The Textile Society

Thirsty for Fashion
2023-02-11 08:00 - 2023-11-05 17:00 (Europe/London) | Killerton House, Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, EX5 3LE
This exhibition highlights the techniques used to repair, remodel, reuse and re-wear clothing from the 18th century to the present day.

The ‘Thirsty For Fashion’ exhibition at Killerton explores circular fashion from the 18th century to the present day. Items from the National Trust’s largest fashion collection highlight some of the techniques used to repair and reuse clothing throughout history.

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Tartan
2023-04-01 10:00 - 2024-01-14 17:00 | V&A Dundee, Riverside Esplanade, Dundee, DD1 4EZ, United Kingdom
A radical new look at one of the world’s best-known textiles

Celebrating tartan and its global impact, the exhibition explores how tartan has connected and divided communities worldwide, how it has embraced tradition, expressed revolt, and inspired great works of art as well as playful and provocative designs.
Tartan brings together a dazzling selection of more than 300 objects from over 80 lenders worldwide, illustrating tartan’s universal and enduring appeal through iconic and everyday examples of fashion, architecture, graphic and product design, photography, furniture, glass and ceramics, film, performance and art.
The exhibition features loans from across Scotland and around the world, including Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Tate, V&A, National Museums of Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, National Theatre of Scotland, The Royal Collection, Fashion Museum Bath, the Highland Folk Museum and more, many of which are being shown together in Scotland for the first time.

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Mediterranean Embroideries
2023-04-18 10:00 - 2023-12-03 17:00 | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1RB
A showcase of a range of textiles from across the Mediterranean world explores the embroidery practices that connect them.

This display showcases a range of textiles from across the Mediterranean world and explores the embroidery practices that connect them. Mostly created by women, these lively and decorative textiles provided a means of self-expression for women and girls of all ages. Generation after generation of makers handed down their needle skills, creating pieces that reflected personal tastes, social standing and community affiliation.
In the main, the embroideries were made for use in the home, as cushions, towel ends, bed tents, or as clothing.
Common features included ships, vases, fantastical beings, humans, birds and even words, while other motifs denoted regional differences. Some patterns travelled, appearing on other objects, such as ceramics, from opposite ends of the Mediterranean.
The selection curated here for the Shiba Gallery begins to tell the intertwined stories stitched into these detailed and delicate embroideries.

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A Collector's Story: A Private Collection of Vivienne Westwood
2023-07-22 10:00 - 2024-02-04 17:00 | The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8NP
A snapshot of the late Vivienne Westwood’s career through the eyes of collector, Peter Smithson. Items from the Museum’s collection that echo and contextualise historical references in Westwood’s work are displayed alongside.

This new exhibition in the Fashion & Textile Gallery at The Bowes Museum shows a snapshot from the late Vivienne Westwood’s career through the eyes of collector, Peter Smithson. Peter has collected Westwood for nearly thirty years, with a particular focus on the years from Mini-Crini (1986) to Storm in a Teacup (1996/97). The exhibition includes complete ensembles from significant collections across the 1980s and 1990s, as well as accessories and ephemera from Peter’s collection.
The earliest Westwood outfit on display is from Mini-Crini (1986) and features one of her signature mini-skirts inspired by the crinolines of the 1850s. An Armour jacket from Time Machine (AW 1988/89) reflects the shape of metal armour in its construction from heavy tweed. An amazing black velvet catsuit from Portrait (AW 1990/91) is printed with gold ink in a design inspired by seventeenth-century French cabinetmaker, André-Charles Boulle. Two ensembles from On Liberty (AW 1994/95) and Storm in a Teacup (AW 1996/97) explore and disrupt the history of tartan and tweed in fashion.
Westwood was very inspired by art and fashion, cultural and social history. Objects from The Bowes Museum’s stored collections are displayed alongside her creations to show historical sources for her ideas and to examine materials and techniques.
They include armour, an early seventeenth-century portrait miniature, a pair of miniature Boulle plinths, and a limited edition Westwood plate with a lace design, produced by Coalport in 2003. From the Fashion & Textile collection, tapestry seat covers and a rare pile fabric picture purchased by Joséphine and John Bowes, are on show, as well as a pair of eighteenth-century stays, bustles, shoes, lace from the Blackborne Lace Collection, and children’s clothes from local shop Milners in Middleham.
N.B. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between The Bowes Museum and private collector Peter Smithson. It is not an institutional partnership with Vivienne Westwood Limited.

