DATS
Dress and Textiles Specialists
Spring Journal
2013
Contents
Page
Committee
3
2012 Annual Conference - Papers
5
2013 Annual Conference – date for your diary
42
News
42
Exhibitions & Events
44
New Books
51
Cover Images:
Wicked Queen from Savage Style: Clothes from Lily’s Wardrobe, (Image courtesy of National Museums
Liverpool)
Hardy Amies for Hepworth’s three piece wool suit. This suit was designed as part of the ‘Future’ collection for
Hepworth’s centenary fashion show, 1964. (LEEDM.S.1979.21.3) (Image courtesy of Leeds Museums and
Galleries)
HMP Wandsworth Quilt, T. 27-2010, (Image courtesy of V&A Museum)
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DATS Committee 2013
Chair
Christine Stevens
e-mail [email protected]
Secretary
Rebecca Quinton
Curator, European Costume and Textiles
Glasgow Museums
Burrell Collection
2060 Pollokshaws Road
Glasgow G43 1AT
Tel: 0141 287 2571 (Wednesday - Friday)
Email: [email protected];
[email protected]
Treasurer
Danielle Sprecher
c/o Leeds Museums and Galleries
Discovery Centre
Carlisle Road
Leeds LS10 1LB
e-mail: [email protected]
Membership Secretary
Newsletter Editor
Alex Ward
Assistant Keeper
Art and Industrial Division
National Museum of Ireland
Collins Barracks
Dublin 7 Ireland
Tel: 00 353 1 6486469
e-mail: [email protected]
Web Editor
Kate Reeder
Social History Curator
Beamish North of England Open Air Museum
Beamish
Co. Durham DH9 0RG
Tel: 0191 370 4009
e-mail: [email protected]
SSN Officer
Jenny Lister
th
Curator, 19 Century Textiles and Fashion
Department of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion
Victoria & Albert Museum
South Kensington
London SW7 2RL
Tel: 020 7942 2665
e-mail: [email protected]
London and National Museums Representative
Beatrice Behlen
Senior Curator, Fashion and Decorative Arts
Museum of London
150 London Wall
London EC2Y 5HN
e-mail: [email protected]
Conservation Representative
Ann French
Conservator (Textiles)
The Whitworth Art Gallery
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M15 6ER
Tel: 0161 275 7485
e-mail: [email protected]
South East England Representative
Veronica Issac
Curatorial Assistant
Department of Theatre and Performance
Victoria & Albert Museum
South Kensington
London SW7 2RL
e-mail: [email protected]
Membership queries to
Caroline Whitehead
Email: [email protected]
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Wales and West England Representative
Paula Martin
Email: [email protected]
House & Collections Manager
National Trust
Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage
Museum
Tel: 01271 851129
North of England Representative
Caroline Whitehead
Email: [email protected]
Central England Representative
Althea Mackenzie
Hereford Heritage Services
Museum Learning and Resource Centre
58 Friar Street
Hereford HR4 0AS
Tel: 01432 383033
Email: [email protected];
[email protected];
Scotland Representative
Rebecca Quinton
Curator, European Costume and Textiles
Glasgow Museums
Burrell Collection
2060 Pollokshaws Road
Glasgow G43 1AT
Tel: 0141 287 2571 (Wednesday - Friday)
Email: [email protected]
Ireland Representative
Valerie Wilson
Curator (Textiles),
Ulster Folk and Transport Museum,
Cultra
Holywood
Co. Down BT18 0EU
Tel: 028 9039 5167
Email: [email protected]
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Conference Papers 2012
The theme of the DATS Autumn Conference 2012 was Practical Partnerships: Getting the
most out of creative collaborations. It was held at the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.
A Collaborative PhD Project - Fashion for the High Street: The design and
making of menswear in Leeds 1945-1980, a synopsis Natalie Raw, Costume and
Textiles Curator, Leeds Museums and Galleries and Danielle Sprecher, PhD Research Student
Natalie Raw introduced the collaborative PhD project which was developed with Katrina
Honeyman from the University of Leeds. The project was designed to build on the strengths
of the Leeds Museums and Galleries collections relating to Leeds clothing production –
men’s tailoring in the post-World War II period – and Katrina’s extensive research into the
tailoring industry.
The Hepworths Centenary Fashion Show, 1964
Exploring aspects of research undertaken for the PhD project, Danielle Sprecher’s paper
focused on the celebration of the centenary of the Leeds multiple tailor, Joseph Hepworth &
Son in 1964. The feature of the commemoration was a lavish fashion show orchestrated by
the couturier Hardy Amies which presented Hepworth’s as a company with a rich past and a
fashionable present and future. Research drew on the collections of Leeds Museums and
Galleries including suits, company publications and photographs alongside press coverage of
the centenary fashion show. The paper argued that this event showcases important issues in
the history of fashion and masculinity by highlighting Hepworth’s innovative adoption of
feminine rituals of fashion promotion such as the fashion show; the rise of the fashion
designer in the provision of fashionable clothing to a mass consumer market; and the
complexity of men’s gendered relationship with fashion.
____
My Mill: My Heritage, Margaret Chalmers, ULITA
This project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), ran for a period of two years and
built on relationships and collaborations forged in a previous project between the University
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of Leeds International Textiles Archive (ULITA) and Education Leeds, South Leeds City
Learning Centre (SLCLC), schools and community groups.
“My Mill: My Heritage” involved seventy four participants from two high schools, one
special educational needs school, an Asian ladies’ group, and a group of ladies with visual
impairment. The groups were supported by a staff of nine, drawn from SLCLC and ULITA,
and a specialist industry tutor, a support mentor, and five volunteers from the Access
Academy of the University of Leeds. Further support was given by the owners and staff of
the manufacturing mill, and officers and staff of the Museums, Schools and groups involved.
The project had seven phases:







The introduction of the project and the mill visit phase to research ideas, record visual
images and interviews, and to learn about the history of the mill and the surrounding area
The workshop phase where participants’ ideas were developed using various media.
The production phase where video diaries were edited, and final designs agreed and the
work carried out to produce the wall hangings.
The travelling exhibition phase where the hangings and video diaries were on view to the
public in various locations.
The return phase where the hangings were returned to their creators.
The resources phase where a pack for teachers, DVD, and web content were produced.
Evaluation.
The presentation described the project, its organisation, and highlighted some of the
difficulties encountered in the collaboration, and emphasised the many positive outcomes
and benefits for those who took part.
The groups were made fully aware from the outset of the range of the project and the
expected commitment and outcomes – a textile wall hanging, sketch- and sample books,
and a video diary. Discussions with each group highlighted availability, transport, and varied
practical difficulties, which were addressed in consultation with them, and amendments
made to the workshop schedules. Two schools withdrew as they felt it was not possible to
commit further.
During the project, the groups became more cohesive; the ladies discovered several of them
had worked in mills, while other ladies’ parents had come to the area as immigrants, and
found work in the mills. Recollections and reminiscences were exchanged, and some
recorded.
The school students discovered how to discuss, plan to a deadline, and negotiate the design
and manufacture of their wall hanging with their colleagues, rather than playing solitary
computer games. They also enjoyed learning some of the crafts they had seen “at granny’s”,
and started talking about the project at home. The school students were amazed at the
noise in the mill, the working conditions, and the small houses for the mill workers.
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Some of the schools took the opportunity to upskill teachers not directly involved in the
project, because of the students’ enthusiasm.
The younger participants were IT users, while the ladies were more familiar with traditional
craft skills, both by hand and machine. The project gave both groups access to, and
instruction in, an alternative skill set, in addition to photography techniques, image editing,
and video and sound track production. The visually impaired ladies also found new ways of
enjoying crafts they had given up on, because of loss of sight, and felt “useful” and “were
working together towards an end result, not just filling in time making things”.
Access Academy students provided valuable assistance during the workshops and visits.
They benefitted by working with different ages and abilities, learned new skills, and added
to their CVs.
The project also allowed the participants access to specialist mentors, equipment, such as
the high tech media editing suite at SLCLC, and to places they might otherwise not access,
or be likely to visit. The University of Leeds, the mills and museums all benefited from an
increased footfall both by the groups, and by members of the public, friends and family
visiting the travelling exhibition.
There was an educational impact; website links and teacher packs were created, and the
mill and museum staff answered a veritable barrage of questions!
Timetabling was a difficulty, and ideal solutions were sometimes hard to find for a variety of
reasons.
Longer workshop sessions would have been beneficial also.
We would also have liked to arrange more dialogue between the groups to compare their
experiences, but this was not possible. The young students could have learned at first hand
from some of the ladies just how tough life was in the mills, both for women and for
children of their age.
As can be seen, there were many positive outcomes for all the collaborators; structured
planning allowed the groups to research history local to their area, learn many new skills,
and produce a valuable heritage legacy for others to enjoy.
_____
Notes on the West Yorkshire Textile Heritage Project, Katina Bill, Kirklees Museums
and Galleries
Define
7
West Yorkshire Textile Heritage Project put together by Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and
Wakefield Museums and Gallery services. A grant of approx £73,000 from the Esmee
Fairburn Collections Trust through the Museums Association, was awarded last December.
The project context.background : WY and its textile heritage.
West Yorkshire made up of Kirklees, Calderdale, Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds.
Textile production in the region is hugely important historically and still has a significant
economic presence and impact.
As any O level history student knows, it has a highly suitable environment for textile
production:
 Hilly
 fast flowing streams
 soft water
 sheep
 coal
 millstone grit
Wool production active since the 1300s. showed growth from the 1500s and by the C18th
there was a substantial cottage industry.
The industrial revolution of the early C19th saw production moved to large factories,
followed by the development of towns and cities, along with the rise of supporting and
related industries and economies
 distribution
 engineering
 chemical industries
 clothing manufacture
 shoddy industry recycling woollen rags
This had a substantial impact on the built environment, the economy and the character of
Yorkshire people and much of this is still apparent today. Towns such as Huddersfield only
exist because of the textile industry and they are full of large mill buildings, (Dean Clough,
Salts Mill). Some of these are still working mills, some have been converted to other
purposes, such as arts, retail and residential, but some are abandoned and at risk.
The countryside also reflects the industry’s presence, with pack horse trails, weavers
cottages, the remains of scribbling and fulling mills and even in the road and field names.
The contemporary economy and culture are coloured by the textile industry. There are
many craftspeople, artists and makers working in cloth. The local colleges and universities
have a strong history of training in textiles and continue to teach weaving, printing and
design and they produce award winning textile students. The industry is still active with
8
some major factories still operating, as well as trade organisations like the Bradford Textile
Society and the Clothworkers Company.
The local museums of course have substantial collections of pattern books, machinery and
other material. This is supplemented by independent museums, archives services,
universities collections and company archives.
But for the visitor or researcher, or indeed the local resident, can be confusing.
There are textile galleries at some of the museums, but they only show the tip of the iceberg
collections wise. Pattern books and samples not easy to display. And it is hard to make
connections between sample/pattern books and, say, rural.
Project Aims
To improve access to WY textile heritage and to raise the profile of textile heritage in WY. Its
aimed at locals, tourists, researchers and enthusiasts.
Documentation work and collection reviews at each partner service plus a review of
regional collections in general to gain a better sense of what we have and the broader
context, and to identify gaps.
Creation of some kind of single IT gateway for access that will provide an historical
overview, present collection highlights, which will include other collections, such as at
independent museums and provide links to fuller listings where they exist and sources of
further info.
Create some kind of textiles trail, hosted by Welcome to Yorkshire, which will promote our
museums, and feature other textile related sites, such as museums, working mills,
converted visitor centres, notable architectural sites, and at risk sites. It is hoped to build
active business partnerships and get sponsorship. Welcome to Yorkshire have a great deal
of experience and success in this area
Online trail will be supported by leaflets for walks and trails which will explain the
important features of what can been seen whether it’s a pack horse bridge, a weaver’s
cottage or a tenter field. There is also the possibility of some kind of in the field
interpretation. Expect to work with local walking groups on these.
development of sustainable links and partnership working between museums, the textile
industry and textile enthusiasts.
