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(Emilie Lambert, collection manager, TRC, 17 October 2026) The TRC houses over 300 pairs of gloves, mittens and gauntlets. They are made of leather, wool or silk, in lace or with net work. They may be knitted, and be practical or purely decorative. The sheer variety, both technically and culturally, is fascinating (Fig. 1). Some of the gloves are highlighted in previous blogs, such as one about Scottish examples, written by Hanke van Prooije in 2025.

Fig 1: Assortment of gloves in the TRC collection showing the wide variety in material, shape, and decoration.

This mini-exhibition at the TRC is curated by Minsook Kang, who is an intern at the TRC from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She is a visual artist and researcher working across textiles, moving images, installations and publications. She explores stories, memory, and embodied knowledge through forms of care, attention, and material engagement. In the summer of 2026 she visited the island of Buton in Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. For an extentive blog on the subject, written by Minsook Kang, click here.

A Language of the Hands - Embodied Knowledge and Transmitted Memory in Indonesian Buton Sarongs explores the Buton sarong as a form of embodied and transmitted knowledge.

Drawing on TRC collections and fieldwork in the town of Baubau, the exhibition traces how patterns, motifs, weaving practices, and memories that are  transmitted across generations through speech, observation, and the hands. As a strong oral tradition culture, the sarong emerges as a living textile language shaped by everyday life, nature, and generations of makers.

A Language of the Hands can be visited until 20th of November 2026. The TRC is open every weekday from 10.00 to 15.00.

(by Minsook Kang, 14 October 2026) When preparing a mini exhibition at the TRC (click here), the author brought together a selection of sarongs from the island of Buton in Indonesia in order to explore the garment as a form of embodied and transmitted knowledge. This blog introduces the exhibition and provides deeper context concerning Buton sarong traditions - tracing how patterns, motifs, weaving practices, and memories are transmitted across generations through speech, observation, and the hands. Rooted in a strong oral tradition, the sarong emerges as a living textile language, shaped by everyday life, nature, and generations of makers.

Fig. 1. Map of Buton Island, Sulawesi, Indonesia.Minsook Kang is a visual artist and researcher currently studying Textile and Text (TXT) at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and working as an intern at the Textile Research Centre (TRC). Her practice explores stories, memory, and embodied knowledge through forms of care, attention, and material engagement, working across textiles, moving image, installation, and publication.

Buton sarongs and the “Language of Hands”

This mini exhibition showcases Indonesian TRC textiles and links them with a project called Native Tongue, bringing together the oral language of the Cia-Cia indigenous community in Baubau, on Buton Island in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the textile traditions of the Buton region.

Native Tongue began with the story of the Cia-Cia language and the adoption of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, as a writing system in 2009, in an effort to support the preservation of a predominantly oral language. When I first encountered this story, I was interested in the relationship between oral language, writing, and cultural preservation. However, after visiting Buton Island, I began to realise that the narratives I had encountered from outside the region could not fully describe the complexity of its linguistic and social realities.

Tokyo-based textile designer Hana Mitsui. Photograph: www.hanatextiledesign.com(Flora Kovacs-Wester, TRC Fellow, 12 October 2026) As part of my research into Japanese kasuri weaving (see my earlier TRC blog post), I recently had the opportunity to interview Japanese textile designer Hana Mitsui about her practice and her approach to traditional Japanese textiles.

Drawing on her experience with leading fashion and textile houses in Japan and internationally, Mitsui combines traditional weaving techniques with new approaches to materials, patterns and production. During our conversation, Mitsui generously offered to donate a selection of samples from her experiments with Kurume kasuri to the TRC. The donated samples make a meaningful addition to TRC’s existing collection of traditional kasuri textiles and enable us to expand the ways in which Kurume kasuri can be understood and researched within the TRC collection.

Mitsui’s ability to see new possibilities in fabric caught the attention of the fashion world early in her career. While studying at the Royal College of Art in London, Alexander McQueen selected her graduation textile for its Spring/Summer 2015 Paris collection.

The TRC as seen from the garden.The Stichting Textile Research Centre (more widely known as the TRC) Leiden is an international knowledge centre for textiles and dress studies that works with people and objects from around the world with no artificial boundaries, as culture and knowledge have no geographical boundaries. We are equally interested in huipil from Guatemala to hanfu in China, as well as Dutch lace caps and East African kangas!

Over the last 35 years, the TRC Collection has grown to over 56,000 catalogued items, making it one of the largest textile and dress collections in Europe. It is used on a daily basis for teaching, research and inspiration purposes.

Since April 2026 this diverse collection has been housed at Boerhaavelaan 6, a monumental urban villa, in Leiden, the Netherlands. The building allows for the expansion of educational activities and exhibitions of the growing collection. Become part of our future and join our support network by being a Friend of the TRC.

In order to build up a solid future, we need long-term commitments from as many people as possible who love textiles in all their many varied forms, colours and patterns!

We invite you to become a Friend of the TRC. Friends transfer annually the sum of 250 euros or more, for a minimum of three years. If you want to become a Friend, please contact Gillian Vogelsang, Director of the TRC, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

To show our appreciation you will receive the blogs written by TRC staff and others about textile-related subjects. You also receive a 10% discount on items in our shop, lectures, courses and workshops, as well as advance information about special events such as community days, special talks, evening events based on exhibitions, book sales, etc.

(Gillian Vogelsang, 5 October 2026) A few days ago, Danni Wang, who is of Chinese origin and lives in The Netherlands, came to the TRC with two of her friends, all of whom were dressed in Hanfu. They looked so different and ‘exotic’. And yes, that was the whole point. Hanfu has become more and more popular over the last twenty or so years with many Chinese, both in China itself and among the diaspora, as well as others who love Chinese history and culture.

Our guests in Hanfu clothing at the TRC, 5 October 2026.

Birgitta de Leeuw wrote an article about the TRC for the journal Weven (No. 4, 2026, pp. 16-18). She is a Dutch creative facilitator, consultant, author, and visual artist focusing on both personal growth and societal and organizational change. Her work lies at the intersection of social innovation and creative expression.

Her article about the TRC appeared in the official and best-known trade magazine for weavers in The Netherlands, published by the organisation Weefnetwerk. It is published four times a year, with each issue covering a specific theme.

A PdF file of the article can be downloaded here.

Moroccan kaftan made from a Japanese obi (sash), 1950s (TRC 2001.0074).The TRC collection of textiles, clothing and accessories from around the world was started in 1997 with 43 pieces from Afghanistan, Egypt and Syria. Since then it has grown to over 56,000 items (26 September 2026), almost all of them have been catalogued and most of them photographed. All information is accessible on the TRC website (click here for the online catalogue).

The items come from diverse backgrounds with respect to time and place. Some of the items have been purchased, but the vast majority has been collected during fieldwork or very kindly donated by various institutions and private donors. The TRC  is a good example of Citizen Culture and Heritage at work!

The collection has no boundaries with respect to geography or time. It ranges from Afghan embroidery, German Lederhosen, Indonesian batiks, historical textiles from Leiden, to delicate silks from Renaissance Italy and spinning and weaving equipment from the Andes.