Morgan Snoap, pictured here in front of silk belts displayed in the Dar Batha Museum of Islamic Arts in Fes, Morocco, is studying how the woven materials’ cultural significance has changed over centuries. Photos courtesy of Snoap

Art History

From Wedding Attire to Living Room Curtains: A BU Scholar Is Unraveling the History of Brocade Weaving in Morocco

Iconic throughout history, richly woven silk brocade fabrics have evolved in purpose and utility, but a BU Fulbright Scholar is finding how the traditions are still alive today

Brocade fabrics—made of threads of gold, deep blues, reds, sunset orange, yellow, and more—are richly-decorated woven materials with roots in cultures across the world, from ancient China to the Byzantine Empire to Persian nobility. They feature masterfully woven patterns and motifs that can represent a specific time and place or signify social status, and they are special enough to adorn a bride on her wedding day—or, today, decorate an upscale hotel room. These fabrics are the reason Morgan Snoap, a Boston University College of Arts & Sciences PhD candidate in African art, has been living in Fes, Morocco, studying historical brocade production as a Fulbright Student Researcher. 

In Morocco, brocade weaving dates back to medieval times, with Fes at the center of the craft. Snoap (GRS’25) first laid eyes on Moroccan brocade and other North African art during an undergraduate art history class, in Winter Park, Fla., and fell in love with the artistry and the history. 

“I became fixated on this exploration of objects as conduits for history, and paying attention not only to the beauty of an object, but also the context—be it economic, social, [or] religious—and the relationship between the person commissioning a piece of art and the person making it,” she says. 

For the past nine months in Fes, Snoap has followed the threads of historic brocade weaving to the modern day. She has visited workshops, met with master weavers, private collectors, and museum curators, and immersed herself in the world of weaving; it will all ultimately inform her PhD dissertation, titled “Unraveling the ‘Brocades’ of Fes: Moroccan Cultural Memory, Mythology, and Heritage via the Threads of a Fassi Textile (19th Century to Present).” She hopes to tell the story of how this economically and culturally significant craft has evolved over time, and how individual garments—the way they are cut, sewn, and folded—can shed light on the material’s history. Specifically, Snoap is focused on brocade belts once worn by women for their wedding days, which are typically long, wide silk belts with different floral and geometric motifs.

“Women would wear the belt wrapped around their waist multiple times over top of a kaftan to cinch in the waist, and to add another decorative element to their ceremonial attire for weddings, or for special religious ceremonies, or other festive gatherings,” she says. “It’s really a stunning aesthetic and material to me.” 

Weaving Through Time

During her undergraduate years studying art history at Rollins College, Fla., a professor noticed Snoap’s interest in African arts and invited her to cocurate an exhibition of African textiles from a private collector in Central Florida. It was there that she handled a long, silk belt for the first time. She went right from undergraduate to BU’s MA/PhD program in history of art and architecture, choosing the University for the opportunity to work with Cynthia Becker, a CAS professor of African art, chair of history of art and architecture, and a specialist in Moroccan art.

Snoap visited Morocco twice for Arabic language immersions, and then relocated to Fes for the duration of her Fulbright Scholarship in September 2024. The Fulbright Program is a highly competitive international education and cultural exchange program administered by the US government that awards merit-based scholarships to thousands of students each year. 

In the months doing field research, Snoap has learned how cultural traditions, weaving techniques, and the materials of brocades themselves have changed over centuries.

“In Fes, these garments used to feature heavily in wedding ceremonies for both Muslim and Jewish women. It’s a craft that has been associated with the city since as early as the 14th century,” she says. 

The traditional silk belts are no longer worn, with thinner gold or silver belts replacing them—but brocade kaftans are still worn as ceremonial attire in Morocco, Snoap explains. The lavish material is also likely to be seen as interior decoration, prominently furnishing fabrics, covering couches, and being hung as curtains in homes, restaurants, and in hotels.

Brocade is also no longer made of silk. At the end of the 19th century, many of Morocco’s silkworms died out, Snoap says, making weavers reliant on imported silk. Over time, this led to weavers transitioning to rayon, a semisynthetic material. Snoap has also learned that the medieval technique of weaving, called “lampas,” evolved to a less complicated—but still very intricate—modern technique. Today, lampas is only woven in the workshop of Sy Hassan Kabil, while other practitioners in Fes focus on weaving brocade by hand on drawlooms. This type of loom is operated by at least one master weaver who operates the foot pedals, and another person, called the drawman or drawperson—a position historically exclusive to men, although Snoap met one young woman in training—who operates the pattern shafts that are lifted and lowered by hand. 

“There’s a collaboration between a master weaver and the drawman to create these designs within the weave of the textile,” Snoap says. From meeting with contemporary weavers, she has seen how ancient textile traditions are continued in the present-day brocade craft. She has spent time at the four remaining weaving workshops in Fes to talk to the artisans, their employees, and the patrons, to gather information that lives within the ongoing practice. She also frequents museum collections at the National Museum of Adornment in Rabat and the Museum of Islamic Arts in Fes, where she has handled over 300 lampas and brocade textiles while assisting the museum staff with compiling and taking inventory of the collections.

“I am excited to keep exploring how people engage with this craft and explore how it still has a life and a vitality in the country, how artists think about their craft, how they think about themselves and their roles in this history,” she says. 

She has found that many textiles shed light on the lives they once touched. If a belt has a particular composition of patterns, Snoap might be able to decipher which workshop it originated from. If she sees a belt cut in half, rather than kept at full width, that could indicate it was done by one woman of a family who shared it with another female family member who couldn’t afford a belt of her own. 

“There are these traces of human lives that reside in the objects. Part of my job, when I return to the US, will be to parse through my notes and research so that I can speculate on what stories they may tell,” she says. 

As a child, Snoap dabbled in hand sewing, with help from her friend’s grandmother. She remembers running her hands over the bolts of fabric lined up in craft store aisles to choose which material to use. Touching the textures of brocade fabric—one rich with intimate history—evokes an academic and personal response for Snoap.

“I think we relate differently to objects that we place close to our body, like the materials we choose to put on our body. There’s a preciousness,” she says. “[With brocade], I’ve heard stories of competition and tension, of family connection and love and friendship, of money and business, of cultural heritage and preservation of a craft. As a researcher, I want to try to honor all of them.”