Partnership working
Partnerships are fundamental to the project. The four board members are working with
Welcome to Yorkshire and English Heritage. The project also aims to form sustainable
working partnerships with educational, commercial and independent heritage
organisations.
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The Board Partnership didn’t come out of the blue. All the 4 museum have had some kind of
working relationship. They are adjacent authorities and are aware of each other’s
collections and services and all have had contact before.
But there have been problems. Everything has moved more slowly. Just getting four busy
people across 4 organisations to meet together not easy. There is no one boss, no-one is in
charge. Everyone hopes someone else will do stuff. Everything happens by consensus, and
no-one makes a decision without consulting the others. Each organisation has less sense of
ownership or is clear that everything it is for their benefit. Each is less aware of the
pressures that other members have and fear they are putting time to someone else’s
project.
Employing staff as a Partnership
The bulk of the grant funding is to bring in additional staff, who are working for the board as
a whole. This presents a whole new set of problems.
Initially planned to appoint a contractor to deliver the project. They would carry risks such
as sickness absence, could work from home or their own office, rather than taking up space
at one of our sites, they would provide their own equipment for use across services, they
would deal with any issues of travelling between sites.
But it was an unusual contract and it was not possible to appoint a contractor. It was
decided instead to appoint a project manager and a project assistant, with Calderdale acting
as the lead organisation to employ them.
It is important to ensure that that is parity of input and output - that all partners get an
equal share of collections work and they all contribute in a fair way. Communication and
file sharing is another issue. The two new employees may need a login and email account
with each service.
Where will the project manager be based when engaged on project-wide work? They will
have to be at one of the sites but the others may resent this, and they will need to access
information from all services, wherever they are working.
Sustainability post project may be a problem, particularly the question of who will maintain
the website, on site interpretation, etc.
Benefits
But despite all these issues, the benefits will outweigh the problems: partners will provide
access to a wider range of skills: i.e., Welcome to Yorkshire’s business partnerships, local
knowledge of walking groups. Each member’s collections will be set in a wider context that
10
gives a fuller understanding of their significance. The inclusion of active industries, retail
outlets, craft groups and makers will show that textiles are not just history, but something
alive, vibrant and relevant to today.
____
Creativity and Confinement: Narrating the HMP Wandsworth Quilt, Sue
Prichard, Curator, Furniture, Textiles & Fashion Victoria & Albert Museum & Lead Curator
Quilts 1700-2010
Quilt making is perhaps the most accessible of all domestic crafts – and one which is
inextricably linked with a female narrative. Of course, over the centuries men have been
involved in the design and making of quilts, yet the process of making, whether in
professional workshops or in the home, are rarely recorded in diaries or letters. Often quilts
are passed down through generations undocumented, although some are accompanied by
oral histories and personal narratives; over the years the names and dates become confused
and stories embellished. Yet the potency of the voice from the past is sometimes more
powerful than the evidence revealed by close examination of the textiles used by the
makers.
In 2010, the Victoria & Albert Museum held a major exhibition of British patchwork and
quilts ‘Quilts 1700-2010’. Subtitled ‘Hidden Histories, Untold Stories’, the exhibition sought
to navigate a path through the myths and misconceptions surrounding quilt making, and
showcased quilts as complex objects, which resonate with multi layered references open to
numerous interpretations. Exploring over 300 years of British quilt making, the exhibition
drew on the Museum’s unique holdings of historic quilts and bed covers and included new
work from contemporary artists and practitioners
Drawing on the strengths of the historic collection, the exhibition focused on five thematic
sections, arranged chronologically but with contemporary work embedded with each
section, thus inviting a dialogue between the past and the present. The last section of the
exhibition ‘Memory and Memorial’ explored the ability of everyday objects to communicate
highly personal messages and memories. A key element of this section was the link
between creativity and confinement, and included loans from other museums including ‘The
Changi Girl Guide Coverlet’ (1943) from the Imperial War Museum and ‘The HMS Rajah
Quilt’ (1841) from the National Gallery of Australia. This section also included a new
commission made in collaboration with the charity Fine Cell Work and the men of HM
Prison Wandsworth, which drew parallels ‘The Rajah Quilt’ and with the prison reformer
Elizabeth Fry’s assertion that needlework can be used as a tool for the rehabilitation of
prisoners.
‘Formerly, patchwork occupied much of the time of the women confined to Newgate, as it
still does that of the female convicts on the voyage to New South Wales. It is an exceptional
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mode of employing the women, if no other work can be procured for them, and is useful as a
means of teaching them the art of sewing.’
The British Ladies’ Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners (formed 1820) supplied
the sewing materials required to make ‘The Rajah Quilt’, the only known transportation
quilt in a public collection, stitched by some of the 180 women on board HMS Rajah, which
set sail from Woolwich for Van Dieman’s land in 1841. Constructed from 2,815 pieces of
fabric, the quilt is inscribed in silk thread:
TO THE LADIES
OF THE
Convict Ship Committee
This quilt worked by the convicts
Of the ship Rajah during their voyage
To Van Dieman’s Land is presented as a
Testimony of the gratitude with which
They remember their exertions for their
Welfare while in England and during
Their passage and also as a proof that
They have not neglected the Ladies
Kind admonitions of being industrious
June 1841
Fine Cell Work provides materials and volunteers to enable prisoners to learn and practice
embroidery in their cells. The resulting cushions, quilts, rugs and tapestries are of the
highest quality and include designs by Celia Birtwell, Nina Campbell, Allegra Hicks, Jasper
Conran, Melissa Wyndham and Cath Kidson. Prisoners are allowed to keep some of the
proceeds, to spend inside or save until they have completed their sentence. In 2008, more
than 400 jailed stitchers, 80 per cent of them male, earned a total of £61,890 through Fine
Cell Work, which operates in 26 British prisons. For many the true value of the charity lies
not in the money earned, but in the therapeutic effects gained from the hand and eye coordination.
In 1960 the prison reformer Lady Anne Tree, whose late husband was Director of the
interior design company Colefax and Fowler, encouraged a group of women serving life
sentences in Holloway Prison to make two large needlepoint rugs – the idea that prisoners
might spend their time making something useful, beneficial and attractive took root, and
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Fine Cell Work became a registered charity in 1995. Currently, over fifty volunteer
instructors, many of whom are members of the Embroiderers’ Guild, or graduates of the
Royal School of Needlework, train prisoners in a variety of sewing techniques. This level of
expertise, the commitment of many of the (mostly female) volunteers and the ethos of the
charity’s philanthropic work formed the basis of the collaboration between the inmates of
HMP Wandsworth, Fine Cell Work and the V&A.
A prison population is one of the most diverse communities you are likely to encounter,
some inmates were highly articulate, well read and with the occasional Phd. Otherwise
possessed a ready knowledge and wit yet confided that they were unable to read or write.
Some had never set foot in a museum; others had never heard of the V&A and were unable
to grasp the concept of an exhibition of something as mundane as quilts. Initially the
project focused on building trust – both with prisoners and volunteers – and communicating
the curatorial vision of the exhibition. On one occasion, permission was required from the
prison authorities to take in a historic quilt from the V&A’s permanent collection for a
teaching session. A number of subsequent afternoons were devoted to powerpoint
presentations of quilts included in the exhibition, including the HMS Rajah Quilt.
Frustratingly, it seemed impossible to generate a design for the planned quilt, despite
inspiration from such extraordinary examples as the ‘Ann West Coverlet’ (T.23-2007) and
‘George III Reviewing the Troops’ (T.9-1962). After much deliberation and debate, one
prisoner suggested a design based on the panopticon layout of HMP Wandsworth itself,
originally conceived by the eighteenth century social reformer Jeremy Bentham.
Unfortunately, the design was seized from the individual’s cell and confiscated as an
intended plan of escape before being returned to the safe keeping of the Fine Cell
volunteers. In addition to providing an unique and apt starting point for the project, the
central ‘hub’ of the converging wings of the panopticon was hextagonal, the traditional
template of the popular 19th century British patchwork pattern ‘Grandmother’s Garden’.
The project was not without its challenges, some were concerned that ‘lifers’ or those
serving long term sentences were too institutionalised and incapable of undertaking such a
creative initiative. Retaining a suitable group of stitchers was also problematic;
Wandsworth is a remand prison, and as such long term inmates are often moved from one
institution to another to accommodate prisoners who need to be kept close to the court at
which they will be tried. Despite such movement (over 60 men contributed to the quilt,
with only one seeing the project through from start to finish), a workable team was
established.
Surprisingly, few problems arose after the initial slow start however five patches went
missing when the man who was stitching the kantha work on them was deported
unexpectedly and at short notice. Luckily the volunteers had taken photographs of all the
designs and were able to recreate them with another prisoner. Initially the patches were
created from officers’ uniform fabric, however this made the overall design too dark and
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calico was substituted instead. It quickly became apparent that there were too many
hexagonals for the intended quilt and a selection committee was formed, consisting of two
volunteers, three prisoners, and the curatorial team (Sue Prichard and Claire Smith).
Contributors to the quilt were adamant that they wanted not only the best examples of
their sewing skills but also images and text that most accurately reflected their lives. One
hexagon was embroidered with the figure of a prisoner kneeling with his hands shackled
behind his back. This was immediately discarded with the comment ‘Wandsworth is not
Guantanamo Bay’. Accepted patches included a caged bird, an intricately worked fingerprint surrounded by DNA, a crush of bodies and a pair of Nike trainers – reflecting the fact
that shoes are the one item of clothing the men can choose, and Nike is a much prized
commodity. Some had no images, only text ‘I will go home’, ‘I didn’t do it Guv! Honest!’ A
patch reflecting the large number of ex-servicemen, ill equipped to deal with civilian life,
and currently serving time in prison was initially rejected as not communicating the issue
effectively. The beautifully stitched spitfire airplane was replaced by a stark yet powerful
text based patch ‘A New Home for Hero’s’. Additional patches were cut from prison
sheeting and used to join the hexagons, when this ran out one volunteer raided her
husband’s wardrobe for suiting fabric.
Once the selection of patches had been finalised, inmates and volunteers came together in
a traditional ‘sewing bee’, stitching together the various component parts. During the
process, the Fine Cell Work project manager interviewed the men and recorded their
thoughts about prison life generally and what the project meant to them. These comments
were précised to one paragraph and stitched onto the background fabric. It reads:
The Wandsworth Quilt, commissioned by the V&A, is the work of many hands
It has given us the opportunity to discover our creativity
This work not only gave us great pride but also purpose while we are serving our time
We used our surroundings and feelings to come up with the ideas for the patches that go to
make up the quilt
The stitching has kept us busy and has given us confidence, friendship and a sense of
achievement
Because people supported us, we have supported others.
Finally, the reverse of the quilt featured a screen printed image of the prison entrance,
painted by an inmate with the logo ‘Hand made in prison’. The quilt was finally delivered to
the V&A in December 2009 by a core group of Fine Cell Work volunteers and handed over to
the curatorial team, with members of the Friends of the V&A in attendance.
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The ‘HMP Wandsworth Quilt’ took over two and a half years to complete and was
subsequently acquired by the V&A’s Furniture, Textile and Fashion Department for the
permanent collection, through the generosity of the Friends of the V&A, who also
sponsored ‘Quilts 1700-2010. Accompanied by a short documentary which gave a voice to
some of the men who worked on the quilt in their cells, the quilt proved to be one of the
highlights of the exhibition. The final word should perhaps belong to the inmate who was
responsible for the final design of the quilt. ‘I’m guilty of a crime, and its right that I’m here
… But I’d like people to know that there’s more to me than that.’
