Abstract
Ridley Scott's 2023 epic, 'Napoleon,' showcases soldiers in navy uniforms against a dusty desert backdrop but omits a crucial sartorial entity: the Kashmir shawl. Central to this study, the shawl represents a departure from the conventional gendered narratives prevalent in contemporary scholarship, which predominantly focuses on its association with affluent Parisian women of the nineteenth-century. In contrast, this research delves into the shawl's relationship with French soldiers during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign of 1798-99, highlighting how key textiles, a product of the Silk Road trade, may offer fresh perspectives on cross-cultural interactions. Renowned for its intricate embroidery and luxurious fabric, the shawl's journey from India's Kashmiri province to French military men in Egypt exemplifies global interconnectivity in textile exchange. This study reveals the shawl's role in superseding its traditional association with female fashionability, functioning instead as a medium of non-verbal communication within a military milieu. In this context, the shawl plays a critical role in shaping and influencing notions around identity and power dynamics. French soldiers, intrigued by the use of the shawl as turbans and sashes by the Mamelukes - Egypt's military elite - immediately emulated such style. Post-campaign, Napoleon himself was depicted wearing the shawl in Antoine-Jean Gros' 1804 work, 'Bonaparte visitant les pestiférés de Jaffa.' This study highlights the Kashmir shawl as a key symbol of intercultural exchanges, offering the opportunity to further nuance perspectives around gender and dress in historical textile studies.
Author Information
Tania Sheikhan, University College London, United Kingdom
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