Blog

'Colorial', with 300 bobbins with threads of different colours. 2014. Artist: Natalia Villanueva Linares.Willem and I are just back from a few days in Paris (a birthday present from our two sons and their partners), going to museums, galleries, and generally relaxing. Last Tuesday, 7th January, we wanted to go to the Musée Orsay to see some of the impressionist paintings, but while walking there we spotted an exhibition at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine ('Une brève histoire de fils (de 1960 à nos jours)', which was about various Latin American textile artists and their work. So we popped in.

A very wide range of cloth and thread-based work was on display, some of which very detailed, while others were large and thought-provoking, but nearly all well-made by people who understood what is a thread/cloth. One or two items were less so, but it it inevitable in an exhibition of this nature that some items appeal and others do not.

Multi-coloured mat from Namibia, 2024, made out of metal bottle caps. Each cap is covered with different, wax-printed fabrics individually cut out and then hand sewn together in an octogonal shape (TRC 2024.3444).This year (2024) has seen various developments with regards the TRC's cooperation with Leiden University.

Thanks to Prof. Annetje Ottow, Chair of the Leiden University Board and a supporter of the TRC through the donation of family garments from the Dutch East Indies, we were put in contact with Alexander Mouret, Regional Partnering Manager Artificial Intelligence at LURIS, the Knowledge Exchange Office of Leiden University. On 12-13 September this year he organized a symposium in Leiden on 'Indifference', where I had the honour to present a paper on 'Indifference to .... textiles'.

Alexander is helping us to find more routes and channels between the TRC, the University, and the commercial world, while at the same time exploring possible donors and sponsors, and indeed how we can all work together.

The TRC is very proud to announce the publication of the fourth volume of Bloomsbury's World Encyclopedia of Embroidery:  Embroidery from Scandinavia and Western Europe, composed under the aegis of the Textile Research Centre (TRC), Leiden, The Netherlands. Authors: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and Willem Vogelsang.

This is the first reference work to describe the history of embroidery throughout Scandinavia and Western Europe from the Bronze Age to the present day. It offers an authoritative guide to all the major embroidery traditions of the region and a detailed examination of the material, technical, artistic and design aspects of the subject, including its modern-day uses.

For millennia, the peoples of Scandinavia and Western Europe have been producing domestic and professional embroidery to decorate themselves, their families, clients, homes and public spaces.

Detail of dress ‘Sahraouia gandoura’ by Kenza Bennani, New Tangier, 2024. Photograph by Christina de Korte.The exhibition MODA: Moroccan Fashion Statements at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (in collaboration with DAR Cultural Agency) includes artists and designers from Morocco and the Moroccan diaspora in the Netherlands. The title of the exhibition, moda, is the Moroccan-Arabic word for fashion (from French: mode).

The exhibition is divided into several themes, such as ‘Monumental’, ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘Amazigh Hair Heritage’, ‘Friendship’, and ‘Artists & Artisans’.

An interesting element of this exhibition, and one of the common themes, are the photographs that are spread throughout the exhibition, originating from residents from Utrecht, visitors to the museum, and the participants of the MODA exhibition. In addition, all the exhibition texts are displayed in Dutch, English, and Arabic, with some titles even in Tamazight.

Portrait of Jane Austen, wearing a chemisette, from the memoir by J. E. Austen-Leigh (1871), based on a sketch by Cassandra Austen.In an earlier TRC blog, attention focussed on a 19th century, Western urban garment, namely a pair of detachable sleeves known as engageantes. The blog was written because there are various mid-19h century examples in the TRC collection.

Thanks to a donation of a large collection of needlework and related garments by the Naaldkunst Museum, Winschoten, in October 2023, the TRC now has several examples of another, even more intrguing garment from the mid-19th century, namely chemisettes.

But what exactly is a chemisette? According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, since 1807 a chemisette is regarded as: … (1) “a bodice, more or less like the upper part of a chemise”, and (2) “an article, usually of lace or muslin, made to fill in the open front of a woman’s dress”.

The word chemisette is the diminutive of the Old French (and hence Middle English) word, chemise, which in its turn comes from the late Latin camisia, meaning a shirt or nightgown (compare also Arabic qamiz).

More specifically, the (English) term chemisette refers to a garment that has the appearance of the front, back and neckline of a blouse or shirt, but without side sections. It was worn underneath a garment that was open at the front, but it added little bulk to the complete outfit.

The TRC Collection is growing in depth and breadth and is attracting more and more people and groups.

Christina de Korte, TRC intern, talking with a team from the textile printing firm of Vlisco visiting the TRC, Tuesday 3 December 2024. Photograph by TRC.

Yesterday, for example, we had a visit by a design group from the famous Dutch textile printing company of Vlisco, which is particularly known for the production of “wax hollandais”. This is a form of printed cloth that was developed by the firm in Helmond, the Netherlands, over 160 years ago and which is geared to West and Central African tastes.

by Christina de Korte, TRC intern from Utrecht University, 25 November 2024

Khayamiya is an Egyptian appliqué technique that is often used for tents for different occasions, such as iftar during Ramadan, weddings and funerals. Originally, khayamiya was handmade, by applying fabric pieces onto a ground cloth, but nowadays it can be produced with various techniques, which result in various shapes. Although khayamiya is very recognisable, the scenes and depictions have been changing throughout time.

Detail of a khayamiya door panel with Arabic calligraphy of Q 48:4 in Thuluth script, Egypt, late 20th century (TRC 2024.1544).

With all the people here at the TRC, or via other friends, we can usually identify the textiles and garments that come in. There was a description in a previous blog, for example, of textiles that might be church pillar hangings (TRC 2024.2934a-b). There were also rectangular shapes that turned out to be humeral veils (TRC 2024.3061) that are worn by Roman Catholic priests as a form of shawl, over a chasuble.

But ever so often we get an object that flummoxes us, so we have decided to have a new series of blogs called ‘What is it’? The first ? item (TRC 2024.3109) came in a few days ago and is part of a donation of textiles and garments that originate from as far apart as Guatemala and Indonesia and were donated by Marjolijn van Scherpenzeel (Hartendief, Leiden).

Large rectangle with a central panel of green silk velvet edged with black, red and grey silk velvet and framed by a band of yellow diagonal lines in surface couching (TRC2024.3109).