News

In 2024 the TRC organised many workshops and other events, welcomed individuals and groups of people from all over the world, and in general propagated interest in the fascinating world of textiles. Various blogs were written afterwards that reported on the meetings, such as a study day on frivolité (12 March), a visit by students from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague (13 March), and a special day dedicated to an essental element of almost all textiles, namely the thread (15 March). All three visits are reported in a blog by Gillian Vogelsang and can be downloaded here. A group of TRC volunteers visited Finland in the spring of 2024 to study teaching initiatives (click here). There was also a special day on ikat, on 11 June (click here to download a report). Below we want to highlight some of the other TRC activities in 2024.

TRC project: Engaging Textile Heritage Communities through Citizen Culture

by Maria Linkogle

In 2024, TRC finished an Erasmus+ project which began in 2022. In total, there were two training events, one study trip for the volunteer staff and three study trips for adult participants in the project Engaging Textile Heritage Communities through Citizen Culture.

erasmus logoThe first training was in Portugal and was aimed at increasing cultural participation for those who are at risk of social exclusion. The second training event, which took part on Cyprus, was for teambuilding.

This project also allowed for us to give an opportunity to fifteen of our adult education participants to explore textiles and their connection to culture in Berlin, Venice and Brussels. This project was 100% funded by Erasmus+.

We were able, for example, to welcome a group of Turkish women from Stichting Guney, and an international group of women, now living in Leiden, from Huis van de Morschwijck, which is an embroidery group of women from Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan now living in Leiden. They study and practise embroidery. from their homeland.

They came to the TRC to discuss cultural textile heritage and look at items form their particular places of birth. The group from Stichting Guney gave a presentation of the traditional Henna party, held for a bride just before her wedding. Two other individuals, a Palestinian woman from Syria and a woman from Indonesia, worked together on the exhibition VERBINDING displaying textiles that evoke memories and emotions.

Ikat cloth from Mindanao, Philippines, 20th century (TRC 2022.2914).Visit by HE J. Eduardo Malaya, the Ambassador of the Philippines 

On Saturday, 22 April 2024, the TRC welcomed HE J. Eduardo Malaya, the Ambassador of the Philippines to The Hague, together with Dr Stephanie Coo and Carlos González.

They are interested in the Philippine collection that was given to the TRC a few years ago by Ruurdje Laarhoven, a Dutch academic living in the US, who worked for many years in the Philippines (click here).

Stephanie Coo is interested in the idea of setting up a regional dress institute and collection in the Philippines and is visiting various institutes to get ideas. We have offered the assistance of the TRC in giving practical advice in how to set up and run a small knowledge centre of this type.

The idea was also raised of being able to offer a ‘Researcher in Residence’ position for one to four weeks. This is a very appealing concept and would mean we could add depth to the TRC Collection by being able to have specialists look at various aspects of our textiles, dress and accessories collection.

Visit of representatives of the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology

On 5 June 2025 the TRC had a special visit from the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology. Dr. Kristina Andersen and Dr. Bruna Goveia da Rocha came to Leiden to talk about the setting up of a textile archive in Eindhoven, in order to help designers and students at the university.

During the discussions it was noted that many modern textiles are becoming flatter, as physical weaving skills (especially of textured forms) are not passed on to the same extent as before – they are regarded as too difficult by some!

Furthermore, the use of computer screens to design particular weaves and printed textiles means that many designers are no longer used to handling 'real' textiles. So textile archives, such as the TRC Collection, are needed to provide more data and inspiration, and people are coming to the TRC to see our collections and learn how to set up their own collection.

The idea of the TRC as an international hub for textile knowledge in all the depth and width of this huge, thematic subject is basically no longer a pipe-dream, as far as we are concerned, it is the TRC’s reality! More meetings will be held with colleagues from Eindhoven in due course to discuss further ways of working together. One of the more concrete plans is to set up a joint exhibition about samplers and their design histories and uses!

What have these diverse groups, such as the delegation from Eindhoven, have in common? Simply, an interest ( in some cases bordering on obsession) in textiles. These meetings are important to the TRC, not only to 'give' information, access to the collection, etc., but also to 'absorb' the sometimes priceless knowledge that our visitors are happy to share, and we are more than willing to listen to them and include their knowledge into our blogs, databases and other forms of communication. No knowledge should ever go wasted!

Bloomsbury's Encyclopedia of World Embroidery

In December 2024, Bloomsbury (London) published 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).  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.

With 76 chapters and 634 illustrations (554 in colour) of clothes, accessories and decorated soft furnishings (floor coverings, wall hangings, curtains, bed linen), this Encyclopedia is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the subject.

This volume is part of the Bloomsbury's World Encyclopedia of Embroidery series. The first volume, on embroidery from the Arab World, won the 2017 Dartmouth Medal, awarded by the American Library Association for a reference work of outstanding quality and significance. The second volume covered Central Asia, the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent, and was published in 2021. The third volume, on Sub-Saharan Africa, appeared in 2023.

