarkand, where most robes of honor were produced, were the center of this trade. Weaving guilds closely monitored production and distribution, and local consumption of ikat fabrics contributed greatly to the textile industry's development. Although ikat robes were the pre-eminent robes of honor, wealthy Central Asian rulers often preferred imported European fabrics for their own consumption, thus contributing only indirectly to the popularization of the ikat pieces.

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(1) Johannes Kalter, ed., Uzbekistan: Heirs to the Silk Road (Thames and Hudson, 1997), 229.
(2) Zerrnickel, 229.
(3) Kate Fitz Gibbon, "Ikat: Costume in Central Asia," Ornament 21, (Fall/ Summer 1997-1998): 59.
(4) Kate Fitz Gibbon and Andrew Hale, Ikat: Splendid Silks of Central Asia: the Guido Goldman Collection (Lawrence King Publishing in Association with Alan Marcuson Publishing, 1999), 173.