HMP Wandsworth Quilt and volunteers
Image courtesy of the V&A Museum
Further reading:
Prichard, S. Creativity and Confinement in: Prichard, S (ed) Quilts 1700-2010: Hidden Histories,
Untold Stories (London 2010)
Prichard, S. ‘Tis the season …..’ Quilts 1700-2010 Hidden Histories Untold Stories 2009 – 10
Curatorial Blog http://www.vam.ac.uk/b/blog/quilts-hidden-histories-untold-stories/tis-season
Smith, C. Doing Time: Patchwork as a tool of social rehabilitation in British prisons. V&A On-line
Journal, Issue No 1, Autumn 2008 http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue01/doing-time-patchwork-as-a-tool-of-social-rehabilitiation-in-british-prisons/
Websites
http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/
http://nga.gov.au/rajahquilt/
_____
The conservation of archaeological fragments from the Sudan: a collaborative
project between the British Museum and University of Glasgow, Anna Harrison,
Senior Organic Artefacts Conservator, British Museum and Sarah Foskett, Conservation
Tutor, University of Glasgow
Careful planning over several months prepared the way for a collaborative project in which
MPhil textile conservation students from the University of Glasgow were given the
opportunity to conserve archaeological textile fragments from the British Museum
collection. The fragments, from the island of Kulubnarti in Northern Sudan, date from the
seventh to ninth centuries AD and include pieces of clothing, cord and braid. This paper will
outline the challenges of setting up the project and describe the textiles themselves. It will
15
then briefly outline the structure of the MPhil Textile Conservation programme, and discuss
how this project has been shaped to meet its requirements.
The whole collection, which includes wood, leather, basketry and over 200 textiles, was
excavated from two Nubian cemetery sites in Kulubnarti, with the aim of “obtaining cultural
information about Christian Nubian burial practices”. The excavations were undertaken in
the 1960s and 1970s by William Y. and Nettie K. Adams and the objects were donated to
the British Museum in 2005 by the W. S. Webb Museum of Anthropology, University of
Kentucky. The textiles were documented in some detail by Nettie Adams, working with
Elisabeth Crowfoot, and this work was published in 1999 in the series by the Sudan
Archaeological Research Society on Kulubnarti (Adams et al.1999).
A small number of the textiles have already been conserved for temporary display at the
British Museum. These include some fairly complete garments such as a finely woven loincloth made from wool, which was woven to shape. The shorter end is decorated with rows
of twining and a fringe that would have hung down the front when worn. There are also
three mats, made from human hair spun in an s-twist. These had been used to wrap the
deceased, although worn areas and darned repairs made in a mixture of goat and human
hair show that they were used for other purposes prior to burial. Another fragment of a bag
made from goat hair is decorated with fringing wrapped at intervals with blue, green, red,
yellow and purple wool; and a fragment of a rug (Fig. 1) is made from goat hair, sheep wool
and camel wool, with a woven pattern of triangles and lines in different shades of brown
and red. The textiles are evidence of a resourceful society, which wasted little and made
good use of the materials available to them. Spindle whorls, needles and shuttles, also
found, show that many of the textiles would have been locally made.
Fig. 1. Fragment of a rug from Kulubnarti
Part of the collection consists of much smaller textile
fragments, which are the subject of this collaboration.
These were either part of the wrappings from around the
bodies, or cords that held the wrappings in position. They
vary widely in technique, colour, construction and
condition (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Photomicrograph showing a detail of a fragment
composed of two different fabric types with a plied
stitching thread
There are seams, original repair stitching, selvedges, and both natural and dyed colours
present. The fragments are usually wool, in a plain weave, often weft-faced, although
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cotton has also been used for warps or as part of the cord structures. The cord or bindings
are often a mixture of human hair and wool and vary considerably in thickness, composition
and structure.
As received in the boxes in which they were donated, the textile fragments could not be
safely handled or closely examined (Fig. 3). They were soiled with particulate dirt and
staining from the grave environment and crumpled, so that it was not possible to see the
shape and size of each piece. Given current demands on conservation resources at the
British Museum, these fragments were unlikely to be conserved in the near future and were
thus likely to remain in storage. Curatorial and conservation staff at the British Museum saw
the opportunity for them to be made available to students: the process of examination,
documentation and conservation would provide an excellent training opportunity and
treatment of the fragments would be beneficial for their long term preservation and
accessibility for study. The challenge for the students would be to propose and carry out
appropriate treatments, taking into consideration ethical, practical and contextual issues.
Thus, the collaboration with Glasgow University was pursued.
Fig. 3. Textile fragment, (EA78874) before conservation
During the initial planning stages of the project, the legal and practical aspects raised by the
transfer and subsequent conservation of registered objects by another institution had to be
addressed. As this specific project differs in many ways from loans for museum display,
which are dealt with routinely at the Museum, it was necessary to draw up a document
from first principles, the content of which was agreed by both institutions. The document
covers security and storage, packing and transportation, insurance, division of costs,
photography and publication issues, and the details of the agreed conservation work. It
covers all aspects of the project and therefore also serves as an indicator of the aims and
objectives which will be used to evaluate and measure its success. This will inform
amendments and improvements to both the project and the agreement as the collaboration
progresses. The document covers in much detail the specifics of the conservation work
required by the Museum and issues that might be raised by this. This includes the format
and extent of documentation and technical analysis required, sampling and protocols for
the presence of human remains (British Museum, 2010), how far to take cleaning and
humidification in order to facilitate understanding of the pieces, and requirements for
future storage and accessibility. Whilst the project presents students with a great
opportunity to gain hands-on experience of previously untreated archaeological textiles, this
needs to be supported by clear guidance from the Museum regarding the extent and nature
of the treatment required.
17
In order to introduce the students to the project, Anna Harrison spent a day at Glasgow
University, to discuss conservation at the Museum and the process of decision making in the
treatment of objects. One important aspect of this visit was to set the students’ work within
the wider context of the work of the Museum, with reference to a number of other
collections that had recently been conserved and prepared for improved storage. These
showed how slightly different approaches had been required to meet the particular and
sometimes unique circumstances of different collections. Examples included material from
waterlogged prehistoric Swiss Lake dwellings, dated to c.4000 to 500 BC. The nineteenth
century mounts in which they were originally packed are now considered to be an integral
part of their history, so these were retained and repacked safely in Plastazote recesses.
However, this approach becomes slightly more problematic when the mounts are broken or
failing and therefore putting the textile at risk of further damage. An example of this comes
from the Sutton Hoo burial textiles. These fragments, mainly wool, come from the early
seventh century ship burial. It was decided to remove these from their mid-twentieth
century glass mounts, which had largely failed and were putting the textiles at risk. The
fragments have now been laid on padded boards or placed in suitable recesses inside
stackable polypropylene boxes. Another current project has involved conservators,
conservation mounters and collections care staff devising a mounting system to allow safe
access to the Andean textile collection. Many of the textiles are extremely fragile and
fragmentary and so a standardised stackable card folder has been developed to allow access
to both sides without touching the textiles themselves.
In this context of the wider work of the Museum, Glasgow students had the opportunity to
ask about the specific issues that are likely to arise whilst conserving the Kulubnarti
fragments. An important part of the collaboration is the continuing link between the
University and the Museum, and the students will be able to have contact both with Anna
Harrison regarding conservation issues and Julie Anderson (the curator in the Department of
Ancient Egypt and Sudan responsible for these textiles) on any curatorial questions that
arise. Thorough planning was equally important from the University of Glasgow’s training
perspective. Early in the project Sarah Foskett visited the British Museum to meet Julie
Anderson and plan the project in detail. It was essential that Sarah had the opportunity to
gain an insight into the scope of the project and to see the textiles themselves at that stage
of the planning. This proved stimulating and productive as there was time to begin choosing
some of the textiles, selecting and discussing which are appropriate to the students’
experience and ability at that stage in their training.
The MPhil Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow is a two-year professional
education programme in the care and conservation of textile artefacts. It is the successor to
the MA Textile Conservation offered by the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) at the
University of Southampton and before that Hampton Court Palace. The programme aims to
give graduates a strong foundation on which to build throughout their careers. This includes
four separate elements: firstly, the development of manual skills and core techniques;
secondly, an understanding of the science underpinning interventive and preventive
treatments; and thirdly, an understanding of the world in which conservators operate,
including the ethical basis of conservation. These come together to form the basis of the
fourth element, the development of judgement and decision-making skills, the driver of all
conservation activity (Lennard, 2012). This is achieved through 12 core courses, three in
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each semester, an integral work placement at the end of the first year and a dissertation,
submitted at the end of the second academic year. The courses are designed to be both
complementary, synergistic and to promote ‘informed decision making’: the underlying
philosophy of the programme. The programme currently has a maximum of eight students
in each year with a diverse range of backgrounds, nationalities and experience.
Each semester has a ‘Principles and Practice’ course that over the two years teaches the
fundamental techniques of textile conservation, from core skills and ethics to advanced
projects.
The collaboration with the British Museum to treat the Sudanese archaeological textiles fits
well within the first year of this course, complementing the existing projects and adding new
dimensions to the intended learning outcomes. There is also scope for the project to
present other valuable opportunities: for example for pairs or groups of students to work on
larger pieces, and for more complex pieces to be researched and conserved by second year
students. Furthermore it is hoped that the relationship with the curator and the museum
will be strengthened through visits and discussion, and that a project blog might be
developed.
For students, there are a number of learning outcomes expected from the project:
(1) To gain more experience of object documentation. In this project the role of the
documentation is very important. After excavation, extensive and detailed technical
analysis had already been undertaken by Nettie Adams, from which the students will
be able to learn. Where information is revealed through the conservation treatment
they will be able to add this to the existing records. They will also be required by the
British Museum to ensure that the documentation conforms to its style and
standard, and is a useful and usable record of the object and its treatment.
(2) To develop awareness and skill in the handling and examination of brittle and
fragmentary textiles.
(3) To consolidate and expand their practical skills through object treatment. One of the
most important skills for a conservator to learn is judgement. Gaining experience of
the particular skills required to undertake these treatments on archaeological
textiles will be invaluable to the development of judgement, specifically in:
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the extent and choice of technique for surface cleaning
developing suitable methods of humidification and gaining a practical understanding
of the moisture response of archaeological textiles
appropriate methods of support and storage (Fig. 4).
19
Fig. 4. Textile fragment (EA78874), after conservation
in its new storage box
Although the brief will set the parameters for the project, each object still needs to be
considered individually and a treatment strategy agreed. The students can gain much from
individual discussions but also learn from their peers through information sharing and group
discussions about issues and approaches.
Underpinning both the documentation and the treatment will be the ethical decisions
inherent in the project. This is one of the most important and challenging aspects of the
project, requiring the students to consider issues such as:
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What is the evidential value of the soiling and creasing?
How does condition influence the accessibility of objects – both in terms of their
physical accessibility and their interpretation?
What is the importance of the hand written labelling as evidence of object
biography?
What impact does the presence of traces of human remains, such as skin, have on
the way objects are treated?
These are all issues that are discussed many times throughout the course. The value of the
project is to give them a real, archaeological object focus and to be able to consider them
within the ethical framework of the British Museum, with the input and guidance of an
experienced curator and conservator.
On many levels this is a new venture for both institutions and as such brings opportunities
and challenges. The principal challenge is ensuring that all aspects of the project are
explicitly expressed in the brief and to make sure that they are addressed as the
collaboration progresses. The wide range of issues that need to be detailed makes this a
complex and time-consuming task. The principal opportunity is to establish a mutually
beneficial collaboration, which has the potential to develop and grow into the long term. As
well as gaining crucial theoretical and practical experience of archaeological textiles,
students have the opportunity to get an insight into the motivations and working methods
of a large institution. And for the British Museum this is a great opportunity to have some
fascinating textiles conserved that might otherwise remain untreated; to add to existing
knowledge about their collection; to gain experience in teaching and the organisation of
such a project; and to maintain valuable links with colleagues at Glasgow University.
References
ADAMS, W. Y., ADAMS, N. K., VAN GERVEN, D. P. & GREENE, D. L. 1999. Kulubnarti III The
Cemeteries, London, Sudan Archaeological Research Society.
20
BRITISH MUSEUM. British Museum Policy on Human Remains, [Online]. Available:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/British-Museum-Human-Remains_August-2010.pdf [Accessed
13/03/13].
LENNARD, F. 2012. Textile Conservation Education in the UK. “exCHange for a challenge” in Higher
Education for Restoration, Conservation and Risk Management of Works of Art, a cooperation
project between Turkey and EU within the CSDII Programme March 1-3 , 2012, Kocaeli, Turkey
[Online]. Available: http://exchange.kumid.net/conference.html#top [Accessed 13/03/13].
