Blog

Opening of the Out of Asia exhibition, TRC, 14th July 2019. Photograph: Willem Vogelsang.On Sunday, 21st July, Gillian Vogelsang wrote:

Last week Sunday (14th July 2019) saw the opening of the TRC exhibition: Out of Asia: 2000 Years of  Textiles a pop-up exhibition that was set up to coincide with  the massive International Convention of Asia Scholars in Leiden (co-organised by the International Institute for Asian Studies) and which had as its theme: Asia and Europe, Asia in Europe.

Over fifty people came to the opening of the TRC exhibition. I gave a lecture about ancient and modern textile contacts between Asia and Europe, and about the so-called Silk Roads that led from China, through Central Asia to the Middle East and on to Europe. And of course, in some cases in the opposite direction. But not only items were transported along the Silk Roads, but they also moved from India in all directions of the compass and were often transported along many maritime trade routes. Think of chintz and Kashmir shawls, and of course, the Paisley motif (buteh) that originated in India.

In 2018 we had the pleasure of welcoming Kazna Asker (Manchester) at the TRC for a two-month work placement - she worked with the TRC Yemen collection, learning about textiles in general, while having time to think hard about fashion, textiles and how she wanted to approach fashion designing.

Exeter cathedral, the western facade, June 2019. Photograph Willem Vogelsang.On Sunday, 30th June, Gillian Vogelsang wrote:

Willem and I have spent the last few days in the southern English town of Exeter. He was at a Central Asian conference at the University, while I was working, following up on an earlier visit in February this year, on various textiles housed in Exeter Cathedral. The origins of this magnificent building date back for some one thousand years and it is well worth a visit in itself.

In fact, I wanted to go back to Exeter because of my work on Volume Three of the Encyclopedia of Embroidery series, about Scandinavian and Western European forms. I am studying and gathering ideas for various entries, namely one on the use of hand embroidery for military and civilian uniforms and related items, on the use of embroidery within an ecclesiastical setting and finally an entry on medieval embroidery forms. In particular, I was at Exeter to see some examples of Opus Anglicanum (OA), which is a medieval form of English embroidery that was famous throughout Europe in the 12th-15th centuries.

The first two entries being researched will include items from within the Cathedral itself, such as the flags from various regiments that have been laid up there.They include various types of metal thread embroidery and applique techniques.

I was also looking at various medieval effigies of bishops to make notes about the embroidery depicted on their vestments, episcopal slippers, and associated cushions.

Regimental flags laid up in Exeter Cathedral, June 2019. Photograph Willem Vogelsang.But most importantly, there are various examples of OA in Exeter, notably the St. Petrock Pall (in the Cathedral) and the pall from St. Mary's Arches Church, now on display in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. In both cases the cloths are correctly called palls, but in the sense of an altar covering (altar pall), rather than a cloth covering a coffin (funeral pall).

Having the chance to see OA in detail was a treat and my appreciation for the skill of these unknown embroiderers so many centuries ago has increased considerably. The visit also left me with many more questions (as normal). Such as where did the St. Petrock Pall's silk come from, who made the background cloth, did the embroiderers use more than one type of couching, which is regarded as particular to OA, namely underside couching, and how was the final object used.

The indignation of what had happened to the Cathedral’s treasures (including its vestments) during the Reformation in the 16th century is still very much alive among the people working there!

I would like to thank all at the Exeter Cathedral Archives for their kindness, help and interest during my all to brief visit. We hope to come back soon!

On Thursday, 20th June 2019, Loren Mealey and Gillian Vogelsang wrote:

Ties to History, the TRC’s exhibition about the history and evolution of men’s neckwear, planned for next year, is progressing in both depth and breadth.

One of the TRC volunteers, Beverley Bennett, is an amazing quilter and she has made a special quilt based on a Dresden plate design – but made almost entirely from ties! There are also bowtie blocks in the corners, while the back of the quilt is made of men’s shirts. This quilt will be the ‘flag’ of the exhibition.

