Double Weave: Bourne and Allen’s Modernist Textiles
2023-09-16 10:30 - 2024-04-14 17:00 (Europe/London) | 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.

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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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Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection Open Day
2023-11-11 10:00 - 16:00 | Knitting & Crochet Guild, Britannia Mill, Britannia Road, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, HD7 5HE
Visit our Collection and see the delights it has to offer.

Come and see how we care for and store our Collection of knitted and crochet items, tools and documents that support the crafts. Talk with our expert volunteers about how we are preserving this history of our crafts, and learn more about the Guild.
Note on accessibility. Our Collection is housed on the first floor of on old building. Access is by stairs. Unfortunately, it is not possible to visit the Collection if you are unable to climb up and down stairs.
Free to attend, just drop in.

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An Artist in Silk
2023-11-17 11:30 - 14:00 | Braintree District Museum, Manor Street, Braintree, CM7 3HW, United Kingdom
TEXTILE SOCIETY EVENT

Behind the Scenes of Nineteenth Century Silk Weaving with the Textile Society at Braintree Museum and the Warner Textile Archive.

Join us at Braintree Museum and the Warner Textile Archive to explore the history of silk design in the nineteenth century!
This is a special opportunity to hear more about the collaboration between the Textile Society and the Warner Textile Archive, and to see the amazing work being done to improve accessibility to textile heritage in the UK.
The Warner & Sons Gallery highlights the breadth of design and manufacture of a textile company supplying royalty, prime ministers and cathedrals, as well as public transport and hospitals. Our expert guide will explain several key pieces in the display and give you an overview of Warner & Sons through the ages. You will have entry to Braintree Museum as part of your booking, with complimentary tea/coffee, plus time to explore the site and the museum shop. Your visit will then move to the Warner Textile Archive to see behind the scenes in the store of one of the largest textile collections in the UK, and to hear about the ongoing project to conserve, catalogue, digitise and research the incredible artworks produced c.1870-1910 by artists for silks woven by Warner & Sons, and other businesses purchased in that era.
Venue
Braintree Museum, Manor Street, Braintree, CM7 3HW
Timings
11.30 – Meet at Braintree Museum shop
11.40 – Guided tour of key artefacts in the galleries
12.00 – Opportunity to view the museum displays and enjoy complimentary tea/coffee
12.50 – Transfer to the Warner Archive (approximately 5 minutes walk)
13.00 – Behind the scenes visit in the Warner Archive with specialist archivist
14.00 – End
NB. If driving, use the local council car parks. If you have specialist requirements in terms of access, disability parking etc. please contact the event organiser. It takes approximately 5 mins to walk from the Braintree Museum to the Warner Textile Archive.
Braintree Museum has a cafe where tables can be reserved for lunch after the event. Alternatively visitors may wish to head into Braintree town centre.
Tickets
Textile Society Members: £5
Non-Members: £10
Places are limited!
Please supply an email address when booking so that we can alert you in the event of cancellation.

Click here to purchase your ticket via Eventbrite

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Material Power Palestinian Embroidery
2023-11-24 10:00 - 2024-04-07 17:00 | Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER, United Kingdom
Embroidery is the most important cultural material of Palestine. This ancient practice is characterised by remarkable beauty and complexity.

Historically, each area of Palestine was known for different motifs, techniques and textiles. Embroidery constituted a visual language among rural women, and their clothing reflected their origins and identity.
Material Power charts the evolution of embroidery in Palestine over the past century: from rich village tradition, transformed by modernity, to its politicisation in the 1970s and commodification in the present. Over the last 75 years, embroidery has become a powerful symbol of resistance, and the embodiment of resilience on personal and national scales.
On display in the UK for the first time in over 30 years, historical dresses sit alongside the voices of women who continue to embroider today, and the work of contemporary artists critically reinterpreting the practice. Material Power seeks to unfold an intimate, human history of Palestine through clothing.
Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery was organised by The Whitworth, The University of Manchester in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard where it travelled from 8 July – 29 October 2023.

