Afghan Vintage Boot Adornments With Coins

Afghan Vintage Boot Adornments With Coins

Give your boots some bohemian flair this season with these handmade Kuchi boot anklets. These are vintage finds from our Afghan refugee friends we work with in Peshawar.

They are a handmade and over 25 years old. The artists used beaded designs with studs and vintage coin accents. They certainly can be used for anything but we feel they look fabulous as boot embellishments.

This is a chance to truly appreciate a bit of Afghan/Pakistani history and the beauty of the culture of the nomadic Pashtoon tribes that wander the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, along ancient routes between the seasons, moving down from the mountains in the winter and back to their homes in the summer. The word Kuchi itself is derived from a Persian word meaning migration, in relation to nomads or gypsies, and does not describe a particular group or people, but rather a state of being. Many different peoples or tribes from these areas have been classified as Kuchi but the original migratory nomads of this area are the Pashtoon. The Kuchi are fiercely independent, usually wreathed in silver necklaces and dressed in spangling embroidery, and they stare boldly back from atop their camels when you cross them on the roads. Kuchi jewelry, like the jewelry of India and other tribal places and peoples, often incorporates jewels of transparent colored glass set in and backed with foil to reflect light in every shade of the rainbow. Shining mirrors, metallic thread, colorful beads, pom poms, cloves and other fragrant materials, bright fabrics and thousands of different kinds of dangles and bells also serve to attract the eye and ward off evil spirits.