Ge Jia textiles: jackets

The wax resist on this Ge Jia Jacket is executed on a bought piece of heavy and course machine-made (yangbu) cloth and is probably mid 20th Century. This jacket was bought by Andrew without sleeves or lower back panels. Often, the women selling their textiles will want to keep a part of the piece as a connection with the past and because the piece was made as a labour of love and they are desperate not to give it all up. So, jackets are sometimes sold without sleeves, or more usually with lesser quality sleeves. Likewise, baby carriers very rarely come with the original straps/bands. Assuming the jacket is sold in its original condition, dealers will then often cannibalise them in order to maximize profits, so again, good sleeves might be replaced with lesser versions. Also, mothers, grandmothers and even other female relatives might help a girl with her sets of wedding clothes by providing a batik jacket to go with the girls sleeves or the other way round, embroidered sleeves to be put on the girls jacket, and so jackets, even in their original form, could be a combination of more than one generation. One is therefore very lucky to buy a jacket that has not been altered and has been made by a single person.