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Lubaina Himid: Lost Threads
2024-01-19 10:00 - 2024-04-21 17:00 | The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath, BA2 4DB, United Kingdom
Lubaina Himid’s ‘Lost Threads’ will see 400 metres of vibrant Dutch wax fabric transform the spaces of the Holburne Museum

Weaving and flowing across the front façade and around the permanent collections, Lubaina Himid’s Lost Threads will see 400 metres of vibrant Dutch wax fabric transform the spaces of the Holburne Museum.
Reflecting the movement of the oceans and rivers that have been used to transport cotton, yarn and enslaved people throughout history, Lost Threads traces the paradoxes of textile production and circulation by engaging with its material implications.

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Andy Warhol: The Textiles
2024-01-26 10:00 - 2024-05-18 17:00 | Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
The first exhibition in Scotland exclusively dedicated to the commercial textile designs of pop artist and icon Andy Warhol.

Leading figure of the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol’s swiftly successful career began in commercial and advertising art during the 1950s and early 1960s. At this time, Warhol’s output was almost entirely devoted to realising the demands and deadlines of professional clients, such as Glamour magazine where he undertook his first commission.
Andy Warhol: The Textiles will take you on a journey through the unknown and unrecorded world of designs by the influential artist before his Silver Factory days. Showcasing over 35 of Warhol’s textile patterns from the period, depicting an array of colourful objects; ice cream sundaes, delicious toffee apples, colourful buttons, cut lemons, pretzels, and jumping clowns, this exhibition demonstrates how textile and fashion design was a crucial stage in Warhol becoming one of the most iconic artists of the twentieth century.

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2024 Banner Exhibition
2024-02-01 10:00 - 2024-12-30 17:00 | People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER, United Kingdom
Come face to face with a colourful selection of historic and contemporary banners, the handiwork of those who fought for the rights we have today.

Including several banners on display for the first time, the 2024 Banner Exhibition features those of trade unions of the 1900s, through to notable strikes of miners, teachers, and health workers, to more recent campaigns on migration and disability rights.
With their memorable messages and motifs, these banners are striking representations of groundbreaking moments of protestand the people united by them.
The 2024 Banner Exhibition is the most accessible banner exhibition to take place at People’s History Museum.   A range of accessible formats have been created to enable visitors to engage with the exhibition in different ways.

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Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
2024-02-13 10:00 - 2024-05-26 18:00 | Barbican Centre, Silk St, London, EC2Y 8DS
Using textiles, fibre and thread, 50 international artists challenge power structures and reimagine the world in this major group exhibition.

Textiles cover and protect us, engage our senses, trigger our memories, represent our beliefs, hold our stories. We are wrapped in cloth when we’re born and enshrouded in it when we die.
As an artistic medium, textiles can speak to the joys and pains of being human, as well as the larger structures and systems that shape our world.
In this major group exhibition, 50 international, intergenerational artists use textiles to communicate vital ideas about power, resistance and survival. From intimate hand-crafted pieces to monumental sculptural installations, these works offer narratives of violence, imperialism and exclusion alongside stories of resilience, love and hope.
The events programme linked to this exhibition can be viewed here.
Sat-Wed 10am – 6pm (last entry 4.30pm)
Thu-Fri 10am – 8pm (last entry 6.30pm)
Bank Holidays 12pm – 6pm (last entry 4.30pm)

Event Details

A Visible THREAD
2024-02-17 09:30 - 2024-05-04 16:00 | Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, St. Davids Road, Cwmbran, Torfaen, NP44 1PD
‘A Visible THREAD’ explores the visibility and invisibility of thread.

