Meticulously designed patterns of soft colorful leather are skilfully cut and hand-sewn with a distinctive stitch and colorful thread. The stitching creates an illusion of embroidery or appliqué when looked at, but the technique requires a different and unique set of skills rather than the ones in leather embroidery, inlay, outlay.

This exceptional technology that aligns colourful leather patterns and twisted threads in intricate play of ornamental designs is called кайылы (каюлы) күн – Kaiyly Kün – in Tatar language: from word kaiy meaning “to embellish the edge” and kün meaning “leather”. In English, the best alternative is Tatar Leather Mosaic (such terms as inlaid leather, patterned leather, mosaiced leather, узорная кожа are also found in literature).

Uniqueness of Kaiyly Kün technology and its best application shchiteq(ler)- meaning “decorated soft boot(s)” in Tatar language– is in integrity of three elements: 1) curvy colorful soft leather cutouts, 2) aligned in intricate Turkic-inspired designs, 3) attached with distinct embellished inward stitching. A so-called “Kazan” stitch (named after the place it was mastered and popularized) attaches leather cutouts together in a unique manner that cannot be reproduced by a machine.

The essence of “Kazan” stitch is three loops of twisted decorative thread circled around a sturdy connecting thread and squeezed between the two pieces of soft leather. This type of stitching, that is originated from an ancient inward two-needle stitch, can be found in the leather items created in areas of Central Asia, Middle East, Balkans, North Africa.

Checkout this 3D image (created by BilgeBitig) of shchiteqler that gives an excellent view of the boots’ wholistic structure. These virtual boots were modelled from the mislabelled (as it frequently happens) kaiyly kün shchiteqler mastered by the Tatar people.