This gorgeous veil is from the Yemeni Jewish community! Yemeni Jewish women wear it for special occasions, like weddings. Lucky them! The wide band at one end goes at the forehead and the rest of the goldwork hangs over the hair at the back. You can see Dr. Shirazi modeling it (and another piece from her collection) in this article about Dr. Shirazi and her research on the hijab. Take a look! It’s very informative about veils in general, though it doesn’t talk much about Yemeni Jews. Here is the Wikipedia article on Yeminite Jews.
I know y’all want to see it up close. Here’s a photo of the forehead band.
Now the middle (if you click on the photo you can see a larger version).
Here is the tail end:
Finally, a few more detail photos.
And finally, one more photo of the whole thing (click for the larger version). On Monday, I’ll show you the silver face veil and jewelry!
This is one of a special series of posts based on the embroidery collection of Dr. Faegheh Shirazi, from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research is on “textiles, dress, gender identity discourse, and material culture in the Middle East; the meanings of veiling; rituals and rites of passage as they relate to material culture.” Over the years she has collected a number of examples of embroidery from around the world, and has very kindly allowed me to photograph them for my blog.
embroidery for ducks 
It’s wonderful! Do you know what techniques are involved in the goldwork? There are probably several ways to get the same effect…
I’ve left you an award on my blog, by the way – hope you like it!
Not a clue! I’ve barely done any goldwork myself.
Oooo a prize! Hurray!
It looks similar to a type of goldwork called badla embroidery in India.In Badla embroidery flat and thin metal strips are stitched using a needle with long eye .Straight stitch is the most common stitch and I’ve seen darning techniques also.The starting and ending metal strip are always folded at the back ,to keep it secure hit the knot slightly with a small hammer .
Thank you for sharing! I am trying to find some more information so that we can actually do a comparison. Do you do any badla embroidery?
You are welcome.I did try badla long time back.The metal strips are not my favorite thing to stitch,so didn’t continue badla.But I’ll send you all the information which I’ve got……
Like Rachel, I think it is wonderful and am interested to know more about the techniques used. Thank you, Anita, for the information about Badla embroidery. It does appear that some of the stitching may employ a similar technique. I am particularly intreged by the ‘crinkly’ stitching.
In badla embroidery a similar ‘crinkly’ stitching is achieved by working cable stitch.But I don’t know about this technique.Hope some one tells us 🙂
This is so beautiful! Thanks for the post, the reference to Dr. Shirazi’s page and all the comments!
🙂 You are very welcome.
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I am so sorry I can’t help, but I too would love to know more. Do you know the age of these and of the godrwolk veil you showed us as well? These items are absolutely beautiful and it’s such a shame that knowledge of their purpose, how they were made and by whom and for whom and for what? A ceremony wedding probably as you suggest. Can Dr Shirazi help?