The telpek is a tall sheepskin hat, wider than the head it sits on, built from Karakul lamb fleece stitched over a soft leather cap. The skins are salted, shade-dried, fermented in dairy for a week or two, then scraped back with stone. White fleece is worn for ceremony and by younger men; black and brown are everyday, and belong to elders.

This system takes the hat's own logic: one dominant volume, a straight brim line, and nothing fussy underneath it. Undyed fleece is the page, black is the type, and crimson keteni silk cuts across it the way a carpet field does. Ornament stays where Turkmen weaving puts it — stepped gül medallions in strict rows, held inside banded borders.