Whom should we thank for this part of the national costume, for this acme of the applied art? At first, it seems to have been made with the utmost simplicity, but clearly the simplicity and naturalness engender delight. A black dome sets off the crown of the head where four curls lay: an almond, or pepper, or a pheasant wing, who knows? There remains only a tiny hiatus between our guess and the hardly perceptible tremble of the constantly eluding truth. And it is probably for the better, as in this case the twinkling, unsteadiness, indefiniteness, convey enormous pleasure to us. Tubeteika (skullcaps) are an integral part of the Uzbek national costume and, at the same time, genuine examples of national art. They are convenient, sturdily practical, and beautiful. The diversity of forms (conical, tetrahedral, round, domed), the richness of embroidery creating sometimes delicate, sometimes broad, sometimes carpet-like patterns, a wide variety of colors from simple black-and-white to bright and multi-colored, all these make the Uzbek head-dress multi­purpose.
The top and cap-band are plain and simple in shape and ornamental pattern.
The background is dark with thin white embroidery of four almond-shaped delicate objects fringed with the same embroidery as on the cap-band. Female tubeteika, as well as tup, are of quadrangular form, and are embroidered with gold and beadwork.
It is embroidered with floral and geometrical patterns against the background of a continuous design in the form of figured medallions or flowering shrubs.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the tubeteika reflected local characteristics of sewing in different regions, to the extent that one could easily determine where the owner came from. In Uzbek decorative needlework lots of techniques were used; the most value was attached to selection of stitches and fine details. The large image planes were filled either with the one-sided satin-stitch bosma that constitutes a dense, slightly raised texture, or small-sized half-crosses iroki which makes the surface of a pattern grainy, or the yurma chain-stitches that create, due to a precisely calculated effect, an impression of richness of tints similar to the play of light on gem facets. Yurma is frequently used for edging and accentuation of the pattern outlines. Each of these stitches had different variations; one or another sewing technique was preferred in different centers of embroidery art, which led to the development of local styles. In southern Tajikistan, tubeteika are called toki; they tend to be very bright and differ in color and ornament. In Kulyab, Darvaz, Karategen, Vos, Khovaling, it is impossible to find a young man or adult not wearing this remarkable work of art on his head. Tubeteika in mountain regions are conical and flat-bottomed. They are stitched from the center to an edge with frequent beams on the finished embroidery; the cap-band is decorated with a hand-knitted braid. The decoration of tubeteika is always closely connected to the whole system of the decorative art in upland Tajikistan; their decorative designs can be seen in dress embroidery, household articles, carving, fretwork, and painting of houses. The main patterns in the decoration of tubeteika are rosettes and palmettes, roses, stars, tulips, crosses, zigzags and rudimentary portrayals of animals and many more national designs. On a small surface of the circle, the embroiderers produce infinite varieties of patterns on the four or eight parts, strictly respecting the laws of symmetry. Tubeteika of northern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are called tupi; they are plain and simple in shape and ornamental pattern. The dark background has thin white embroidery of four almond-shaped delicate objects fringed with the same embroidery as on the cap-band. Female tubeteika, as well as tupi, are of quadrangular form, and are embroidered with gold and beadwork.
It is true that in recent years some of the ornaments and styles perfected over centuries have gradually declined, and have become insipid and derivative, carrying us away into a cliched world (as in metalwork or ceramics). But the tubeteika preserves its hypnotic nature and the intrinsic force of tradition though its current form is relatively recent dating from as early as the early 20th century...
Hold a black-and-white tubeteika in your hand and feel the cosmos pulsating. Is this too going to vanish someday and be lost in dull and empty corporeality?