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Spring has finally arrived in Leiden and it is clear that things are happening and people are on the move again! For some time the TRC has been working towards the stated goal of becoming an international home and expert centre for textiles and dress, for teaching and presenting textile crafts, and indeed making Leiden into a centre for textile studies! This week saw various movements and events relating to these aims. And then I woke up this morning feeling we are nearly there!

A charuka commissioned by the TRC from a Christian community in northern Iraq. The garment is being processed by Fatima Abbadi, who teaches Jordanian, Palestinian and Syrian embroidery and dress at the TRC.

Glove produced in communist Romania in 1973 for the West European market (TRC 2022.0820t).A few days ago the TRC was given a cardboard box filled with single gloves, not a pair in sight! The box was given by Mrs G.C. van der Poel, who is now in her 90s. Why did we accept the box and contents? Simple, because of its potential story!

The box was sent to Mrs van der Poel by the Dutch fashion company, Claudia Sträter, which is currently based in Diemen, near Amsterdam, The contents consist of 54 single gloves, most of which are made of leather in various colours, as well as being made and decorated in a variety of manners and forms. In addition, some of the glove cuffs have applied beads, embroidery (hand and machine) or inset shapes in contrasting colours. The gloves can be found on the TRC Collection database under nos. TRC 2022.0820 to TRC 2022.0823.

Obi-dome from Japan, decorated in Mondriaan-style, c. 2020 (TRC 2022.0232)..Exactly 150 years ago, on 7 March 1872, the Dutch abstract and non-figurative artist Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan was born in the Dutch city of Amersfoort. We were alerted to this moment by DailyArt, the absolutely wonderful app that presents a work of art every day.

We could not let this event pass without drawing attention to Mondriaan's enormous influence on design history, and in particular on textiles and accessories. Compare the Yves Saint Laurent collection of 1965.

Many people may think of kimono and obi as very Japanese garments. That is true in some way, of course, but not always so in terms of their decoration. Rather, kimono/obi designers have for centuries applied many foreign motifs to decorate kimono and obi, to attract customers who want to wear ‘something different’.

Japanese obi (sash), with Andean (pre-Hispanic South American) motifs, c. 2000 (TRC 2022.0233).

I am extremely grateful and excited to have taken part in the TRC’s “Textile Intensive Course” last week, from February 21st - 25th. After five full days of looking at and learning about textiles I can say I learned an incredible amount in a short period of time. My biggest takeaway is that the world of textiles is far larger, more complicated, more nuanced, and more interesting than you could ever imagine.

Participants of the February 2022 edition of the TRC Intensive Textile Course. Photograph by author.

Five others and I followed along with Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood through every step of the production process of various textiles. First we looked at fibers, starting with the very basics of cotton, flax, wool, and silk. From there we expanded into a large world of fibers where we broke them down into categories to understand their origin, purpose, and qualities. Did you know it is possible to make a silky white fiber out of milk protein? I didn't before this course! Nor did I realize how many different types of sheep wool there are, or what the process for harvesting spider silk looks like. The best part was getting to sort through the bins of fibers Gillian had in order to start our sample book we eventually got to take home.

Mrs Keijzer-Sarneel talking about Rijnland dress. TRC Sunday Textile Talk, 27 February 2022It's been a little while since initially working on the idea of a Sunday Textile Talk. All thanks to Covid many of our planned activities during the last two years had to be postponed. But since last Friday many of the masking and social distancing regulations were dropped here in the Netherlands, and the coming together of groups can now take place. What a relief. So last Sunday we finally had the first Sunday Textile Talk! 

These talks will take place on the last Sunday of every month. There will be formal lectures, as well as informal talks. The aim is to show the diversity of textiles. It will also give people the chance to see any pop-up and larger exhibitions on display at the TRC.

It's been quite a week! The Amsel Collection arrived on Sunday from Paris and the TRC Gallery became ‘home’ to a group of TRC volunteers who have been sorting, tagging, cataloguing and slowly getting the items photographed. The first batch is now online. Some of the Romanian items will appear in a forthcoming volume of Selvedge, the London based textile group. We will be working even closer with Selvedge in the future, sharing links, articles and blogs.

TRC volunteer processing the large Amsel collection. In the background part of the small pop-up exhibition of Rijnland lace caps.

I was talking with someone from the Dutch embroidery group Merkwaardig as part of a follow-up after an online lecture I gave for them called ‘What is Embroidery?” She had been looking at the TRC website and the TRC blogs and was very surprised by the diversity of subjects covered. For her it was bizarre, but fantastic.

Japanese kimono with Mickey Mouse prints, 2021 (TRC 2022.0229).