_____
Creating Opportunities for working with textile artists, Veronica Main, Significant
Collections Curator, Luton Culture – Museums
Luton Culture is a charitable trust that maintains Libraries, Arts and Museums on behalf of
Luton Borough Council. We have two museums: Stockwood Discovery Centre and Wardown
Park Museum. Working as a Cultural Trust provides opportunities for staging textile
interventions in a range of unconventional and challenging spaces. These opportunities
stretch a curator’s traditional skills and encourage the development of new approaches.
Our approach
Like many medium-size museums we face tough financial realities whilst striving to
continually deliver high standards. We do not have large exhibition budgets although we do
occasionally book touring exhibition. We endeavour to develop creative ways of filling
spaces with displays that will:
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Increase visitor numbers
Increase our visibility within the arts/craft world
Surprise and challenge concepts
We have limited display spaces. I use conventional display cases, when they are available,
for commissioned displays that will fit the space. For larger objects I locate unconventional
spaces within galleries where the objects can be on open display. When open display was
first suggested staff feared that there would be security issues, particularly since we were
not able to increase invigilation in those areas. We have been delighted to find that despite
our high visitor numbers (Stockwood Discovery Centre around 210,000 a year, including a
high proportion of children and 60,000 at Wardown Park Museum) nothing has been
damaged or stolen. There seems to be a respect for the contemporary work, and
appreciation that it should not be touched. In the same period permanent museum displays
and interactives have continued to be damaged.
For five years I have worked on building relationships with local textile artists, mainly
groups, but also with some individuals. Some of these collaborations have developed into
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strong relationships incorporating opportunities for associated workshops and
demonstrations. Others have been one-off affairs. Groups and individuals can find the
prospect of staging a display exciting but challenging, particularly when they realise they
have to create labels and text panels. I have developed a very simple formatted approach
which can be sufficiently varied within its presentation to appear fresh for each new display.
The textile artists are able to cope with its requirements and its impact on my work time is
minimal. Most of my input involves thinking of display possibilities and seizing the
opportunities as they arise. The displays can be linked to another exhibition, or to a
permanent gallery display.
Once the theme and dates for a display have been arranged the group is given a clear
timetable leading up to the day of installation. They are supplied with examples of previous
display text panels, labelling and examples of what has appeared in our What’s On guide. I
take time to explain the need to make the text accessible, with regard to both readability
and audience understanding of their display. We also discuss carefully the type of image to
use. The time spent in the early stages minimises the work, and anxiety levels, for the
artists later on in the process.
Apart from the initial meeting only one more meeting is required before the installation day.
We look again at the display space and discuss the physical method of display. Of course
there are telephone conversations and e-mails in between the meetings but their number
and complexity vary enormously according to the group or individual’s needs
At the moment we are able to offer three display areas:
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Wardown Park Museum. Within the Threads of Life Gallery a contemporary display
space within a case. We stage three exhibitions a year each for a four month long
period.
Stockwood Discovery Centre. Outdoor spaces at within the formal gardens and on
walls. These run for six months and are more difficult to arrange as I have to work
with the gardeners and installation has to coincide with planting.
Open display in galleries on both sites. This type of display needs creative thought,
and careful consideration of Health and Safety requirements but I actually find this
the easiest option. The displays just need to fit in with the permanent galleries and
not cause disruption. These displays tend to be shorter, one or two months.
Our current partners
New Horizons Textile Group
Lace/textile groups
Individual makers
Braidmakers Society
Basketmakers
Barnfield College students
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Foreign groups and artists
As they have come to trust us and what we can do for them word about working with us has
spread and I now find it much easier to find groups and individuals.
Benefits
We are seeing increased visitor numbers and visitors from further afield who are coming
specifically to see the displays. There is a side effect of increased retail sales and use of our
cafe.
Improvements and future development
I would like to develop a better form of evaluation with targeted questions so we can better
understand the needs and wishes of these visitors.
I need to improve my record keeping by taking more and better quality photographs.
As our Cultural Trust develops we will be taking displays into other spaces such as those
within community libraries.
Taking the first steps
Find out what groups or talented textile artists you have in your area.
Have a clear and simple plan.
Build relationships with them.
Accept that not all relationships will work, or will be long term, but those that are will
reward you, and your visitors with intriguing, creative partnerships and displays.
_____
A ‘Fragment’ of Collaborations, Sarah Jane Kenyon, Exhibitions & Arts Officer,
Trowbridge Museum.
Can a Museum work collaboratively with an Artist?
How does a Museum allow an Artist access to a collection?
What are the Benefits?
To sustain the future of Museum’s and capture diverse audiences, it is vital to think
about projects that stretch beyond the realms of a Museum Institute.
Artist’s offer Museum’s an opportunity to see the collection as a resourceful
inspiration. It also provides the Museum with an opportunity to allow access to its
Archive Collection, its hidden gems!
23
Furthermore, a temporary exhibition allows an audience to share the experience of
an Artist and their journey working with a Museum.
Trowbridge Museum
Trowbridge Museum left: inside Home Mill,
right: spinning mule, 1913
Currently housed in Salter’s Home Mill and is a Grade II listed building, which was
constructed c1850. The Museum is also incorporated into The Shires Shopping Centre which
along with the Museum opened in 1990.
The Museum is the only Museum with comprehensive displays telling the unique story of
Trowbridge and its nationally significant textile history, relating to the production of West
of England woollen cloth, an industry once dominant, but now vanished.
In its heyday, Trowbridge’s success in textile production was such that it became known at
the ‘Manchester of the West’.
Cloth Road Artists
Cloth Road is a group of Artists, formed in 2004, with the purpose of
prompting visual arts and artists in Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge,
Melksham and the surrounding villages of West Wiltshire.
As part of this promotion of visual arts they organise a series of open studios and galleries
for a nine day period every other year. This provides the public with an opportunity to meet
artists, see their work, and discover the wide range of visual arts produced in this area and
take part in workshops.
Project Aims
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To work with and offer a creative space for Cloth Road Artists.
To develop successful links with Cloth Road Artists and sustain relationships where
the Museum is working in partnership with outside organisations.
To showcase a new body of work by Cloth Road Artists, during Cloth Road Arts
Week.
To raise awareness of the work of contemporary artists.
To highlight the Museum’s Archive Collection.
Exhibition involvement
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Partnerships were developed with outside organisations:
Cloth Road Artists
Heritage Open Days
Trowbridge Arts Festival
BA14 Culture
Access to the Archive Collection
Sarah Jane Kenyon left: Trowbridge Museum Archive
Store, right: drawing by Maria Harryman
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A study visit to view items from the Archive Collection was supported by the
Exhibitions & Arts Officer.
Observation of the Archive Collection and Museum Collection on display through
drawing and photography.
Maria Harryman
When I spent the day at the museum
I felt drawn to the broken ceramics. I
loved the shapes of fragments and
the snippets of pattern and colour on
each piece.
Maria Harryman, 2011
Sarah Jane Kenyon, Cloth Road Artist Maria
Harryman
The exhibition had a theme based on 3 prominent ideas
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Fragments – ceramics with snippets of pattern and colour, the stories they could tell
if they could speak.
Boxes & collecting – holding onto things, particularly from years gone by.
Fragments of cloth – patchwork and quilting, an English craft made from discarded
and recycled cloth.
Artist At Work
25
Sarah Jane Kenyon left & right: fragments from Trowbridge Museum Archive Collection

Responding to these little ‘Fragments and a patch work quilt Maria created a new
body of textile work.
‘Fragments’ - Saturday 5th May – Saturday 29th September 2012
Sarah Jane Kenyon left: fragments from Trowbridge Museum Archive Collection, right: quilt made by
Maria Harryman
What are Fragments?
Could they be the partial of something once was whole?
A glimpse into the life of what something once was?
2012 was the 2nd year of a partnership with Cloth Road Artists and Trowbridge Museum
working collaboratively.
The exhibition ‘Fragments’ was a debut solo exhibition for Maria Harryman, Trowbridgebased Cloth Road Artist. It opened to coincide with Cloth Road Arts Week 5th-13th May
2012.
Maria spent a day behind the scenes at the Museum researching the Archive Collection. She
came across boxes of broken ceramics found predominantly in the grounds of the old Rose
& Crown in Steeple Ashton (now a private residence). Responding to theses little
‘Fragments’ and a patchwork quilt, Maria took inspiration from colours & architecture of
Steeple Ashton and Trowbridge to create a new body of textile work.
The exhibition included a fantastic programme of FREE craft activities for both children and
adults. It also featured in Trowbridge Arts Festival from 14th-29th September 2012.
26
Exhibition Programme

One solo textile exhibition by Artist Maria Harryman, which also featured in Heritage
Open days from 6-9 September 2012.
A week of ‘Come along and chat to the Artist’.
Three adult craft activities themed around textiles.
Three children’s craft activities themed around the exhibition fragments.
Two craft activities took place during Trowbridge’s first Trowbridge Arts Festival.
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Budget
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The project was generously sponsored by Trowbridge Town Council and Trowbridge
Arts Festival.
Fragments
Sarah Jane Kenyon left: quilt made by Maria Harryman right: fragments from Trowbridge Museum Archive
Collection
Boxes & Collecting
Sarah Jane Kenyon left: tin from Trowbridge Museum Archive Collection, right: box made by Maria
Harryman
Quilts
Sarah Jane Kenyon left: quilt from Trowbridge Museum Archive Collection, right: quilt made by Maria
Harryman
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Craft Activities
Funky Felt Making, for ages 4+
Tiny Tiles, for ages 4+
Block Printing, for
ages 4+
Sarah Jane Kenyon / Trowbridge Museum
Press Coverage
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Collections Link.
Culture 24.
Contemporary Quilt Magazine.
Textile Society.
The Quilter.
Visit Wiltshire.
Wiltshire Times.
BBC Radio Wiltshire – Live.
Evolver.
Embroiderers’ Guild.
Museum Benefits
 Offered a venue for a Cloth Road Artist during Cloth Road Arts week.
 Showing a solo temporary exhibition ‘Fragments’, a new body of contemporary
work.
 Raised awareness of Maria Harryman Cloth Road Textile Artist.
 Delivered a series of FREE craft activities for adults and children.
 Publicity for the museum by promoting contemporary artists and heritage.
 AMA work based project for Exhibitions & Arts Officer.
 Access to the Museum's Archive Collection.
 Public access to the Museum’s Archive collection by incorporating it seamlessly into
the exhibition.
 Taking part in Heritage Open Days 2012.
 Taking part in Trowbridge Arts Festival 2012.
 Developed successful links with Cloth Road Artist, Heritage Open Days and
Trowbridge Arts Festival, creating a legacy for future partnerships at Trowbridge
Museum.
Benefits For The Artist

Friendly enthusiastic / flexible museum staff.
28
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Building up a relationship with the Exhibitions & Arts Officer – regular meetings and
supportive.
Built confidence as an artist.
5 month solo exhibition.
Developed marketing skills.
Learnt about the processes required to deliver an exhibition.
Financial support for professional marketing / opening of the exhibition.
Financial support for hanging / mounting.
Artist / Museum agreement useful for clarity of who does what.
Good experience to go on CV.
Follow on opportunities – nomination for ‘In The Spot Light’ Quilters Guild, selling
cards in the Museum shop and delivering workshops through the Museum.
Maria Harryman’s experience working with Trowbridge Museum:
Relationship built between Sarah and I was supportive. Regular meetings and
communication helped keep things on track, allowed us to bounce ideas around.
Sarah went over and above expectations to help make it happen.
Maria commented that the experience of working collaboratively with Trowbridge Museum
“has given me confidence / knowledge to work with organisations in the future.”
Maria Harryman, November 2012
Top Tips
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Museum / Artist Agreement.
Time plan.
Regular meetings with agenda's and minutes.
Listening to the Artist.
Remember the project is a partnership.
Support the artist to develop their confidence.
If you have a creative side use this to your advantage.
Up keeping the Museum's Code of Ethics.
