Gaziantep postcard: The business revitalizing Ottoman textiles

Beautiful items are being manufactured inside an industrial park plant on the outskirts of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey.

Striped fabrics in azure blue and nutty browns are springing to life to the clack-clack of ancient wooden looms. Workers prepare deep scarlet threads for the loom by funneling them around a Ottoman textiles machine known as a levent in one corner, their brows wrinkled in concentration.

The facility manufactures textiles for the Turkish company Kutnia, which was established in 2017 in the historic city of Gaziantep. The company’s goal is to bring back the production of “kutnu,” a fabric that was traded throughout the old Ottoman Empire and whose creation dates back to the 16th century.

In reference to the linguistic strands that bind fabrics and communities throughout this region of the world, the name “kutnu” is derived from the Arabic word for “cotton,” “qutn.”

Despite the material’s key cultural significance, its production in Gaziantep has long been declining due to competition from low-cost imports and restrictions imposed by the material’s customary standards.

Kutnu was referred to as “palace cloth” because it was used to make the sultans’ kaftans, according to Ottoman Touch, a luxury business located in London that sells goods from and inspired by the former empire. Mecidiye, Hindiye, Zencirli, Sedefli, Cutari, Mercan, Sedyeli, Osmaniye, Sultan, and Mehtap are just a handful of the more than 60 varieties that exist, depending on the quantity of warp yarns and designs.

The goal of Kutnia is to bring back the use of kutnu fabric, which can be seen in stores and houses as far afield as Damascus and Baghdad. You might see a striped waistcoat here, a sofa lining there. Founded by a woman named Julide Konukoglu, the company began as an initiative with the Gaziantep local municipality before continuing as a private enterprise.