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Quilted kaftan from Turkey, first half 20th century, TRC 2026.0841.(Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 24 June 2026) A year ago we were given a large group of Ottoman and later Turkish textiles and dress from the Kavak Folklore Team & Costume Collection (Antwerp), which was founded by Jean-Marie Criel (for more information, click here and here).

Then came TRC's move to Boerhaavelaan 6 and we had to put the Kavak collection to one side. We are pleased to tell that we are now working together again on this amazing collection, and over the next 12 months, more items wil be given to the TRC. In fact, twelve boxes and bags have just been picked up from Antwerp, which include  a beautiful, hand-quilted kaftan (TRC 2026.0841).

I knew about the Yorgan or quilted bedspreads, which are an important feature of many Turkish homes, but I had not heard about quilted garments.

Detail of quilted kaftan from Turkey, TRC 2026.0841.Historically, quilted bedspreads were made by men. Towns and cities used to have special quilt quarters. But cheaper modern products have meant that many quilters have stopped working and it is now more and more difficult to find apprentices to carry on the trade. Such quilts can be made from silk, cotton or sometimes woollen cloth and were traditionally filled with raw wool or sometimes cotton. Nowadays, synthetic fillings are used, as these can be more easily cleaned.

The overall design for a quilt was usually decided by the quilter and the person wanting the quilt. Floral motifs were popular for dowry quilts, others had repeating geometric designs.

The required pattern was worked on card, cut out and then the templates were used as stencils to draw the desired motifs on the ground material. A professionally made quilted bedspread took between two and three days to make, depending on the complexity of the design.

(Gillian Vogelsang, 16 June 2026) The TRC recently received a substantial subsidy from the Overvoorde – Gordon Stichting / het Pauwhof Fonds, for a series of gatherings that are aimed at strengthening relationships and stimulating collaboration with a broad group of stakeholders in the (inter)national museum, science, art, and heritage fields of textiles and dress.

First round-table of textile studies stakeholders, TRC, 1 June 2026.

We have just shut the TRC doors on a very successful book sale at B6, our new home!

We have been working hard for the last few weeks to get hundreds of books, magazines, leaflets, etc., sorted according to subject matter – embroidery, woven, printed, knitted, quilts, general history, etc., not to mention prices. These were then put into boxes and organised on a variety of themes in the main gallery. We had hoped to hold the book sale in the garden, but the weather was not very helpful – rain clouds and strong winds all day long.

The sale officially started at 10.00 but people were arriving from 09.30 onwards, and the first purchases took place at 09.45. From 10.00 until 14.00, there was a constant flow of visitors to search for interesting books and items, as well as for inspiration. Then it gradually slowed down and the last sales were made just after 15.00.

Not just about books

But the day was not just about selling books, it was also intended as an opportunity for people to come and see the new home of the TRC and to talk with colleagues about what we are doing and plan to do, as well as to see the TRC’s current exhibition about appliqué textiles (khayamiya) from Egypt.

Fig. 1. Boerhaavelaan 6 as seen from the garden. TRC plans to use part of the garden to grow textile-related plants, in cooperation with the Leiden University Botanical Gardens. Photograph Willem Vogelsang, 2025.by Willem Vogelsang, 3 June 2026.

In April 2026, the Textile Research Centre (TRC) moved from its former address along the Hogewoerd in the centre of Leiden, into a new 'home'. It is an early-twentieth century urban villa just behind the main Leiden railway station (Fig. 1). The house, at  Boerhaavelaan 6, was occupied by the same family for more than one hundred years.

The last resident, Mrs Hélène Nauta-Barge, lived there for her entire life, almost uninterruptedly, until she died in 2023, aged 99. Since then it has become the property of the Stichting Monumentenbezit, which now rents it out to the TRC upon the recommendation of Leiden City Council,

The house has a fascinating background and reflects the rich, and sometimes turbulent history of Leiden.

By Frieda Chen, TRC Intern, 30 May 2026.

Frieda is a Master’s student in Asian Studies at Leiden University and an intern at the Textile Research Centre (TRC). With a background in archaeology in Taiwan, she is interested in how materials connect to human behaviour. Through working with textiles and indigo dyeing, she is still exploring whether she is a weaver, a dyer, or simply a researcher.

