Blog

by Ann Brysbaert, Professor in Ancient Technologies, Materials and Crafts, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. She is also the Director of the Netherland Institute at Athens, Greece. 

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For quite some time, I knew about this seemingly small place of the Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden (as seen from the outside). Initially, I never found it open when I passed by on my walks, although the fascination for it was always there.

Eventually, I looked it up online in 2021, and found out that a famous textile scholar ran it: Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, a name all too familiar to 2nd year students of the BSc. (Hons, now MSc.) conservation course at UCL, which I took in the mid-90s, and which incorporated a course on the materials, technologies and conservation issues relating to woven materials and textiles.

Dyeing experiments with different types of fibres in cochineal-and-mordant solution. Photograph by author.

Before the Nakba of 1948, the creation of embroidered cushions in Palestine was an integral part of a bride's dowry and a way to adorn her home with handmade beauty. These cushions were not just functional items but intricate masterpieces, decorated with sophisticated embroidery patterns. Each piece was crafted with care, symbolizing the pride and skill of the embroiderer, as well as the traditions that were passed down through generations.

Part of an embroidered cushion cover, Palestine, 1920s (TRC 2025.0007).

Pair of underwear with a long, blue fringe and gold-coloured material with sequins. Cairo, Egypt, 1995 (TRC 1997.0119b).The TRC has a large collection of underwear from many countries, from Egypt to Sweden, from the Netherlands to Tanzania. I do like the 1995 Egyptian pants with a long, blue fringe and gold-coloured material with sequins (TRC 1997.0119b), although the dark red pair of panties with a decoration of pink flowers from Tanzania (TRC 2004.0164) might be easier to wear.

The TRC collection includes bras, slips, knickers, stocking belts, long johns, chemises, pantaloons, drawers and bloomers.

My favourites are, however, seven lingerie pouches from Japan in the 1920s-1930s, exported to the Western market to store delicate silk lingerie and scarves (TRC 2016.2172—TRC 2016.2177). The floral patterns and the more abstract Art Deco designs that decorate the pouches are lovely.

Lingerie is very present in the work of Dutch artist Lara Schnitger, who was born in Haarlem in 1969. Schnitger is a Dutch textile artist who now lives and works in Los Angeles (US).

'Colorial', with 300 bobbins with threads of different colours. 2014. Artist: Natalia Villanueva Linares.Willem and I are just back from a few days in Paris (a birthday present from our two sons and their partners), going to museums, galleries, and generally relaxing. Last Tuesday, 7th January, we wanted to go to the Musée Orsay to see some of the impressionist paintings, but while walking there we spotted an exhibition at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine ('Une brève histoire de fils (de 1960 à nos jours)', which was about various Latin American textile artists and their work. So we popped in.

A very wide range of cloth and thread-based work was on display, some of which very detailed, while others were large and thought-provoking, but nearly all well-made by people who understood what is a thread/cloth. One or two items were less so, but it it inevitable in an exhibition of this nature that some items appeal and others do not.

Multi-coloured mat from Namibia, 2024, made out of metal bottle caps. Each cap is covered with different, wax-printed fabrics individually cut out and then hand sewn together in an octogonal shape (TRC 2024.3444).This year (2024) has seen various developments with regards the TRC's cooperation with Leiden University.

Thanks to Prof. Annetje Ottow, Chair of the Leiden University Board and a supporter of the TRC through the donation of family garments from the Dutch East Indies, we were put in contact with Alexander Mouret, Regional Partnering Manager Artificial Intelligence at LURIS, the Knowledge Exchange Office of Leiden University. On 12-13 September this year he organized a symposium in Leiden on 'Indifference', where I had the honour to present a paper on 'Indifference to .... textiles'.

Alexander is helping us to find more routes and channels between the TRC, the University, and the commercial world, while at the same time exploring possible donors and sponsors, and indeed how we can all work together.

The TRC is very proud to announce the publication of the fourth volume of Bloomsbury's World Encyclopedia of Embroidery:  Embroidery from Scandinavia and Western Europe, composed under the aegis of the Textile Research Centre (TRC), Leiden, The Netherlands. Authors: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and Willem Vogelsang.

This is the first reference work to describe the history of embroidery throughout Scandinavia and Western Europe from the Bronze Age to the present day. It offers an authoritative guide to all the major embroidery traditions of the region and a detailed examination of the material, technical, artistic and design aspects of the subject, including its modern-day uses.

For millennia, the peoples of Scandinavia and Western Europe have been producing domestic and professional embroidery to decorate themselves, their families, clients, homes and public spaces.

Detail of dress ‘Sahraouia gandoura’ by Kenza Bennani, New Tangier, 2024. Photograph by Christina de Korte.The exhibition MODA: Moroccan Fashion Statements at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (in collaboration with DAR Cultural Agency) includes artists and designers from Morocco and the Moroccan diaspora in the Netherlands. The title of the exhibition, moda, is the Moroccan-Arabic word for fashion (from French: mode).

The exhibition is divided into several themes, such as ‘Monumental’, ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘Amazigh Hair Heritage’, ‘Friendship’, and ‘Artists & Artisans’.

An interesting element of this exhibition, and one of the common themes, are the photographs that are spread throughout the exhibition, originating from residents from Utrecht, visitors to the museum, and the participants of the MODA exhibition. In addition, all the exhibition texts are displayed in Dutch, English, and Arabic, with some titles even in Tamazight.

Portrait of Jane Austen, wearing a chemisette, from the memoir by J. E. Austen-Leigh (1871), based on a sketch by Cassandra Austen.In an earlier TRC blog, attention focussed on a 19th century, Western urban garment, namely a pair of detachable sleeves known as engageantes. The blog was written because there are various mid-19h century examples in the TRC collection.

Thanks to a donation of a large collection of needlework and related garments by the Naaldkunst Museum, Winschoten, in October 2023, the TRC now has several examples of another, even more intrguing garment from the mid-19th century, namely chemisettes.

But what exactly is a chemisette? According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, since 1807 a chemisette is regarded as: … (1) “a bodice, more or less like the upper part of a chemise”, and (2) “an article, usually of lace or muslin, made to fill in the open front of a woman’s dress”.

The word chemisette is the diminutive of the Old French (and hence Middle English) word, chemise, which in its turn comes from the late Latin camisia, meaning a shirt or nightgown (compare also Arabic qamiz).

More specifically, the (English) term chemisette refers to a garment that has the appearance of the front, back and neckline of a blouse or shirt, but without side sections. It was worn underneath a garment that was open at the front, but it added little bulk to the complete outfit.