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Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto
2023-09-16 10:00 - 2024-02-25 17:30 | V&A, Cromwell Rd, London, SW7 2RL, United Kingdom
The first UK exhibition dedicated to the work of French couturière, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, charting the establishment of the House of CHANEL and the evolution of her iconic design style which continues to influence the way women dress today.

Opening in September 2023, the V&A is to stage the first UK exhibition dedicated to the work of French couturière, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, charting the evolution of her iconic design style and the establishment of the House of CHANEL, from the opening of her first millinery boutique in Paris in 1910 to the showing of her final collection in 1971.
Featuring over 180 looks, seen together for the first time, as well as jewellery, accessories, cosmetics and perfumes, the exhibition will explore Chanel’s pioneering approach to fashion design, which paved the way for a new feminine elegance and continues to influence the way women dress today.
Based upon the Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto exhibition organised by the Palais Galliera, Paris, the exhibition will be re-imagined for the V&A and feature rarely seen pieces from the V&A’s collection, alongside looks from Palais Galliera and the Patrimoine de CHANEL, the heritage collections of the fashion house in Paris. Key pieces on display will include outfits created for British model Anne Gunning (later Lady Nutting) and Hollywood stars Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich.

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REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion
2023-09-16 10:00 - 2024-02-11 17:00 | The Design Museum, 224–238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG
This landmark exhibition will be one of the most wide-ranging surveys of contemporary fashion culture ever staged in the UK.

Opening to coincide with London Fashion Week, this landmark exhibition will be one of the most wide-ranging surveys of contemporary fashion culture ever staged in the UK. It will offer an unprecedented look at how careers in fashion are forged, and the multitude of opportunities London’s fashion scene offers young creatives.
The exhibition is a landmark collaboration with the British Fashion Council (BFC) and will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the BFC’s NEWGEN programme, an initiative that supports the best emerging fashion design talent and aims to build global, high-end brands of the future.
Guest-curated by BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent Sarah Mower MBE and co-curated by Design Museum Senior Curator Rebecca Lewin, this exhibition tells the story of hundreds of fearless young designers who have transformed the fashion landscape, and will bring together exuberant, rebellious and radical garments.
The show will feature nearly 100 innovative fashion looks from ground-breaking debut and early collections, many of which have entered pop-culture history — and launched global design careers.
Highlights include the swan dress controversially worn by Björk at the 2001 Oscars, Harry Styles’ Steven Stokey Daley outfit from his video for ‘Golden’, and Sam Smith’s inflatable latex suit by HARRI from this year’s BRIT Awards. Collections and work by JW Anderson, Wales Bonner, Erdem, Molly Goddard, Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha, Russell Sage, and many more will also be featured.
These items will be shown alongside films, drawings, memorabilia and never-before-seen archive material from some of the most well-known contemporary UK-based designers.
#RebelFashion

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Double Weave: Bourne and Allen’s Modernist Textiles
2023-09-16 10:30 - 2024-04-14 17:00 | Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Lodge Hill Lane, Ditchling, East Sussex, BN6 8SP
Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft mark ten years since our major redevelopment with an exhibition about the museum’s co-founder Hilary Bourne (1909 – 2004) and Barbara Allen (1903 – 1972), her partner in life and work.

The pair ran an internationally successful textile studio, designing and making a variety of fabrics – tweed for Fortnum & Mason, furnishing fabric for Heal’s and scarves for Liberty. The turning point in their career came in 1951, when they won the competition to design and make textiles for the newly built Festival Hall. They went on to win commissions to make the costumes for the multi-Oscar winning 1959 film Ben-Hur and the interiors of the UK’s first jet planes.
In short, they were two of the most significant textile designers of the modernist period, yet they remain largely unknown – until now.
Double Weave gives space to their story. It speaks to the invisibility of women as leading modernist designers and how women’s intimacy informs creative pursuits.

Event Details

The Missing Threads
2023-09-21 10:00 - 2024-01-07 18:00 | Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
UNTOLD STORIES OF BLACK BRITISH FASHION

This autumn, Somerset House explores the stories of Black British fashion in a major new exhibition, The Missing Thread, curated by the Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency (BOLD). Spanning from the 1970s to the present day, The Missing Thread charts the shifting landscape of Black British culture and the unique contribution it has made to Britain’s rich design history.
The exhibition examines how the cultural, counter-cultural, political and socio-economic backdrop of the 20th and 21st centuries have shaped the identity of Black style and in turn mainstream fashion culture. Extending far beyond the realm of the catwalk, the exhibition spotlights and contextualises the profound impact of Black creativity through music, photography, art and design.
Talks and events linked to the exhibition are listed here.

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