A Visible THREAD is a group exhibition from the contemporary textile collective seam that explores the visibility and invisibility of thread. Thread, as cloth, is woven through our lives. It surrounds us like a second skin. Precisely because of these close connections, it becomes almost invisible to us.
Rooted in craft techniques, work made with thread has historically been seen as ‘women’s work’, private, functional, decorative, and safe. Cloth itself is still considered a gendered material and there’s a gender divide between ‘high’ art and feminised craft. Until recently, thread has been almost invisible as a medium in contemporary art.
A Visible THREAD aims to encourage viewers to rethink their relationship to thread, be aware of its materiality, its sustainability, its possibilities, and limitations. Through a diverse range of textile disciplines and perspectives, this exhibition brings new work from 13 seam artists together to stimulate thought, connection, and conversation.
seam is a contemporary textile collective based in South West England. It is made up of emerging and established embroiderers, printers, knitters, weavers, dyers, fashion designers, eco-designers, makers, artists. The collective is about coming together and supporting each other through sharing knowledge, local opportunities, local production, forging local bonds and sharing their work and love of textiles with others.

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SARGENT AND FASHION
2024-02-22 10:00 - 2024-07-07 18:00 | Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
Fashion, identity, painting: explore the unique work of John Singer Sargent

Celebrated for his striking portrait paintings, this exhibition sheds new light on John Singer Sargent’s acclaimed works. It explores how he worked like a stylist to craft the image of the sitters he painted, who he often had close relationships with.
Sargent used fashion as a powerful tool to express identity and personality. He regularly chose the outfits of his collaborators or manipulated their clothing. This innovative use of costume was central to his artwork – for example, tugging a heavy coat tighter around a man to emphasise his figure or letting a dress strap sensuously slip from a woman’s shoulder. It was these daring sartorial choices that allowed him to express his vision as an artist.
Almost 60 of Sargent’s paintings will be on display, including major portraits that rarely travel. Several period garments will also be showcased alongside the portraits they were worn in. The show examines how this remarkable painter used fashion to create portraits of the time, which still captivate today.

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Online Symposium Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery
2024-03-07 10:00 - 16:00 | Online Event
Connecting curators, researchers, and artists to share and extend knowledge around Palestinian embroidery, dress, and material culture.

The Whitworth, Manchester, UK, presents a free online symposium, Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, organised in partnership with the V&A, London, UK.
Join us online for a free, one-day programme of presentations, panel discussions, and roundtable conversation inspired by the Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery exhibition at the Whitworth. From care for collections to contemporary art practices, the symposium seeks to shed light on the history of Palestinian embroidery, as well as its evolution and transformation over time.

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Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine
2024-03-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Online Event
The talk accompanies ‘Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery’, an exhibition curated by Rachel Dedman, currently on display in Manchester.

​Embroidery is the most important cultural material of Palestine. This ancient practice, called tatreez in Arabic, is characterised by remarkable beauty and complexity. Beginning with an introduction to embroidery’s traditional making, this paper traces Palestinian embroidery’s adoption as a touchstone of national heritage following the Nakba of 1948, and argues for its subsequent politicisation, through PLO policy and the representation of embroidery by artists.
During the First Intifada uprising, 1987-1993, ‘Intifada Dresses’ were made and worn by women living in refugee camps and villages of the West Bank, and by those in the diaspora. At a time when Palestinian symbols were banned in public, traditional motifs mingled with doves, rifles, and signs of allegiance to political parties, embroidered in national colours. While protest is associated with immediacy, embroidery is by its nature hand-made, private and slow. Intifada dresses, years in the making, render material the conceptual and psychological strength of the Intifada, through the labour of women.

Event Details

STYLE & SOCIETY: Dressing the Georgians
2024-03-22 09:00 - 2024-09-22 16:30 | Palace of Holyroodhouse, Canongate, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH8 8DX, United Kingdom
This exciting exhibition explores what the Georgians wore, from the practical dress of laundry maids to the glittering gowns worn at court.

