The adaptation of traditional sile cloth to the contemporary women's fashion

This research explains the rich history of Sile Cloth, which belongs to the Şile Town, Istanbul/Turkey and it aims to define its transformation from past times to nowadays, and its modern status in fashion. From ancient ages to the present day, Şile Town was ruled by many cultures, it was a place once known as Artani or Hile. Among its many cultural heritages, this once a-small-fishing-village is a home for a special type of fabric which is called Sile Cloth, and it has a 150-year-old background. Before 1920's wool weaving was more widely seen in Sile, but in post 20's era the fabric industry switched to silk weaving, however due to its costly nature silk left its place to the linen during the 1940's. Nowadays Traditional Sile Cloth is woven with 100% cotton gauze and 20/1 needles, optionally with 20/2 and 100% Linen or 100% Silk weavings can be achieved. First part of the research covers the historical background of Şile, its geographical features and social living of Şile residents. Second part explains emerge of the art of weaving, its historical process and developments in techniques. Third part is a prologue for Traditional Sile Cloth style weaving. This section contains the detailed explanations of historical evolution of the Sile Cloth, the necessary raw materials and procedures used in pre and post weaving processes. And for the conclusion, the fourth part describes the adaptation of Sile Cloth to the contemporary women's fashion. Images that explain a designed collection of 5 pieces of female outfits and the steps of preparation of this collection are included in the fourth part. In order to make it eligible for the modern female fashion, all of the 10 main fabrics were picked from Sile Cloth, and with additional materials fabric designs were prepared, from those designs a 5 piece women's clothing collection was created. The fabrics that were used in the collection contains, 100% cotton gauze Sile Cloth woven with 20/1 needles. The color scheme of the entire outfits is chosen with off-white tones that resembles the raw shades of Sile Cloth. One of the most important features of the Sile Cloth, the feeling of comfort and spaciousness is underlined in this collection, and pieces are designed to be suitable with female sportswear. Also this paper includes the interviews that were made with people who work on related institutions on the question of the revival of almost forgotten beauty of Sile Cloth.