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A Delicate Balance – Working with a designer, Alex Ward, Dress and Textile Curator,
National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History
In 2007 the National Museum of Ireland mounted an exhibition on the work of the Irish
designer Neillí Mulcahy. Neillí had run a successful couture salon in Dublin between 1951
and 1969 and made her name with her use of Irish tweeds, almost to the exclusion of other
fabrics. She catered to a home market of affluent Irish women, but also sold well to wealthy
American tourists, establishing a loyal clientele base in the US. Neillí Mulcahy retired from
29
business in the early 1970s, but an inveterate hoarder, she kept much of the material
relating to her salon in her attic at home. This paper outlines the project and looks at the
delicate balance between the expectations of the retired designer and some of the practical
realities on the ground in the museum.
Neillí Mulcahy was born in 1925 in Dublin into a politically important family. Her father,
General Richard Mulcahy, was involved in the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of
Independence, was one time commander- in-chief of the Irish Army and went on to become
a prominent politician in the independent Irish Free State government. To give some idea of
the esteem the Mulcahy family are held in, one of Neillí’s nephews recently featured in Irish
television’s version of The Secret Millionaire, and was described as being “from one of the
most illustrious families in Ireland”.
Neillí trained at the Grafton Academy of Dress Design in Dublin, staying on after graduation
to teach pattern cutting and grading for a couple of years. She then spent six months in the
Paris atelier of Jacques Heim working as a “petit main”, before establishing her own
business in Dublin in 1951. Early in Neillí’s career the acclaimed designer Elsa Schiaparelli
singled her out for an award when she was a visiting judge at the annual Fashion Parade
staged by the National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association, a valuable
showcase in Ireland for young designers.
Irish designers in the fifties and sixties adapted contemporary fashions to traditional Irish
fabrics, and their interpretations proved successful in foreign markets, particularly the US
and Germany. Like her better known Irish contemporaries, Sybil Connolly and Irene Gilbert,
Neillí Mulcahy used Irish tweeds, poplins and laces in her creations, but of the three she
came to be the designer most associated with the use of tweeds. She combined haute
couture techniques with traditional hand woven fabrics to produce practical modern
clothes. Following her first fashion show in Dublin in 1955, the influential American
magazine Women’s Wear Daily pronounced, “Neilli Mulcahy of Dublin is a name for buyer’s
notebooks”, “She has a way with tweeds that is worth watching”. In 1963 all but two of the
thirty two garments shown in her spring fashion show were of Irish tweed, and twenty
seven of them were of Donegal hand woven tweeds.
Prior to the acquisition of Neillí archive and designs by the museum, her work and career
had been the thesis topic for a Master’s degree undertaken by a mature student at Dublin’s
National College of Art and Design. It was this student, with a background in fashion herself,
who unearthed the forgotten treasure trove of material in Neillí’s attic, a collection
consisting of garments, fabrics, accessories, drawings, photographs, news cuttings, sample
cards, and correspondence with suppliers and clients.
In 2005 Neillí was persuaded to approach the museum about the possibility of donating this
material. The collection was offered on the understanding that an exhibition of Neillí’s work
would be mounted in return. The contents of Neillí’s attic were subsequently transported
30
to the museum and work began on sorting it. It was exciting to see the wide range of
material that was available, and it was immediately apparent that we would be able to
create an exhibition that didn’t just focus on the clothes but could look at other aspects of
Neillí’s work.
The collaboration was not just between the museum and the designer, but also involved the
former student who had researched and written Neillí’s story, and this aspect of the
proposed exhibition did take some working out. In the end she was employed by the
museum for a fixed period of time and helped sort and list the collection, as well as being
involved in the early stages of planning the exhibition. Her thesis research provided a wealth
of information and together we worked on themes for the text panels and supplementary
information throughout the exhibition, and for which she was credited.
When surveying the surviving garments for possible display, the main criteria was the
condition and also the relevance of each one to Neilli’s annual fashions shows. Some of the
garments that came to the museum initially were clothes that had been made for family
members and were not relevant to her fashion collections. Most of these were
subsequently returned. However Neillí was very involved in the selection process and was
able to explain why certain items were important to include. Because so many of her
designs were made with Irish tweeds, it was necessary to bring some variety into the
selection, as it could quite easily have become an exhibition of little tweed suits. The
availability of display cases dictated the amount of material we could show, and we
eventually included twenty three mannequins with garments ranging from the early 1950s
to 1969, mostly suits, coats and evening wear.
The gallery space available was an uneasy mishmash of freestanding cases of different sizes
and a false wall with built in cases, only one of which was big enough for mannequins. It
proved awkward to unify the cases, a problem overcome with partitions that were built as
backdrops for mounting information panels and large scale photographs and which helped
disguise the variety of case types. Smaller wall cases were utilised to display some of the
hats, bags and gloves that Neillí used to dress models for fashion shows and photo shoots,
as well as fabric sample cards, labels, buttons, and some of the dressmaking tools from the
salon.
©National Museum of Ireland
31
Because there was such a wealth of material in Neillí’s archive it was possible to address a
wide range of themes in the exhibition, such as her promotional trips to America, her
collaborations with individual tweed weavers, and her dealings with other suppliers.
Sourcing buttons for her garments for instance, Neillí would send small fabric samples to
Paris House in London who would dye buttons to match, and we were able to display some
of this correspondence alongside the buttons.
Other topics relating to her business were illustrated on text panels and through a series of
large booklets in the exhibition, topics such as the staging of the annual fashion show; and
the uniforms she was commissioned to design during the course of her career. (1) We also
included a panel about the models that were employed for photo shoots and fashion shows,
most of whom would have been well known faces in Ireland at the time, and included
information about what they could expect to earn for a day’s modelling. These themes,
uniforms, fabrics, models, her life as a working mum, etc. created a far more rounded view
of Neillí’s work than the clothes alone could have done. On their own the clothes would
have been a far less interesting exhibition, because although her clothes were beautifully
made, they were not particularly cutting edge.
As the curator of the exhibition I established a good working relationship with Neillí and
during her visits to the museum in the planning stages of the exhibition, I came to realise
that for her, it was as much about reminiscing about the past as it was about the nuts and
bolts of the displays. She was in her eighties at the time and this tendency to reminisce
frequently meant that meetings, although very informative, were long.
Neillí’s nascent business certainly benefitted from her family connections, with some of her
first clients coming from within her parents’ social circle, and while this was referred to in
the exhibition, we had to be careful not to over emphasize it. One of those clients was her
maternal aunt Phyllis, whose husband Sean T. O’Kelly was Irish President during the 1950s.
In 1959 she created the wardrobe worn by Phyllis during the first ever visit by an Irish Head
of State to the United States of America.
©National Museum of Ireland
The only item to have survived was an evening dress of
antique Irish crochet and olive green silk created for a
reception in the White House on the evening of St. Patrick’s
Day. Years later, the dress was adapted to be worn as a
wedding dress by one of Neillí’s daughters, with the green silk
replaced by ivory silk. Neillí was very keen the dress would be
included in the exhibition as she had designed it in 1959 and
she took it upon herself to put it back together, with the help
a couple of her former seamstresses. This reconstruction of
the dress was carried out prior to it coming into the museum,
and it was given to us shortly before the exhibition opened
along with a newly created net underskirt.
32
Neillí’s idea of museum conservation was the usual one of the layperson, confusing it with
restoration. She did suggest bringing the odd thing home again and remaking it, objects
already accessioned, and her sense of ownership did linger, an issue which had to be
handled sensitively. Some of the evening clothes showed a lot of wear and tear as they had
been worn by Neillí’s seven daughters to various parties and dances. Conservation
treatment was carried out on a number of garments and low lighting also helped. She did
visit the conservation department to see how things were progressing but rarely interfered.
While I’m sure she would have liked more garments to have been displayed Neillí
understood the limitations of the space and cases available. All texts for the information
panels were sent to Neillí to make sure they were factually correct and she did make some
minor changes. All in all there was very little friction.
While Neillí’s business was never huge, she prided herself on providing a personal bespoke
service to her clients, and resisted the move to scale up to factory production, which she
was encouraged to do by The Irish Export Board during the 1960s. Profit was never Neillí
Mulcahy’s main motivation, for her it was creating practical clothes in the beautiful Irish
fabrics she loved, providing employment, albeit on a small scale, and selling a particular
vision of Ireland. Neillí had a strong sense of nation building, unsurprising given her
nationalist background, and she believed in promoting Ireland abroad at a time when the
country was building its economic and tourist infrastructure.
While the museum has benefitted from the donation of Neillí’s archive and collection, and
the wealth of information it contains, there were problems created by receiving a large bulk
of unsorted material, and in hindsight there should have been a winnowing of the collection
prior to it coming in. We did manage to return unwanted items, particularly pieces that
were either in very poor condition or were not relevant to the fashion collections, but it did
take quite some time to sort out. Of the material that we did want to acquire, Neillí had to
consult with her seven daughters to make sure there was nothing that they wanted to keep.
There are still some parts of the collection that are listed but not fully documented.
When the exhibition opened in October 2007 it received good coverage in the Irish media
and Neillí was interviewed for the 6 o’clock television news the evening of the opening. One
result of doing a retrospective like this in a small country like Ireland is that within weeks of
the exhibition opening, there were approaches from other designers expressing a desire
that the museum do something similar for them. I have been working with another retired
designer over the last few years, a major figure in the field of Irish fashion for nearly four
decades, but the project has stalled temporarily for funding reasons. It has not been an
easy project largely because it is now very difficult for the museum to meet expectations
and honour assurances that were made prior to Ireland’s current financial crisis.
(1)
Neillí’s most important commission was in 1962 when she designed an air hostess uniform for the Irish state
airline, Aer Lingus. Of specially woven Donegal tweed, the uniforms were made to measure for each woman.
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Threads of Power: Eighteenth Century Elegance Inspires Twenty-first Century
Fashion, Martha Andrews, Curatorial Officer, Paxton House
The Paxton Trust was awarded a grant from The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation in 2011, which
was to be used to conserve and display the Georgian gentleman's costume, held at Paxton
House and also to engage visitors, in particular local young people. The collection consists of
pieces which belonged to Patrick Home, a Scottish youth in his early twenties, at the court
of Frederick the Great of Prussia and are thought to date mostly from about 1747 to 1751.
The majority of the garments are court wear, almost all coats and waistcoats, of wool or silk
but there is also a full length silk banyan, with matching waistcoat and the fancy dress
costume he wore when he took part, mounted on horseback, in the Berlin Carousel of 1750.
Some of the pieces had been conserved a decade or so ago and had been on display at
various times since then.
Some of the funding went to Heriot Watt University's department of textile and design,
based a few miles away in Galashiels, so the students could visit and create their third year
collection in response to the costume and the Georgian and Regency interiors of Paxton
House. Work from the students was selected by their tutors and the Trust's costume coordinator to feature in two exhibitions en-titled Re-Dress, alongside the Georgian pieces,
during the summer of 2012. It was possible to show the development of their ideas from
their initial reaction to the house, through to the finished garments by displaying their
sketch books and toiles. As part of the collaboration a catalogue/booklet of the student
work was published and a short fashion film was shot and formed part of the exhibition.
A variety of events held around the exhibition was aimed at engaging with the local
audience of all ages. There was a Paxton Young Designer competition all children in the
region, with the first prize winner's garment to be made up by the technicians at the
university. A young model became 'The Face of Paxton', classes in Georgian etiquette and
fashion were run, there were performances and the season ended with a costume ball
which took place in the Regency Gallery.
The legacy for the Paxton Trust was that Patrick's garments were conserved, not only to
improve their condition and preserve them for the future but also to enable more to go on
display to the public on a rotational basis, not only in the glass case but around the house.
This was aided by the purchase of several up to date mannequins. There has been a major
up-grade of the storage facility with new made to measure boxes and all the collection (not
just the Georgian pieces) re-packed, and re-organised. There will be a print on demand
publication, containing images and patterns from some of the garments, available in
Autumn 2013.
A selection of historically accurate male and female costumes were made, as a teaching
collection for the education department, so schools can understand the construction of
Georgian elegance from the corset out.