Discover what fashion can tell us about life in 18th-century Britain, a revolutionary period of trade, travel and technology which fuelled fashion trends across all levels of society. Delve into the Georgians’ style story and get up close to magnificent paintings, prints and drawings by artists including Gainsborough, Zoffany and Hogarth, as well as luxurious textiles, sparkling jewellery, and a range of accessories from snuff boxes to swords.
The exhibition reveals how the Georgians ushered in many of the cultural trends we know today, including the first stylists and influencers, the birth of a specialised fashion press and the development of shopping as a leisure activity.
The exhibition is taking place at The King’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse formerly known as The Queen’s Gallery.

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Art Without Heroes: Mingei
2024-03-23 10:00 - 2024-09-22 17:00 | William Morris Gallery, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, London, E17 4PP, United Kingdom
The largest ever exhibition in the UK dedicated to Japanese folk-craft.

Mingei is the influential folk-craft movement that developed in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s in response to rapid industrialisation. Japanese philosopher Yanagi Sōetsu coined the term to mean ‘the art of the people’, ascribing cultural value and aesthetic purity to traditional craft ob sects, unnamed makers and a simpler way of life.
With more than 80 works, including ceramics, woodwork, paper, toys, textiles, photography and film, the exhibition will incorporate unseen pieces from significant private collections in the UK and Japan, along with museum loans and historic footage from the Mingei Film Archive.

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Out Shopping: The Dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880-1910)
2024-03-23 10:00 - 2024-10-20 17:30 | Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, London, W14 8LZ, United Kingdom
Unveiling the Sambourne House collection of dresses belonging to Marion and Maud Sambourne, Out Shopping showcases nationally significant outfits, including rare surviving examples by leading – often female – dressmakers of the era.
Focused on the late Victorian period and into the 20th century at a moment in history that shaped the way fashion and shopping is consumed today, accompanying photography, letters and receipts paint an intimate picture of how fashion informed the distinct personalities of this middle-class mother and her affluent daughter.
Highlights include the blue skirt and jacket by eminent court and society dressmaker Sarah Fullerton Monteith Young, which Marion wore to her daughter’s wedding (1898); and Maud’s brown velvet embellished chiffon day dress by Mascotte (1906).
In the Tavolozza Drawings Gallery, ‘Out in Paris’ presents a selection of street photography by artist Linley Sambourne, taken during a weekend out in Paris with his wife Marion in 1906.
For the first time in the history of the museums, the exhibition spans across both Leighton House and Sambourne House, inviting visitors to embark on a immersive journey.

Event Details

Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine
2024-03-25 19:00 - 20:30 | Online Event
An event with Rachel Dedman, curator of ‘Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery’. All ticket sales to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Embroidery is the most important cultural material of Palestine. This ancient practice, called tatreezin Arabic, is characterised by remarkable beauty and complexity. Beginning with an introduction to embroidery’s traditional making, this paper traces Palestinian embroidery’s adoption as a touchstone of national heritage following the Nakba of 1948, and argues for its subsequent politicisation, through PLO policy and the representation of embroidery by artists.
During the First Intifada uprising, 1987-1993, ‘Intifada Dresses’ were made and worn by women living in refugee camps and villages of the West Bank, and by those in the diaspora. At a time when Palestinian symbols were banned in public, traditional motifs mingled with doves, rifles, and signs of allegiance to political parties, embroidered in national colours. While protest is associated with immediacy, embroidery is by its nature hand-made, private and slow. Intifada dresses, years in the making, render material the conceptual and psychological strength of the Intifada, through the labour of women.
The lecture accompanies Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, an exhibition curated by Rachel Dedman, currently on display at The Whitworth, Manchester, following a run at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in 2023.

Event Details

Shirley Craven
2024-04-06 10:00 - 2025-05-11 17:00 | Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER, United Kingdom
An exhibition of vivid, colour-filled textiles by post-war designer Shirley Craven.