Items recently acquired for the exhibition opening on the 18th of October 2020 (more below), include a 1940’s USA sailor’s outfit (including the Crackerjack jumper) with its characteristic long tie. The origins of this type of tie go back, so it is said, to headbands used in the early 19th century, when the sailors wore their hair much longer than now.

There are ties commemorating special events, such as the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and the red ties made specifically for the wounded soldiers in British hospitals. There is a tie to commemorate the Wright Bros first flight in 1903, the millennium, the Space Shuttle Challenger, and even the 100th anniversary of the telephone in The Netherlands. There are ties for secret societies, and we will share their secrets with society.

Quilt made by Beverley Bennett for the Ties to History exhibition. The main part of the quilt is made of men's ties.items include contemporary neckties reflecting trends throughout the decades, as well as stories about the designers who created them. There is a tie made by the personal tailor of a US president, as well as a US president’s own label tie. There are little-known stories behind the gifts of neckwear given to prominent leaders, as well as the stories from leaders about their own neckwear. We will exhibit ties and tie accessories from around the globe and throughout the decades. Events in history will be told via the necktie, and these are just some of our Ties to History.

We have a dedicated tie hunter in Mrs. Bonte, who is scouring the Leiden area for neckwear. There are donors giving personal ties, as well. Just today (20th June), two ties were delivered with the compliments of Henri Lenferink, the Mayor of Leiden. One tie has the crossed keys of Leiden’s coat of arms – so providing another very interesting history!

We are pleased to have been contacted by the Academia Cravatica, the Croatian Cravat Society based in Zagreb (Croatia), who are interested in helping with the history of the cravat, which includes its origins in 16th century Croatia, subsequent warfare and the cravat's introduction to the French Court, and then its use by Charles II of Britain, who made the wearing of cravats fashionable in England. It was also a form of neckwear that continued to be worn by King William, the Dutch husband of Queen Mary of Britain……

And why is the exhibition opening on the 18th October: It is the International Cravat Day, of course!

Part of a costume gallery with local clothing. Courtesy Museum of Ethnography, Krakow, Poland.On Wednesday, 5th June 2019, Willem Vogelsang wrote:

I am just back from six days in the beautiful town of Krakow, Poland. It was an academic meeting that took me there in the first place, but fortunately I had the chance to stay a few days longer to get to know Krakow a little bit better.

I was really taken with the ethnographic museum, which houses a large and beautiful collection of regional clothing from Krakow and surroundings. To be precise, the name of the Museum is the Muzeum Etnograficzne im. Seweryna Udzieli w Krakowie. It was established in the early 20th century, and its holdings are very much based on the folk art brought together by the collector, Seweryn Udziela. The Museum is currently housed in the former town hall of Kazimierski, a suburb of Krakow. Most of the collection, as said, reflects Polish culture, and in particular that of southern Poland.

Ribbon shirt commissioned for the TRC from textile artist Jennie Kappenman.On Saturday 25th May, TRC volunteer Shelley Anderson wrote:

Two new TRC acquisitions are good illustrations of the diversity of the TRC collection. The first is a ribbon shirt that was commissioned expressly for the TRC from textile artist Jennie Kappenman (Red Lake Ojibwe). A ribbon shirt is a pan-American Indian garment “worn by men and women, generally on special occasions or ceremonial purposes. It's a way for us to represent ourselves in a nice way to our communities or spiritual practices,” writes Jennie.

The shirt’s origins are thought to be in North America’s Great Lakes region. French and English traders introduced silk ribbons in the 1700s, and also open neck, pull-over shirts originally of linen or cotton. By the 1800s many indigenous men wore ribbon shirts rather than the traditional buckskin shirt. The TRC’s shirt is black polyester, with ribbons in the colours of the Four Directions: red, yellow, black and white. A machine-stitched appliqué of a buffalo represents the Ojibwe and Dakota territories that make up the US state of Minnesota.

