Photo credit: © Lucy Sutton-Long
Textiles: The Art of Mankind, a major exhibition exploring the history of textiles, opened today (28 March) at the Fashion & Textile Museum and will run until 7 September.
About
Textiles: The Art of Mankind, curated by textile expert and author Mary Schoeser, considers the history of textiles and how they have been used to communicate and record, express, inspire and teach. It features a wealth of pieces from around the world, some of which are on public display for the first time. Highlights of the show include a section of carpet created between 1664 and 1666 at the Savonnerie manufactory in Chaillot, a hand-woven huipil from Guatemala (pre-1978, pictured above), Liberty London’s first reuse fabric, a c.1892 Tabby cat ready-to-sew doll from the Arnold Print Works in Massachusetts and a slit-tapestry and embroidery sidriyeh made by Aleppo artisans between c. 1860–70.
The Fashion & Textile Museum explains: ”The exhibition brings together a vibrant collection of beautiful and unexpected objects from around the world that tell stories, communicate human individuality, celebrate our relationship with animals and express symbolic thought through pattern. With many works drawn from the Jo Ann C. Stabb Design Collection, from the University of California Davis, this is a unique opportunity to see a stunning range of items never before exhibited in the UK.”
Also on display is Connecting Threads, a collection of beautiful and thought-provoking works by Lynn Setterington, who raises awareness of contemporary issues through her pieces.
Getting there
The Fashion & Textile Museum can be reached by taking the Jubilee line from Green Park to London Bridge.