See also:

• Director's remarks
• The TRC in 2024, in brief 
• TRC exhibitions, 2024 
• TRC collection, 2024
• TRC blogs, 2024

The TRC is an independent foundation (Stichting) that is exclusively run by volunteers. Please support us by transferring your donation to: (IBAN) NL39 INGB 0002 9823 59, in the name of: Stichting Textile Research Centre. BIC code is: INGBNL2A. Since the TRC is a recognised ANBI (Cultural Institution), your donation, if you pay taxes in the Netherlands, is tax deductible for up to 125%.

You can also, if you have the iDEAL app on your computer/IPhone, use the iDEAL button below and fill in the amount of support you want to donate:

The November 2024 TRC Newsletter can be downloaded here. This issue contains information about upcoming events and workshops, a list of TRC blogs published since January this year, and much more interesting information, of course with plenty of illustrations of (recently acquired) textiles and garments.

Portrait of Prof. Lammert Leertouwer, Professor of Theology, Rector Magnificus from 1991-1997, Leiden University. Painting by Marike Bok (1979).We are very sad to inform you that Prof. Lammert Leertouwer (1932-2024) died on Monday, 21st October 2024. Lammert was a member of the TRC Board for many years and was Chair of the Board until his retirement in 2017, but he continued as an ordinary member.

I first met Lammert at the Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden, where he was a special advisor to the museum. He had just retired as Rector Magnificus of Leiden University, and the museum had quickly employed him to help them promoting research at different levels.

We met in the queue of the Museum’s café and discussed life, the universe, textiles, etc. He totally understood what we were doing and why. When his time at the museum came to an end, he very kindly agreed to continue helping the TRC, because he was intrigued by us, and what we wanted to do. I had various talks with Lammert in his study at home discussing problems, people and the future of the TRC. His many anecdotes were proverbial. I shall miss Lammert.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director, 23 October 2024

In May 2018, the TRC welcomed Dr. Magdalena Wozniak, a Marie Curie Fellow from the Polish Academy of Sciences. She is an archaeologist working on the textiles found at (Christian) Nubian sites in the north of Sudan. She had attended the TRC five-day Intensive Textile Course in 2015, and it was wonderful to see her again.

But her visit had a special purpose: she wanted to study the Sudanese textiles, and the raw fibres and spinning weaving equipment, all of them collected by the grande dame of British archaeology, Grace Crowfoot (1879-1957) and now housed at the TRC. For a blog about Magdalena’s visit in May 2018, click here.

She again came to the TRC in April of this year, together with a group of colleagues, and accompanied by Dr. Karel Innemée, formerly working at Leiden University and now employed as assistant professor by the University of Warsaw. He is also a board member of the TRC. They are all working on the project: ‘Costumes of Authority: Images of Royalty and Clergy in Christian Nubia.’ A detailed report of their visit and the project they are working on can be downloaded here.

Fresco with the reconstructed clothing. Research project, University of Warsaw: ‘Costumes of Authority: Images of Royalty and Clergy in Christian Nubia.’

The British magazine Jewellery History Today (autumn 2024) has just published an article by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and Emilie Lambert about a collection of Afghan jewellery donated to the TRC by May and Rolando Schinasi from Nice, France.

Teke Turkmen headpiece for a woman, early 20th century (TRC 2024.0321). Donated by May and Rolando Schinasi.

Both have a fascinating history. Rolando, an Italian born in Egypt before the Second World War, initially went to Afghanistan in 1957 as an importer and exporter. May, French by birth, studied Persian and its Afghan dialect (Dari) while living with her uncle, Daniel Schlumberger, director of DAFA (Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan). The couple met in Kabul in 1964, married in France in 1965, and lived in Afghanistan until 1977.

The full article, in PDF-format, can be downloaded here.

Example of Russian tape laceRussian tape lace is mainly known from the Vologda region, some 450 km north of Moscow. It is the most famous lace centre in Russia. The decorative aspect of Vologda lace is made from tape, made in cloth stitch with a gimp in it, and fillings in and around the taped motif. The fillings are made with only two pairs of bobbins. This asks for a great understanding of how the fillings are made. 

The instructor is Gon Homburg. She learned to make lace from her mother and from 1983 she has been officially registered as a bobbin lace teacher. She teaches enthusiasts and gives workshops to various artisan schools, including the TRC.

The course is given on three Wednesdays, on 2, 16 and 30 October 2024, from 10.00-13.00. The course of three workshops will be followed by another series of three workshops in which some simple Christmas lace decoration will be made in various techniques, including Russian tape lace.

Venue: TRC Leiden, Hogewoerd 164, 2351 HW Leiden. Teacher: Gon Homburg. Language: Dutch/English. Costs: 40 euros per Wednesday (to be paid per individual workshop on the day itself). Material/coffee/tea are provided. Max. number of participants: 8. Minimum: 5. Please register well in advance: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Detail of TRC 2024.2190.(5 August 2024) Among the textiles recently given to the TRC by Hélène van Spaendonck, Belgium, there is a large patchwork cloth (TRC 2024.2190) from India that is made up of numerous pieces of Banjara embroidery.

This type of Indian patchwork is often dyed by dealers, and others, in a dull brown, dark grey, black or a red colour, which makes it virtually impossible to see the original colours or patterns. Fortunately this cloth has not been subjected to this undignified treatment.

Patchwork of various squares and rectangles of (mainly) Banjara embroidery with a wide variety of repeating, geometric patterns in various colours. India, 20th century (TRC 2024.2190).