Born in Hull in 1934 and evacuated during the Second World War, Craven cites the rural Yorkshire landscape and her post-war education at Hull College of Art and the Royal College of Art (1955-8) as a launchpad to a hugely successful career at the printing firm Hull Traders. Aged 29, Craven became Chief Designer and Director of this small and visionary firm whose artist-designers also included Althea McNish and Eduardo Paolozzi. The Whitworth is home to over 80 of Craven’s bold abstract textiles, displayed together for the first time in over 60 years alongside newly acquired unique works from her days as a Student at the RCA.

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Suspended States
2024-04-12 10:00 - 2024-09-01 18:00 | Serpentine Galleries, Serpentine South, Kensington Gardens, London, W2 3XA, United Kingdom
‘Suspended States’ addresses the suspension of boundaries, whether psychological, physical, or geographical

British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare’s new works examine systems of power in Western iconography and the legacies of European imperialism. Suspended States will include installations, sculptures, pictorial quilts and woodcuts. His quilts focus on the ecological impact of colonialisation.

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Careworn
2024-04-24 13:00 - 2024-05-14 17:00 | Constance Howard Gallery, Deptford Town Hall basement, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, United Kingdom
Careworn is a collection of prints, drawings, and handmade garments by Sophie-Nicole Dodds will be exhibited alongside historical objects from the Goldsmiths Textile Collection. Presented in an archive-based format, the exhibition aims to facilitate a dialogue between objects and processes within the domestic space, emphasising both the act of wearing and care within the making process.
Dodds trained in Bespoke Tailoring at the London College of Fashion before completing the MA Design: Expanded Practice (Fashions and Embodiment) course at Goldsmiths in 2020.
Having worked extensively with the Goldsmiths Textile Collection during her MA, Dodds further developed her interest in and work with collections and archives through an ‘Illuminating Objects’ internship at The Courtauld Gallery, run in conjunction with the Science Museum.
In 2022 Dodds completed the postgraduate Year of Drawing scholarship at the Royal Drawing School and has since been returning to Goldsmiths to run drawing workshops with MA Design students and to continue her research with the Goldsmiths Textile Collection.
Exhibition Dates:
24 April – 14 May 2024
Mon-Fri, 1-5pm

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Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk
2024-05-04 10:00 - 2025-01-05 17:00 | V&A Dundee, Riverside Esplanade, Dundee, DD1 4EZ, United Kingdom
From samurai style and geisha chic, to Jedi knights and rock stars, explore the fascinating story of the significance, appeal and influence of this iconic garment.

Showing the kimono as a dynamic, ever-evolving icon of fashion, the exhibition traces its evolution and influence from 17th century Japan to today’s cutting-edge couture and street fashion across the world.
The beauty and importance of the kimono, meaning simply ‘the thing to wear’, is celebrated with an extraordinary collection of around 300 garments, accessories, paintings, prints, photographs and film clips from the V&A and collections around the world.
This is the final chance to see these rare works together on the last stop of the exhibition’s international tour.

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NAOMI: In Fashion
2024-06-22 10:00 - 2025-04-06 17:30 | V&A, Cromwell Rd, London, SW7 2RL, United Kingdom
Explore the unequalled career of the iconic fashion model

The first exhibition of its kind exploring the extraordinary career of fashion model Naomi Campbell. Through the work of leading global designers and photographers we celebrate her creative collaborations, activism and far-reaching cultural impact.

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Interconnected
2024-07-11 10:00 - 2024-07-17 17:00 | City Lit Gallery, 1-10 Keeley Street, London, WC2B 4BA, United Kingdom
The Textile 24 group is a collective of mature students who are exhibiting their final work after a 2 year Advanced Textile course at City Lit, London.
Their exhibition, Interconnected, runs from 12-17 July at the City Lit Gallery.
Private view 11 July, 6-8pm.

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Behind the scenes of The Conservation Studio at People's History Museum
2024-09-14 11:00 - 15:00 | People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER, United Kingdom
Celebrate Heritage Open Days and go behind the scenes on a guided tour with People’s History Museum’s specialist conservators.