Teddy donated to the TRC by Jennifer Hopelezz, drag-queen from Amsterdam.The second acquisition is a donation from the Amsterdam drag queen Jennifer Hopelezz. Or rather, the drag activist or ‘dragtivist’, as Jennifer uses the attention she gets as a man dressing up as a woman to promote LGBT+ equality and to fight discrimination against people with HIV. The drag costume featured is a teddy made of factory produced black net, embellished with a floral design of silver-coloured sequins. It was made for Jennifer by Spanish designer Sergio Pedrero Santos, who also known the drag queen Lola Veneno.

This costume and others will be featured in an upcoming TRC digital exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. In June 1969, when police raided the New York gay bar called Stonewall, customers unexpectedly fought back. The area around the bar was barricaded and traffic shut down for almost three days as more gay, lesbian and transgender people from around the city gathered to protest discrimination. The modern movement for LGBT+ rights was launched. The first LGBT+ Pride March took place the next year, to mark the first year anniversary of Stonewall.

Photorgaph showing two pieces of lace. The one on top (TRC 2007.0559) is handmade, the one below (TRC 2007.0595) is machine made.On Saturday 25th May, Lisa Dilitz wrote:

My name is Lisa Dilitz, and I am from Innsbruck, Austria. I am in Leiden for one year while I study for a Master's in Arts and Culture at the University of Leiden. As I am particularly interested in textiles I have been working as a volunteer at the Textile Research Centre since October 2018.

Initially my main work was to help digitalise the Iranian textile and dress collection. However, for my Master’s Thesis I wanted to focus on digital fashion and textile exhibitions, therefore my task at the TRC changed a bit. Digital or virtual exhibitions are a relatively new approach to curation, which is conducted in cyberspace.

New technology has the potential to make collections of cultural institutions accessible, visible, broadens the audience reach, expands the physical exhibition space and provides new learning opportunities. Digital exhibitions are a credible method for cultural institutions to reach out, present their collection and share knowledge.  

The TRC began to publish online exhibitions in 2017 and uses this curatorial approach to interact on a global scale. I was given the chance to create a virtual exhibition myself, which helps me to develop my own research. I have teamed up with Olga Ieromina, a volunteer at the TRC and a lace specialist. We are working together on a digital lace exhibition for the TRC website.

How did we work? Olga and I have been meeting once a week at the TRC, starting from the beginning of February. The first question was: What do we want to exhibit? We decided on presenting a juxtaposition of handmade lace and their machine made imitations. We went through the TRC collection and found some suitable matches. For multiple sessions we were narrowing down the examples to seven pairs and carried out the necessary research. Thereafter we wrote the text labels.

I discovered that after writing the labels, the processes of implementing a physical or digital exhibition take a different path, and we started on the digitalisation process. Olga and her husband took high quality photographs of the laces. The images of the objects were uploaded on a computer, named and ordered into categories corresponding to the examples. We adjusted the images if necessary and balanced out the light and colour. Currently we are deciding on the best layout for the exhibition and doing some last refinements. The digital lace exhibition will go online in June.

A St. George ribbon, produced and distributed in Russia to mark the end of World War II (May 2019). TRC collectiomOn Saturday, 18th May 2019, TRC volunteer Shelley Anderson wrote:

I visited St. Petersburg (Russia) on a national holiday. Victory Day, 9 May, celebrates the end of the Second World War, or, as it’s known in Russia, the Great Patriotic War. Millions had gathered in St. Petersburg to participate in a massive parade. Many carried placards with photographs of relatives who had fought and died during the war and the brutal siege the city had suffered. You could spot some people in 1940s-style military uniforms. Thousands of people also wore a ribbon on their chest.

I was curious about this wide ribbon, tied in a bow. It’s called the Saint George ribbon, after a patron saint of Russia, and has three black stripes and four orange ones. It is worn on the left side, closest to the heart, as a symbol of respect for those who  died during the war and as a symbol of pride in being Russian. Its history goes back to 1769, when Empress Catherine the Great first established the prestigious military decoration, the Order of St. George. The black stripe symbolised gun powder, while the orange symbolised the fire of war.