Peshtemal
The peshtemal is the cloth of the hamam, and it has never needed redesigning.
Flat-woven cotton, no pile, no weight. It dries almost immediately, folds into nothing, and gets softer every time it is washed — the opposite of a terry towel, which holds water, takes a day to dry and stiffens with age. It has been in use for centuries for exactly these reasons.
It was also never only a towel. A peshtemal has always doubled as a wrap, a table cloth, a blanket on a warm night, a bundle for carrying things. The single rectangle of cloth is one of the most efficient objects Anatolian domestic life produced.
This one is embroidered with a phrase, in Turkish, left untranslated. It works on a shoulder, on a table, or where it was always meant to be.
The peshtemal is the cloth of the hamam, and it has never needed redesigning.
Flat-woven cotton, no pile, no weight. It dries almost immediately, folds into nothing, and gets softer every time it is washed — the opposite of a terry towel, which holds water, takes a day to dry and stiffens with age. It has been in use for centuries for exactly these reasons.
It was also never only a towel. A peshtemal has always doubled as a wrap, a table cloth, a blanket on a warm night, a bundle for carrying things. The single rectangle of cloth is one of the most efficient objects Anatolian domestic life produced.
This one is embroidered with a phrase, in Turkish, left untranslated. It works on a shoulder, on a table, or where it was always meant to be.