Learn about the world’s largest collection of trade union and political banners, how techniques of banner production have changed over time, and how we care for the museum’s collection today.
Get up close to objects currently being conserved, with demonstrations of techniques used, and learn about the process of preparing items for public display – including a rare general election banner from 1906.
While you’re here explore the main galleries, featuring the 2024 Banner Exhibition and the world’s oldest trade union banner.
Please note:

People’s History Museum is open 10am–5pm every day except Tuesdays.
The Behind the scenes of The Conservation Studio event is on Saturday 14 September, at 11am–12pm and 2pm–3pm.

Suitable for 12+ (under 18s must have an accompanying adult).

Booking required via Eventbrite
If you require British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation please contact access@phm.org.uk or 0161 838 9190

Event Details

High Waists to Romantic Tastes, Regency Fasion 1800 - 1837
2024-09-14 12:30 - 2025-08-30 16:30 | Chertsey Museum, The Cedars, 33 Windsor Street, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 8AT, United Kingdom
This exhibition showcases rare and important examples of men’s, women’s and children’s dress from this pivotal and cherished era.

The Regency occupies a very special place in our imagination, particularly when it comes to fashion. It was a time of great elegance and innovation, which saw the appearance of daringly different dress styles.
With pieces drawn from the cream of the nationally significant Olive Matthews Collection, this exhibition showcases rare and important examples of men’s, women’s and children’s dress from this pivotal and cherished era. View iconic, simple and Classically inspired garments and accessories from the early 1800s, as well as the more colourful and complex creations which appeared later in the period. Long-standing favourites are revealed alongside items that have never been displayed before in what promises to be a stand-out exhibition.

Event Details

Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London
2024-10-04 11:00 - 2025-03-09 18:00 | Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XF, United Kingdom
Centres around the legendary nightclub Taboo, opened by designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery in 1985.

Imposing ‘dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother’ as the dress code, the Taboo circle – which included fashion designers BodyMap, Rachel Auburn, John Crancher and Pam Hogg, dancer Michael Clark and pop star Boy George – sparked a scene that used the language of hedonistic excess to create fashion, art and popular culture.
Displaying original garments and accessories from Leigh Bowery and over thirty designers, including custom-made pieces from private collections and rare pieces from designers such as John Galliano, John Flett, Stephen Linard and Dean Bright amongst others, plus photography, film and artworks, the exhibition focuses on this vibrant alternative arena where the anarchic energy of the night spilt over into experimental creativity by day.
Image credit: © Brendan Beirne/Shutterstock – Leigh Bowery and Boy George in ‘Blitz’ Designer Collection Fashion Show at the Albery Theatre. London, 1986.

Event Details

Stitched: Scotland's Embroidered Art
2024-10-25 10:00 - 2025-01-18 17:00 | Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
A captivating new exhibition that unveils Scotland’s hidden textile treasures.

In an exciting collaboration with the National Trust for Scotland, this exhibition brings together an extraordinary collection of their embroidered textiles, many of which are being showcased for the very first time.
Visitors will have the rare chance to explore over 80 exquisite pieces, spanning 200 years of history from 1720 to 1920. The collection features everything from ornate armchairs and grand bed hangings to intricate fire screens, tablecloths, cushions, and tea cosies. Each of these finely crafted items, sourced from 18 of the National Trust for Scotland’s historic properties, will be displayed alongside histories of the makers and detailed design drawings, weaving together the fascinating stories behind these textiles.
As a result of a two-year research and conservation programme by the National Trust for Scotland, many of these delicate pieces are now in a condition to be on public display for the first time. By presenting these textiles as significant works of art in their own right, Stitched offers a fresh and inspiring perspective on Scotland’s rich heritage of embroidery and domestic interior design. Don’t miss the chance to experience these remarkable pieces and the stories they tell.

Event Details

Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection Open Day
2024-11-09 10:00 - 14:00 | Britannia Mill, Britannia Road, Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, HD7 5HE, United Kingdom
A drop-in session for all to see the delights of the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection.