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The publicity associated with the project, television, press, social media and a short film of
the conservation work on you-tube, has raised the profile of the collection and increased
the number of inquiries from a variety of sources from students of historic fashion to
theatre designers.
The Trust now holds a collection of twenty-first century haute couture designs made by the
students as part of the agreement, for which storage space needed to be found and is
perhaps the most obvious reminder of one lesson learned from the project. Even when an
agreement is drawn up do not assume that everyone involved has read it fully or
understands it to mean the same thing.
The project brought new audiences for Paxton House and its costume collection from a wide
age range and geographical area. It has created a legacy of education materials, improved
conservation, storage and display for an important selection of garments, which is now
available for study
Acknowledgements:
Grateful thanks go to the The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for funding the project and to Maggie Dobbie for
her conservation work. The lecturers and students of Heriot Watt University for the collaborative work which
formed the basis for the exhibition, the staff and volunteers of Paxton House and many others who put
together the associated activities throughout the season.
_____
Savage Style: Clothes from Lily’s Wardrobe - A collaboration with Paul O’Grady,
Homotopia, the Walker Art Gallery and Museum of Liverpool, November 2011 –
February 2012, Pauline Rushton, Curator of Costume and Textiles, National Museums
Liverpool
Who is Lily Savage ? Lily Savage is a character developed for a comedy act by performer
and comedian Paul O’Grady. Lily is not a drag act – drag queens mime to music and imitate
female characters, while Lily speaks to and interacts with the audience. She takes her name
from an amalgamation of Paul’s own name as a gay man, and his mother’s maiden name,
Savage, and she is based on a number of strong Northern women, including his mother’s
two sisters.
Paul O’Grady first developed Lily in 1978 as a stage act at the Black Cap club in London,
where she did mime to Barbra Streisand’s song, Nobody makes a pass at me, from the
musical Pins & Needles. This was because Paul was too scared to actually speak as the
character at first. But as the character of Lily developed over time, her ‘backstory’ emerged
– Paul describes her as a single mother with a taste for shoplifting and occasional street
walking. She was initially a rough ‘tart with a heart’, an acid-tongued, hard-as-nails outsider
who appealed to a gay audience as they identified with her ‘otherness’.
35
By the early 1980s, Lily had played many gay venues, had toured Europe and been
nominated for the prestigious Perrier comedy award at the Edinburgh Festival, building up a
large fan base on the way. In 1995, Lily’s breakthrough into TV came when she became a
presenter on the Big Breakfast show, followed by guest spots on Ant & Dec, Top of the Pops
and the Liverpool-based soap Brookside. She also appeared on the London stage in Prisoner
Cell Block H : The Musical. 1997 saw the launch of her first show on BBC1, The Lily Savage
Show, which took her wardrobe in a new direction – it became more glamorous and less
‘street’. Between 1998 and 2002, Lily became more family-friendly as the hostess of game
show Blankety Blank, and her costumes became ever more extravagant and inventive.
Between 1999 and 2004, Lily’s career moved in another direction when she regularly
appeared in panto, always in the same role, as the Wicked Queen, at various theatres in
London, Birmingham and Bristol. In 2004 however, tiring somewhat of the character, Paul
O’Grady decided to retire Lily to a French convent, where she remained for the next 6 years.
In 2010 Paul surprised his fans by announcing that Lily had escaped from the convent, and
that Christmas he brought her back as Widow Twankey in Aladdin at the Mayflower
Theatre, Southampton.
Why stage an exhibition of Lily’s clothes ? In early 2010, a colleague in our Marketing
Department saw Paul O’Grady on TV talking about his collection of Lily Savage costumes.
They suggested to me that an exhibition of the costumes would appeal to multiple
audiences – LGBT, family groups, young and older visitors – because of the many different
contexts in which Lily had appeared. Indeed, not many characters have such strong crossover appeal.
Also, Lily’s Liverpool connection was very strong – Paul was born in Birkenhead in 1955 and
had already penned two very popular volumes of his autobiography by this point, recalling
his early years in the city and in London. We also realised that a display of the costumes
would fit into Liverpool’s annual Homotopia Festival, which runs throughout November
every year, and with which National Museums Liverpool has worked closely in partnership
for several years now.
Beginning the collaboration with POG and Homotopia In early 2010 NML approached Paul
O’Grady via his agent Joan Marshrons, but he was not interested initially, mainly because he
hadn’t been appearing as Lily for 6 years and, at that point, he wasn’t planning on reintroducing the character. Later that year however, while preparing to revive Lily as Widow
Twankey, Paul reconsidered and his agent contacted NML about a possible exhibition.
Negotiations then got under way.
We had a very positive relationship with Joan Marshrons from the start, she was very
helpful and facilitated all requests – it was clear that both she and Paul were going to adopt
36
a good, collaborative approach with us. We also began discussions with Gary Everett,
Homotopia’s Creative Director, about how the exhibition could be integrated into his
programme, and vice versa, and how we might cross-market the exhibition both on-line and
in the print media of both organisations.
Organising the exhibition Lily’s wardrobe consisted of several hundred costumes, wigs,
shoes and accessories kept in a South London storage facility. They’ve since been re-stored
nearer to Paul O’Grady’s home in Kent. Most of the costumes are themselves the result of a
creative collaboration between Paul and his friend, the designer and maker Martin Taylor,
whom he had originally met on the drag circuit in the 1980s. Together they developed a
whole range of outfits which explored and played around with a number of female
stereotypes. Martin refers to them as ‘industrial couture’ because they were designed to
withstand the rigors of repeated stage wear, just like panto costumes.
In October 2010 I made an initial assessment of the collection together with his agent Joan
Marshrons and NML’s Director of Exhibitions – we asked ourselves if we could we make an
exhibition from the collection ? What condition were the costumes in ? What storylines
could we develop ? How would we display them and in which of our venues ? Overall we
decided it had great potential as a show. Joan Marshrons then had all the costumes
photographed by her assistant and supplied to me on disc so that I could begin developing
themes, the content of the show, the display methods and type of mannequins required,
etc.
In March 2011, at the end of a financial year, money became available to buy the
mannequins we needed, – this amounted to a total of £10K. Paul O’Grady’s agent supplied
us with Lily’s statistics (42” bust, 32½” waist, 38” hips, and 6’ 1” tall) so that we could order
them from the maker even before we had the costumes. I decided from the beginning to
use headed mannequins, with wigs, make-up and full features, all based on Lily – they
seemed appropriate to off-set her elaborate costumes and outrageous character. For
historic dress we generally use headless mannequins so as not to distract from the
garments. We couldn’t use standard mannequins for this display as, due to the size of the
dresses, many of them with low necklines, they would require too much padding which
would be visible. I commissioned bespoke mannequins, based on commercial torsos, from
Mannequin World, Stockport, our regular supplier. At the production stage extra filler was
used to bulk out the torsos to the required size, which meant they were extremely heavy
and took three people to lift each one. Including alterations, and with wigs (made double
size for extra height) at £200 each and make-up at £100 each, the total cost of each
mannequin was £950.
We ordered seven mannequins at a total cost of £6,650, leaving sufficient in the budget of
£10K to pay for materials for underpinnings and labour costs for a freelance conservator,
Anne-Marie Hughes, to mount the garments. We also used four headless mannequins that
we already had in stock, in order to increase the number of outfits we could show.
37
I decided to locate the seven headed mannequins in the Walker Art Gallery in an area on
the first floor known as the Flat – a large, open space between galleries where we could
easily install plinths and graphics. The four headless mannequins were to be displayed in
our waterfront venue, the Museum of Liverpool, which only fully opened in July 2011, and
which has been enjoying record visitor figures ever since. The idea was that, with crossmarketing, we could entice some of the Museum of Liverpool’s visitors up to the Walker to
see the bigger version of the display.
Exhibition themes I wanted to represent all the main areas of Paul O’Grady’s career as
Lily, both on stage and on TV, while exploring the development of the character over time.
With that in mind, in September 2011 I visited the London store again and spent a day with
Paul selecting some 20 outfits, which were then transported back to Liverpool. From these, I
was able to make the final selection of11, ensuring that they fitted the completed
mannequins. The selection was very much a collaborative process, with Paul expressing his
preferences for which outfits he would like to see displayed, linked to how much he had
enjoyed wearing them (or not). It was also a useful day for me to gather anecdotal
information from Paul, some of which ended up in the exhibition interpretation. Anne
Marie Hughes then spent about 10 days mounting the costumes, using very firm body
stockings, nylon wadding and net to achieve the required shapes and curves.
We also referred to as many original images of Lily as we could in order to copy closely her
style, i.e. the correct tights, shoes, accessories and jewellery to match each outfit. Costume
jewellery alone (from local department stores and some via local Chinese importers) cost
£200 and shoes were a further £100, some of them being more difficult than others to
obtain now (e.g. white stilettos, sourced from vintage shops and on-line).
The following outfits were some of those exhibited:
Sequined skirt suit, snow leopard design, 1995 – One of Lily’s earliest outfits, worn on stage
and for one of her earliest TV appearances, a 1995 BBC poetry programme called Love Lines,
a spoof chat show during which she interviewed William Shakespeare about his views on
romance. In making the suit, Martin Taylor took inspiration from the typical power-suit of
the 1980s and early 1990s and then adapted it to incorporate Lily’s taste for animal prints
and ‘bling’ in the form of sequins. An image of Lily wearing the suit in her dressing room
backstage was acquired for use in the marketing campaign but then abandoned because she
is smoking in the photograph and it was felt that that did not sit well with NML’s healthconscious policies, (i.e. it couldn’t be used as a prominent image). This is often the type of
problem we encounter when trying to represent aspects of popular culture, especially when
they are an intrinsic part of a particular character, which may clash with museum policy. At
the end of the exhibition, Paul O’Grady very generously donated this suit to the museum, at
my request, as a means of representing the character of Lily in our collection forever.
38
Sequined lycra mini dress, 1995, and quilted Evil jacket, 2001 – Another outfit from Lily’s
early career. The dress, which was bought commercially from a cheap dress shop, was worn
many times for early stage performances and to publicise Lily’s national tour in 1995, styled
with thigh-length boots, quite a tarty image. Later, Lily sometimes teamed the dress with
the quilted rayon satin Evil jacket made by Martin Taylor, including on the Lily Live! TV show
in September 2001. The look was Martin’s take on the female dominatrix figure. I
considered styling it with boots but then decided not to as it may have proved too difficult
to actually get them on the mannequin.
Bingo-themed evening dress, 1999 - A dress worn by Lily when she starred in the first ever
national TV advertising campaign to promote bingo. The campaign aimed to encourage
more people to play bingo, at a time when it was facing major competition from the
National Lottery. Paul O’Grady specifically selected the dress for display while we were
discussing what we should include in the exhibition. However, while we were mounting it he
had second thoughts, and his agent Joan Marshrons rang to say that he wanted us to leave
it out as he didn’t think that he wanted to be associated with the game of bingo anymore –
it was a bit down-market, he felt, at a time when he was establishing himself as a chat show
host. I reminded her of Lily’s character and sent an image showing the finished outfit ready
for display, and Paul liked it so much that he changed his mind again, allowing us to go
ahead.
Leopard-print velvet devore evening dress, 2005 – Lily Savage wears all types of animal
prints but is especially associated in the popular imagination with leopardskin, just like the
British barmaid stereotype, Bet Lynch from the TV soap Coronation Street. It is a fabric type
forever linked to the ‘tart with a heart’ model and for that reason I was keen to have it
represented in the exhibition. Lily wore it for a Comic Aid benefit concert in aid at the
Carling Apollo Theatre, London, in February 2005. The show was broadcast on BBC1 and
BBC2.
Panto outfit, the Wicked Queen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1998 Lily appeared
five times in this role, at various theatres, between 1999 and 2004, but with different
costumes, including this one, made by Martin Taylor, (see front cover images). Paul O’Grady
actually had it made before his panto career took off, and it features, without the matching
headdress, in his 1998 book Lily Savage, A sort of A-Z thing. Like many in the gay
community, both Paul and Martin Taylor were influenced by the stereotype of the
glamorous Hollywood diva of the 1930s and 40s, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr,
even Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, and this dress captures the spirit of that ‘look’ for
them.