In 2019, the TRC received several tie-and-dye cotton samples from Zhuo Ye Cottage (Taiwan) (TRC 2019.2177, 2178, 2179, 2180, 2181, 2182). The textiles are dyed with indigo, a natural dye extracted from plants such as Strobilanthes cusia (known as “Malan” in Taiwan). Other plant sources also referred to as indigo include species from the legume family (Indigofera tinctoria L.) and the knotweed family (Polygonaceae), such as Polygonum tinctorium Aiton, also known as Persicaria tinctoria (Aiton) H. Gross.

Indigo is a widely used dye because it produces a deep blue colour that lasts well over time. Among natural plant dyes, indigo is one of the few that needs a special fermentation and chemical process to make the dye work. It cannot be produced in the way that is applied to most of the other dye plants, such as madder, by simply boiling or soaking the plant (Lai, 2016).

Fig. 1. Process of indigo dye production. Source: Zhuo Ye Cottage Indigo Dyeing Workshop. Retrieved from https://www.joye.com.tw/activity/about.php?PKey=11

Fig. 1. Kasuri cloth sample (TRC 2017.1478-23). Japan, 20th century.This April, I began my research fellowship at the TRC Leiden as the first junior fellow in the TRC Fellowship Programme, sponsored by the Gieskes-Strijbis Foundation, Amsterdam. My project, Thread, Dye, and Pattern: A Historical Study of Japanese Kasuri Techniques in the TRC Leiden Ikat Cloth Sample Collection (Pepin Collection), focuses on the extraordinary technical and artistic complexity of Japanese kasuri textiles preserved in the TRC collection.

Japanese kasuri — a form of ikat in which yarns are resist-dyed before weaving — is one of those textile traditions that becomes more fascinating the closer one looks. At first glance, the fabrics may appear deceptively simple: indigo blues, geometric forms, softened edges (compare TRC 2017.1478-23; Fig. 1). Yet under magnification, entire worlds of technical decision-making emerge. Tiny variations in binding, dye penetration, thread tension, and weave alignment all contribute to the final pattern.

During these first months, much of my work has focused on developing methods for closely analysing the kasuri samples in the TRC collection. Through this research, I aim to better understand which dyeing and weaving techniques are represented in the samples, how yarn structure and resist methods interact to create patterns, and whether particular textiles can be linked to regional Japanese kasuri traditions such as Kurume kasuri from Fukuoka, Iyo kasuri from Ehime, or Ryukyu kasuri from Okinawa.

Charly Sajjad Baumann and Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 15 May 2026This year I am completing my Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Berlin. For my bachelor’s thesis, I am focusing on Afghan embroidery, with a special emphasis on traditional Hazara embroidery. As this topic is personally very important to me, I wanted to approach my work not only creatively but also in a well-founded academic way. Therefore, I began searching online for information, sources, and research institutions that deal with traditional textiles.

During my research, I discovered the Textile Research Centre (TRC), Leiden, in the Netherlands. This centre is dedicated to the study of traditional textiles, crafts, and embroidery from various cultures around the world. I found it particularly fascinating that it also holds information and textile collections from Afghanistan.

After a short time, I knew that I absolutely wanted to visit this place to learn more about Afghan embroidery and its cultural significance. So I traveled from Berlin to Leiden. The journey was very exciting for me because I knew it would be highly important for my bachelor’s thesis.

Another interesting, busy and intriguing day at the TRC! We have just had the opening of the TRC’s first exhibition in our new building on the Boerhaavelaan, here in Leiden. The exhibition is about khayamiya, a form of appliqué from Egypt.

From left to right: Prof. B. ter Haar - Romeny, Chairman TRC; Mrs Nanda Jagusiak, guest; Mrs Mariham Youssef, Deputy Head of Mission, Egyptian Embassy; H.E. Mr. Emad Magdy Hanna Kamel, Egyptian Ambassador to the Netherlands; Dr Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC; Ms. Christina de Korte, co-curator exhibition. Photograph: Mrs Flora Kovacs Wester, TRC Fellow.

Some months ago, we discussed what the first exhibition should be about. It was important that it would represent the activities and collection of the TRC, and add something new to the subject, as well as being colourful! We wanted to start the new exhibition cycle with a warm glow that would leave people feeling intrigued and inspired. It also had to be something that would tell us about how to use our new building and exhibition spaces, not so easy as it sounds as we cannot fix anything to the walls because of the nature of the wall coverings (see a previous blog about a technique that in Dutch is called betengeling).

What could be better than an exhibition about khayamiya from Egypt, especially as one of our interns, Christina de Korte, had just spent several months learning how to make this form of appliqué in the historic Street of the Tentmakers in Cairo? So Augusta de Gunzbourg, our curator and exhibition maker, and Christina joined forces to curate the exhibition.