Drop-in and meet our Collection volunteers, find out what they do to care for the objects housed at Britannia Mill and view the objects too. If you’re interested in joining the Collection Team as a volunteer, this is a great way to find out more about what’s involved as well. This event coincides with the Spectrum Yarn sale, so do pop along to both!
Free to attend. All welcome.
NB. Access is up some steep steps and then stairs.

Event Details

Ptolemy Mann: Woven Colour
2024-11-09 10:00 - 2025-05-17 17:00 | Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
Ptolemy Mann returns to Scotland with her groundbreaking exhibition featuring her magnificent handwoven rugs and vibrant thread paintings.

Over the past 30 years, Mann has built a reputation for her extraordinary approach to textile art art, which marries the intricate techniques of hand-weaving with vibrant, expressive painting. Her work is renowned for its precision and depth, reflecting a profound understanding of colour theory and design.
Mann dyes the long skeins of thread and then weaves them on a loom, embedding colour into the cloth itself. Using an upright Dobby loom she creates carefully stretched, three dimensional panels that bring dynamic colour and geometric form to interior spaces. Her designs are inspired by colour theory and are reminiscent of the Bauhaus school where colours become three dimensional and vibrate next to one another. To create her rugs, known as ‘Gelims’ she uses an Ikat technique, where the weft thread of the rug is dip dyed to create a gently feathered transition between colours. In her latest series, Mann takes this expertise to new heights by applying acrylic paint directly onto her handwoven and hand-dyed cloths.
The upcoming exhibition in Edinburgh will be Mann’s second showcase in Scotland, the first being an exhibition at Dovecot in 2012 Ptolemy Mann: The Architecture of Cloth, Colour and Space.

Event Details

Socks: The Art of Care and Repair
2024-12-06 10:00 - 2025-03-09 18:00 | NOW Gallery, The Gateway Pavilions, Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, London, SE10 0SQ, United Kingdom
NOW Gallery is pleased to present its 2024 Fashion Commission, ‘Socks: The Art of Care and Repair’, by London based textile artist Celia Pym.

Focusing on the concept of sustainability in fashion and our lives more broadly, Socks: The Art Of Care And Repair will celebrate the everyday act of mending through darning. Central to the exhibition will be a vibrant, colourful installation of 488 socks, each stitched and darned by the Surrey Square Primary School community in Southwark using industry ‘warehouse’ waste socks. Children, staff and families of the school, learnt and practised their darning and stitching skills on socks, during a series of 26 workshops facilitated by Pym in early 2024.
In addition to the school’s mended socks, there will be a map of socks belonging to Pym’s friends and family – people she loves and cares for – mended visibly by Pym herself, in order to record patterns of wear and tear, and in styles that are designed to suit the respective sock-owners’ personalities.
The idea behind Socks: The Art Of Care And Repair is to encourage a feeling of resilience, to be able to mend something; to play creatively with colour and yarn, and to foster a sense of care for ourselves, our clothes, the environment, and the people around us.
Pym’s commission will transform NOW Gallery into a creative workshop space, with mending materials and socks to inspire the community to learn the art of darning. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own socks to the gallery to repair, and will be welcome to drop in and try their hand at darning, mending and stitching. Celia Pym’s interactive videos and step-by-step guidelines will invite all to create a unique ‘visible mend’ to either take home or put on display in the gallery. Throughout the exhibition run, visitors will also be able to book darning workshops at NOW Gallery facilitated by experts.
Celia Pym says, “It’s a small act of care to mend a hole in your sock or the sock of someone you love. It has a ripple effect. Caring for something or someone is expansive; it sets in motion something you can’t anticipate – a gift in return. Mending builds on what is left behind, it is an action that adds to the thing in front of you. It doesn’t erase damage but makes the story more interesting. A spot of bright colour, or a scar line, that indicates an act of care. I’m so pleased to be able to bring this to NOW gallery and to share some skills for all to learn and take with them through life”

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