Ball gown, satin and beaded machine lace, made for Blankety Blank, May 1999 – Paul
O’Grady and Martin Taylor were also influenced by the extravagant couture designs of the
1950s, by labels such as Dior, Balmain and Dèsses, particularly their very full-skirted
creations similar to this one. The dress was made for Lily to wear for an episode of the
39
television game show Blankety Blank in May 1999. Lily hosted the show for four years, from
1998-2002, and Paul specifically asked for this dress to be included in the exhibition as it
was one of his favourites.
‘Shark Bite dress’, nylon taffeta, PVA glue and glitter, 2001 – A dress worn by Lily when she
hosted an episode of Blankety Blank in March 2001. The fabric imitates the neoprene used
for making wetsuits for divers, and the red ‘shark bites’ to the body and edges of the sleeves
and hem were made by applying PVA glue mixed with glitter and allowing it to harden. It
was a very uncomfortable dress to wear, according to Paul, being very tight with sharp
edges to the glue, which can inflict cuts if not carefully handled. As a result, Lily only wore it
once but it’s a good example of the sometimes subversive humour that Paul O’Grady and
Martin Taylor brought to their collaborative designs.
Outcomes with Homotopia Homotopia is Liverpool’s leading LGBT arts and community
organisation, now in its ninth year. Every November they hold the Homotopia Festival,
which comprises a wide range of exhibitions, events, performances, contemporary dance
and film. Homotopia is partly funded by Arts Council England and enjoys sponsorship from
Merseyside Police, Gaydar, and Liverpool Mutual Homes, among others. It works with local
youth and community groups, local schools, Liverpool City Council and Merseyside Police to
raise awareness of and counter hate crimes and bullying. National Museums Liverpool has
been working in collaboration with Homotopia since it began, to develop projects and crossmarket exhibitions and events through the social media, websites and print media of both
organisations. In recent years, these marketing strands have been developed still further by
the creation of the on-line channel, Homotopia TV.
The Lily Savage exhibition was a fully integrated part of the 2011 Homotopia programme.
Although they were not involved in the development of the exhibition content itself, we
included in the exhibition a graphic panel about them and what they do, and we were
included in their Festival brochure and on their website and Facebook pages etc. I also gave
gallery talks on the exhibition to community groups organised by Homotopia, so adding to
their outreach programme. By partnering up with Homotopia for marketing, we were able
to reach a huge LGBT audience via their own media partners. These include Gaydar (3
million readers), Gay Times Magazine (100,000), DIVA magazine (125,000 lesbian women),
OUT North West magazine (150,000, NW England), and SEEN magazine (50,000
Merseyside). In 2013 we will be staging another collaborative exhibition with them at the
Museum of Liverpool about the life of Liverpool-born Vogue model April Ashley, one the
first people to undergo, in 1960, successful gender reassignment surgery.
Completed displays, final budget costs and visitor figures Seven headed mannequins
were displayed on the first floor of the Walker Art Gallery in an area which leads to all the
other main galleries. Virtually every visitor who came to the Walker during this period would
have automatically seen this display. For the four months it was on display in this venue we
had an average of 20,000 visitors per month. At the Museum of Liverpool the costumes
40
were prominently displayed in the two window bays of the atrium, again where the vast
majority of visitors cannot help but see them as they enter or leave the building. During the
four month display we had an average of 63,000 visitors per month at this venue. Final
budget costs amounted to £14,600, i.e., £10K for the mannequins, underpinnings and
mounting, and a further £4,600 for graphics, exhibition build and transport.
Launch and publicity Paul O’Grady very kindly agreed to come along to the Walker to
launch the exhibition when it opened in early November 2011. We held a private lunch
buffet for him, plus family, friends and invited guests including Martin Taylor, the costume
designer, followed by what can only be described as a full-scale media scrum for the
following three hours, attended by over 20 different news media organisations, including
the BBC, ITV and of course Homotopia TV. All of which was absolutely priceless publicity for
the exhibition.
Image courtesy of National Museums Liverpool
In December 2011, NML’s own marketing campaign included organising local media photo
opportunities such as the one in which the cast of the panto Cinderella, playing at the
Liverpool Empire Theatre opposite the Walker, visited the gallery.
Conclusion We were very lucky to be able to collaborate so closely and positively on this
project with a locally-born celebrity and with a local arts organisation such as Homotopia.
I’ve collaborated with other Liverpool-born celebrities in the past and haven’t always had
such a positive experience, but Paul O’Grady was totally professional and his manager was
extremely helpful and accommodating too, so personalities were a big part of the process.
But for me, good communication was the key to successful collaboration on this project.
Gary Everett, Homotopia’s Creative Director, was invited to all project development team
meetings and was in close contact with our own Marketing and Communications Dept
throughout. The NML exhibition officer and I were in constant contact with Paul O’Grady
and his manager about every aspect of the exhibition as it developed, from costume
selection, to text content and graphics design, to the details of the launch, checking for
their approval at each stage. And finally, a fairly long lead-in time to the show gave all of us
the time we needed to discuss the general approach we would take and any potential
issues. We had the opportunity to build confidence on all sides, so that we could produce a
41
quality end-product that would do justice to the character, the costumes and all the
partners involved.
____
DATE FOR YOUR DIARIES!
DATS conference 2013
Construction and Reconstruction: Interpreting the Past
10-12 October, at the Fashion Museum, Bath
We are delighted to confirm that Rosemary Harden has kindly agreed to host the DATS
conference this year at the Fashion Museum in Bath. This will follow the pattern of previous
years in holding to the idea of a ‘training’ conference, with an add-on day on Saturday 12th,
and will hopefully include a number of areas which have appeared on the evaluation form
wishlists recently. This will also be an excellent opportunity to visit ’50 Fabulous Frocks’ if
you have not already seen it, as well as help The Fashion Museum celebrate its 50 th
birthday.
The working title is ‘Construction and Reconstruction: interpreting the past’ and will include
analysing construction of dress, reconstruction of both dress and textiles, interpretation and
display strategies and research projects. More details and suggestions will appear in the call
for papers to be circulated on the DATS email listing.
Images © Fashion Museum
News
Costume gallery closures
National Museums Scotland has announced that the National Museum of Costume at Shambellie
House, near New Abbey, Dumfries, will not reopen in the spring and is to close.
42
The costume collection is part of the national textile and dress collections which is stored at the
National Museums Collection Centre, Edinburgh. It is planned to display a selection from this
collection within new Art and Design galleries which are scheduled to open in 2016 at the National
Museum.
St. Fagans: National History Museum, Cardiff, Wales
The costume gallery has been closed as part of a major five year redevelopment program that has
seen the closure of the indoor galleries at the museum.
___
PASOLD CONFERENCE
7-8 NOVEMBER 2013
Goldsmiths, University of London
‘Sourcing the Archive: new approaches to materialising textile history’
Keynote Speakers: Professor Carolyn Steedman, University of Warwick
Dr Solveigh Goett, Textile Artist and Researcher.
For Call For Papers (deadline June 7 2013) and further details please see the conference website at:
http://www.gold.ac.uk/history/research/pasoldconference/ or email: [email protected]
Goldsmiths’ acclaimed history of innovative work in the textile arts will be celebrated during the
Conference with a special exhibition of material from the Goldsmiths’ Textile Collection, ‘an eclectic,
international treasure trove of textiles’. There will also be an optional afternoon of object handling
in the Collection to generate discussion around new ways of writing history.
____
CHORD: the Centre for the History of Retailing and Distribution at the University
of Wolverhampton is holding a workshop on:
Embellished Textiles: Interpretation and Care of Fine Needlework in Museums and
Historic Houses, on Wednesday 12 June 2013
The workshop will be held in Room MC301, Millennium City Building (MC), located on the
University of Wolverhampton’s City Campus, just 10 minutes’ walk from Wolverhampton’s
bus and train stations. For further information see the workshop web-page at:
http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/histextiles2013.htm
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Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions and Events
London
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7, www.vam.ac.uk
David Bowie Is
– until 11th August 2013
The V&A has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the
first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie - one of the most
pioneering and influential performers of modern times. David Bowie is will explore the
creative processes of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style
and sustained reinvention across five decades.
The V&A’s Theatre and Performance curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh have
selected more than 300 objects that will be brought together for the very first time. They
include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set
designs, Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork.
Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s
- 9 July 2013 - 16 February 2014
Discover the creative explosion of London fashion in the 1980s in a major exhibition at the
V&A. Through more than 85 outfits, Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s
showcases the bold and exciting new looks by the most experimental young designers of the
decade, including Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett, Wendy Dagworthy and John Galliano.
The exhibition traces the emerging theatricality in British fashion as the capital’s vibrant and
eclectic club scene influenced a new generation of designers. Also celebrating iconic styles
such as New Romantic and High Camp, and featuring outfits worn by Adam Ant and Leigh
Bowery, the exhibition explores how the creative relationship between catwalk and club
wear helped reinvent fashion, as reflected in magazines such as i-D and Blitz and venues
including Heaven and Taboo.
---V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA
Modern British Childhood - Until 14 April 2013
Modern British Childhood explores how childhood has transformed in Britain during the
period between the London Olympic Games of 1948 and 2012.
Charting 64 tumultuous years in history, this exhibition explores issues surrounding
education, health, family, entertainment, fashion and play. From a pair of 1950s children’s
NHS prescription glasses to the 2005 Teddyfone (designed for under 5s) the exhibition
gathers together objects – exceptional or everyday, public or private – that dramatise the
huge changes that have occurred in children’s lives. Clothing, toys, books and childcare
items will be shown alongside TV and film footage and photography.
----
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Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XF www.ftmlondon.org
Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour – until 29 June 2013
Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour is a celebration of the work of one of the great practitioners
of contemporary craft. This exhibition, the first in London since Kaffe Fassett’s recordbreaking show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1988, features over 100 works within a
dramatic installation designed by Sue Timney.
Exhibition highlights include extravagantly-coloured 9-foot-wide knitted shawls, coats and
throws, patchwork fabrics shown in a glorious selection of quilts, as well as items especially
created for this exhibit and not seen in public before. The design also features a ‘feeling’
wall that allows visitors to touch and better understand the textiles on display and their
construction. From his childhood in the creative community of Big Sur, California, to his
career as a painter, and later as a knitwear and textile designer in London from the 1960s to
the present day, Kaffe’s ability to blend pattern, texture and colour has won him a dedicated
following of enthusiasts.
Zandra Rhodes Unseen - 12 July - 31 August 2013
With spectacular textiles, ravishing dresses and original sketches, Zandra Rhodes Unseen
presents a rare opportunity to explore the archive, studio and creative process of one of the
world’s most distinctive designers. An inspiration to her contemporaries for over 50 years,
this new exhibition combines lesser-known fashion collections with more familiar designs
drawn from a prolific career.
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The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG, www.britishmuseum.org
Social Fabric; African Textiles Today – Textiles from southern and eastern Africa - until
21 April 2013
The rich fabric of African printed and factory-woven textiles reflects changing times, fashion
and taste. From eastern and southern Africa, the social and historical significance of these
beautiful and diverse materials are also reflected in the identities of those who wear
them.This exhibition takes a fresh look at the history, manufacture and continuing social
significance of these textiles.
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William Morris Gallery, Forest Road, London E17 4PP
The Art of Embroidery: Nicola Jarvis and May Morris,
6 July to 22 September 2013
Winner of the 2010 Inspired by Morris group show, Nicola Jarvis returns to the William
Morris Gallery with a solo exhibition. A hand-embroidery specialist, Jarvis's new work
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includes works on paper and textiles created in dialogue with the techniques and ideas
championed by William Morris's daughter May Morris. Jarvis's work will be exhibited
alongside rarely seen archive materials offering refreshing new perspectives on May
Morris's career.
Adult Workshop: Ornamental Embroidery, 24 July 2013, 10:30 - 17:00 £57.50 including
materials, booking essential as places are limited. This workshop is subject to a minimum
number of participants.
Stitch a botanical sampler in the style of May Morris with Ornamental Embroidery teachers
Lynn Hulse and Nicola Jarvis. This course will include a visit to the exhibition The Art of
Embroidery where examples of embroidery by Nicola Jarvis and May Morris (William
Morris’s daughter) are on display. Beginners welcome.
Wales and West England
Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Guildhall Road, Northampton, NN1 1DP,
www.northampton.gov.uk
She Walks in Beauty: 60 Years of Dal Co' Shoes
- 20 April – 23 June 2013
This exhibition celebrates the 60th anniversary of the company Dal Co. Founded in 1952 in
Rome by Alberto Dal Co the company has been producing handmade shoes for decades,
catering to film stars, celebrities and ordinary people with a passion for bespoke shoes. The
company - now led by the grandniece of the founder, Silvia Petrucci Dal Co – is responsible
for the famous Paparazzo shoe.
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St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff, CF5 6XB http://www.museumwales.ac.uk
South Wales Lace Makers, 29th June, 10am-5pm
Drop in to the Museum to see the bobbin lace makers demonstrate their craft.
South East of England
Chertsey Museum, 33 Windsor Street, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 8AT Tel. 01932 565764
www.chertseymuseum.org.uk
DAY AND NIGHT - until 24th August 2013
The new Olive Matthews Costume exhibition, Day and Night: From the Bedroom to the
Ballroom, 1929 - 1939’ is now open. It features underwear, daywear and gorgeous evening
wear. Many new and previously unseen pieces from this era of soft sinuous curves and rich,
luxurious fabrics are on display. Admission to the above displays is FREE
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DAY AND NIGHT Study Day, May 11th 2013
An exploration of fashion from the 1930s with papers on a variety of themes.
Booking required. Tickets £15.00 per head.
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Haslemere Educational Museum, 78, High Street, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 2LA, Tel. 01428
642112, www.haslemeremuseum.co.uk
Haslemere Educational Museum will be holding an exhibition entitled ‘From Russia With
Love’ between 4th and 29th June. Come and discover amazing artefacts from the Museum’s
collection relating to the history and culture of the largest country in the World. With a
special focus on 19th century folk art.
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Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP18 0JH www.waddesdon.org.uk
SACRED STITCHES: ECCLESIASTICAL TEXTILES IN THE ROTHSCHILD COLLECTION –until 27 October
2013
Drawn entirely from the stored collections at Waddesdon, rare fragments of ecclesiastical
textiles and vestments, dating from c 1400 to the late 1700s, have been assembled for the
first time in a special exhibition which explores the intricate techniques employed to glorify
God using silk and metal thread, and this little-known aspect of Rothschild collecting.
Originally parts of altar frontals, vestments and other church furnishings, the textiles survive
at Waddesdon as hangings, cushions, banners and mounted on furniture, as their original
purposes were altered to suit collecting tastes and interior styles of the late 1800s. Many
items have not been displayed for twenty years, and have been specially conserved and
mounted.
There are two other textile-related installations at Waddesdon from May to October 2013:
Darning the Land: Sewn by artist Philippa Lawrence, a decorative planting in the grounds,
inspired by the darns and workings of textiles in store; and Folded Beauty: Masterpieces in
Linen by Joan Sallas, baroque-style napkin folding in the Breakfast Room and Dining Room.
Please see the website for details.
Southwest of England
Fashion Museum, Assembly Rooms, Bennett Street, Bath, BA1 2QH,
www.fashionmuseum.co.uk
50 FABULOUS FROCKS! - until the end of the year
The exhibition will include a gorgeous gold embroidered Georgian court dress and a delicate
1870s gauze bustle day dress edged with purple fringing and redolent of the paintings of
Tissot alongside a slinky jersey evening dress by Ossie Clark and a classic chic Chanel
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suit. will feature the iconic and influential names of 20th century couture - Schiaparelli,
Poiret, Vionnet, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent – as well as today’s most desired fashion
designers and brands - Erdem, Burberry, John Rocha. This display will show both the
richness of the museum collection as well as key moments in fashion history that continue
to provide inspiration for modern day designers along with TV and film makers - think
Downton Abbey, The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina.
Glamour - Continuing throughout 2013.
This dazzling display at the Fashion Museum invites visitors to be inspired by the glitz and
glamour of evening wear fashion over the last 100 years. Featuring twenty two show
stopping evening gowns and cocktail dresses, Glamour presents a glittering array of
sumptuous silks and bejewelled creations guaranteed to make anyone the belle of the ball.
---Killerton House, Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, EX5 3LE www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton
Objects of desire - now on
In the new fashion exhibition, Objects of desire, you can discover opulent dresses, shoes and
accessories in a display designed and guest curated by renowned interior designer, Russell
Sage. Explore the timeless desirability of designer fashion in an exhibition where interior design
meets vintage fashion.
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Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum, Bogan House, 43 High Street, Totnes, TQ9 5NP
www.totnesfashionandtextilesmuseum.org.uk
ReFashion – Recycling then, now and future, 20 May 2013 to 04 October 2013
Recycled garments, textiles, ideas and designs. Museum open 21st May to end of
September, Tuesday to Friday, 11.00 to 5.00. Guided tours by arrangement (these can be
outside normal opening times or during October).
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TROWBRIDGE MUSEUM, The Shires, Court Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8AT
www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
Rich and Rare: A People’s History of West of England Cloth - from 9th February
Many people know about the superb quality woollen cloth produced in industrial towns
such as Trowbridge. Not everybody knows what it cost to produce such cloth in human
terms. The exhibition examines the difficult birth of the Industrial Revolution in the area .
Textile and Weaving Festival
- August 17th to November 16th 2013
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This year is the 5th anniversary of the biannual Textile and Weaving Festival. To celebrate its
success the Museum is embarking on a special project 5 Q’s: A Quintet of Quality, Quirky,
and Quaint Quilts.
As the festival has grown from strength to strength it has been decided to bring together a
community of textile crafts people to make 5 different quilts. Each quilt will be made by a
different group, using their own interpretation of what quilting means to them, with the aim
of displaying them in 5 different venues.
North England
Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Rusholme, Manchester, M14 5LL
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
Christian Dior: designer in focus
12 June 2013 – 12 Jan 2014
An exhibition of key outfits from Dior’s brief but supremely influential career, 1947-57. The fifteen
costumes of Paris and London couture include day, cocktail and evening wear, and represent many
of Dior’s seminal collections, from the ‘New Look’ of 1947 onwards. No other costume collection in
the north of England has any examples of Paris Dior, so our recently acquired outfits will be a unique
opportunity to admire the work of this seminal couturier.
Left: A vibrant floral print cocktail dress of 1956 is
included, which was created by a very young Yves
Saint Laurent whilst a junior designer for Dior.
Right: Rare Paris label outfits include Wallis
Simpson’s ‘New Look’ suit.
Images courtesy of Gallery of Costume.
Knitted Elegance: Creative Fashion since the 1950s - until 2 June 2013
A range of avant-garde outfits from the gallery’s collections to illustrate that knitwear can
be sophisticated as well as practical, beautiful as well as warm, chic as well as homely.
Designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Yves Saint Laurent, Sonia Rykiel, Missoni, Moschino,
Alice Temperley and Maria Grachvogel will be represented, and because knitwear is
frequently at the cutting edge of contemporary fashion, there will be four examples from
last season’s collections.
Displayed around the staircase and dining room you can also see work made in response
to Knitted Elegance by new community based artists working with artist Sarah Marsh.
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Leeds Costume Collection, Lotherton Hall, Aberford, Leeds, LS25 3EB
www.leeds.gov.uk/lothertonhall
Dressed for Battle: The impact and influence of war on fashion - until
31 January
2014
An exhibition exploring how clothes and style have been affected by war - from the clothes
worn by those on the home front during both world wars to the designer’s love of the
military look.
Study day - ‘Fashions from the Home Front’ – planned for the 17th October 2013. Speakers
confirmed include The History Wardrobe and Geraldine Howell the author of a new book on
wartime fashions.
---Sudley House, Mossley Hill Road, Aigburth, Liverpool, L18 8BX
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
20th Century Chic: 100 years of women's fashion – from 16 February 2013
From the corsets and petticoats of the Belle Epoque to the designer labelled spandex of the
90's, 20th Century Chic charts 100 years of women’s fashion. The display of 12 evening
outfits reflects the monumental changes in the role of women during the twentieth century.
The changing styles, materials and colours of the garments echo wider social changes and
represent key periods in women’s history. The impact of two world wars, women entering
the workplace, feminism and new manufacturing methods are echoed in the changing
hemlines, materials and styles of the garments on display.
Scotland
The Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park, Glasgow, G43 1AT
www.glasgowmuseums.com
Gilt and Silk: Early seventeenth-century costume - from 23 March 2013
This new display showcases early seventeenth-century costume in the Burrell Collection.
The highlight is an extremely rare crimson silk satin petticoat embroidered with a variety of
flowers and birds that will be displayed full-length for the first time. Dating from about
1610-1620, its provenance suggests that it may have belonged to Anne of Denmark, the
wife of James VI and I. Other favourites returning to display after conservation work are an
embroidered woman’s waistcoat together with coifs, nightcaps and sweet bags. New
interpretation will include a specially commissioned film looking at how these garments
were created and worn. To accompany the display there will be a programme of family and
adult events.
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New and Recent Books
Knitting: Fashion, Industry, Craft, Sandy Black, (V&A Publishing, 2012)
Knitting draws on the V&As superlative collection of knitted fashions and artefacts, ranging from
commonplace articles of everyday use to virtuoso examples of the knitters craft, including finely knit
and embroidered silk stockings, intricate lacewear, Victorian beaded bags and knitted dresses from
designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Julien Macdonald.
Hardy Amies, Michael Pick, (Antique Collectors’ Club, 2012)
Hardy Amies epitomised understated British couture, emphasising the cut of fine materials by
tailored construction. Untrained in dress-making, he achieved headlines in Vogue in 1937 with his
'Panic' suit, a reconstructed design of a staple in every woman's wardrobe, wittily named to reflect
current events. Evoking the glamour of pre-war London while meeting the demands of
contemporary society's activities - town to country, morning to night - Amies designs drew a starstudded clientele. His war-time 'utility' designs revealed his design philosophy (and partly concealed
his role as head of the Belgian Section of SOE), unveiling a needle-sharp intelligence and intuition for
the changing world of fashion, his elegant execution of which was rewarded through the influential
seal of approval by HM Queen Elizabeth II, as Princess Elizabeth, in 1950. The first post-war
international designer to visit the USA, Amies' luxurious style produced lucrative global business
opportunities, including ready-to-wear, menswear shown as couture, and wide-ranging
merchandising options.
WILLIAM MORRIS TEXTILES, Linda Parry (Revised edition, V&A Publishing, 2013)
This book is a comprehensive survey of the colourful textiles produced by Morris and his companies.
It remains the authority in the field and this revised edition has been completely rewritten and
expanded with beautiful new photography.
V&A PATTERN: C.F.A. VOYSEY, Karen Livingstone, (V&A Publishing, April 2013)
This is the latest title in the V&A Pattern series which celebrates the innovative work of this
designer.
Textiles and Dress of Gujarat, Eiluned Edwards, (V&A Publishing, 2011)
Textile and costume traditions of Gujarat in northwestern India are acclaimed for their design and
craftsmanship. The beautiful weaves, dyeing techniques, intricate embroideries, artistic motifs and
embellished dress, and the communities to which many of these are unique, have all been the
subjects of extensive documentation. This book examines the 'social life' of Gujarat's textiles,
tracing the historical journey of cloth and costume until modern-day dress. It looks closely at dyed
and painted textiles, and embroidery, and locates their place in culture, trade and commerce, and
their effect on entrepreneurship in the region.
The Tudor Child: Clothing and Culture 1485 to 1625, Jane Huggett, (Author), Jane
Malcolm-Davies (Editor), Ninya Mikhaila (Editor), Perry Michael (Illustrator), (Fat Goose
Press Ltd, March 1, 2013)
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Draping Period Costumes; Classical Greek to Victorian, by Sharon Sobel, (The Focal
Press Costume Topics Series, 2013)
Historical Wig Styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s, By Allison Lowery (The Focal
Press Costume Topics Series, 2013)
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