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The last few days we have been busy visiting various museums and cathedrals in northern France as part of the TRC’s work for volume 4 of Bloomsbury’s World Encyclopedia of Embroidery, namely, Scandinavian and Western European embroidery. Part of the trip, it should be added, has been financially supported by a travel grant from DutchCulture (Amsterdam).

Willem looking at one of the four embroidered wall hangings (photograph author).

The first day, after an early drive from Leiden, was spent in Reims to see the famous mid-17th century series of four embroidered wall-hangings that are now in the Palais du Tau. The building itself is the former palace of the archbishop of Reims (built in the shape of the Greek 't', hence the name) and is associated with the kings of France whose coronations took place in the adjoining cathedral, which was sadly almost completely destroyed during the First World War, but has since been magnificently rebuilt.

Detail of one of the embroidered wall hangings in the Musée du Tau, Reims (Photograph author).

The Palais houses some fantastic woven tapestries, but we were especially attracted by the four embroidered wall hangings, which each measure some three by four metres. They are of the type often called needle paintings, but unlike others they are worked in free-style form.

Embroidered outfit of Louis Antoine de Bourbon, for the coronation of his father, Charles X (photograph author).The wall hangings have a common theme, namely "The Song of Songs” (Le cantique des cantiques) and include: The Union of the Bride and Groom; The Bride meets the Groom at the Entrance to the Garden; The Bride in the Garden of the Beloved, and The Beloved with the Bride in the Garden.

The hangings were ordered by Marguerite Gomyn, widow of Pierre Dufour, on the marriage of one or more of their sons between 1645-1655. The embroideries were probably carried out by specialist embroiderers in a convent. The ground is made of linen that is totally covered with filling stitch, with some couched gold thread (passing), using woollen yarns in a variety of colours. Spectacular!! These items will certainly feature in the Encyclopedia.

Blue plaque commemorating Charles X of France, who lived in exile at 72 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London, between 1805 and 1814 (photograph Wikipedia).Also on display in the Palais du Tau were various densely and luxuriously embroidered garments linked to the coronation of Charles X in 1825. Charles X, it may be added, was King of France from 1825 and 1830. He was the younger brother of Louis XVI (who was executed in 1793) and Louis XVIII. Very intriguing were the elaborately decorated garments worn at the coronation by his eldest son, the Dauphin (Louis Antoine de Bourbon, 1775-1844).

Something else we noticed at the entrance to Reims cathedral were sculptured, hanging curtains, which we couldn't help comparing to painted curtains that we saw in the Sistine Chapel in Rome (see an earlier blog) and, of all places, in Assen in the northeast of the Netherlands (see blog).

Sunday afternoon, after our visit to Reims, we drove on to Sens, southeast of Paris, to see the relics of Thomas Becket, but that is for the next blog.

Sculptured, draped curtains at the entrance to Reims cathedral (photograph Willem Vogelsang).

Gillian Vogelsang, 5 July 2022

For more information about the Reims tapestries and embroidered wall hangings, an open access PdF file can be downloaded here.

A Khevsureti man’s tunic (mid-20th century; TRC 2022.1090)Among the many items that arrived from Arizona earlier this year there are a number of garments from the Caucasian republic of Georgia. I must admit I knew very little about this ancient country and I am having an interesting time learning more and more in order to put the textiles into context.

Earlier this year, Erica Prus already wrote a blog about the fascinating Svaneti hats from Georgia which were acquired by the TRC some years ago.

The garments now added to the TRC collection include men’s tunics (including TRC 2022.1089 and TRC 2022.1090) and women’s dresses and jackets (including TRC 2022.1088 and TRC 2022.1091), from the isolated region of Khevsureti, in the northeast of Georgia.

A Khevsureti man’s tunic (mid-20th century; TRC 2022.1089)The region includes various small villages including Ertso-Tjaneti, Khevi and Kakheti. It is the latter that is particularly known for its embroidered garments. The Khevsureti clothes were traditionally made from locally spun and woven woollen cloth called toil, which is usually a dark brown or black in colour.

One of the embroidered items (TRC 2022.1088) is a man’s tunic called a chokha that is decorated with a large panel on the front with a side-opening. The designs are geometric in shape, and predominantly dark red in colour.

On the shoulders, back, sleeves and hems there are lines of appliqué, again in a series of geometric shapes based on squares and triangles. 

A Khevsureti woman’s dress (mid-20th century, TRC 2022.1091).

Also among the Arizona collection are several women’s garments from Khevsureti. A complete outfit is known as a talavari and is made up of a headdress, dress (sadiatso) and jacket.

According to one account the front opening was meant to be kept fastened until childbirth, then it could be opened in order to breast feed.

During a period of mourning the garment was turned inside out so that the embroidery and applied decoration was no longer visible.

The main embroidery is around the neck opening, sleeve cuffs and near the hem. The hem border is made up of strips of coloured cloth (including black, red, dark red and green) that are sewn together. The embroidery includes cross stitch, surface couching and a form of diagonal couching.

Detail of Khevsureti woman’s dress (mid-20th century, TRC 2022.1091)The jacket worn with such garments is decorated on the front and back with applied blocks of white and red cloth, while the back is further decorated with a large panel of appliqué and embroidery (including cross stitch, zig-zag stitch, and surface couching).

All of the Georgian women's garments in the TRC collection are furthermore decorated with Soviet-period coins.

We are now working on some embroidery charts based on the various cross stitch panels mentioned in this blog. We would also love to have more textiles and garments from Georgia, to complement the small collecton we now have and to make this intriguing embroidery tradition more well-known.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 14 May 2022

Detail of a Khevsureti woman’s jacket (mid-20th century, TRC 2022.1088)

We have just had a visitor to the TRC who paid great attention to the TRC’s pop-up exhibition, which is based on items from two recent donations. Most of the new garments (altogether some 1700) derive from southeastern Europe and the Caucasus. His (yes, HIS) main comment was how boring Western clothing has become for men. And I would add, for both men and women. There is a general lack of colour, texture, movement (a few swirls to add dimension), decoration on the BACK as well as the front, and all in all that extra bit of oomph.

Embroidered man's wedding shirt from Mezokovesd, Hungary, mid-20th century (TRC 2022.0198).

He was looking at some men’s garments including an embroidered shirt, short jacket with tassels and a brightly coloured sash. Not difficult to put all the items together, but oh what a change from a t-shirt with jeans. A man’s embroidered wedding shirt with very large sleeves (literally a shirt you cannot work in), left him thinking hard! And perhaps even dreaming of walking through Leiden swinging his arms and sleeves.

Someone has asked for the return of the waistcoat as an everyday item of clothing – again for both men and women, because you can do so much with one! Materials, a fine satin or velvet, or a heavy woollen cloth! Embroidered, appliquéd, with passementerie? Long or short, with a collar, fringe or rounded neckline. Perhaps a single row of buttons, or double breasted?

Woman's festive waistcoat from Kalocza, Hungary, mid-20th century (TRC 2022.0449).

The various TRC volunteers and visitors have different favourites. One, for example, has fallen in love with a kalocsa outfit from Hungary. It has bright, happy flowers on a white ground in connection with cutwork lace and this decoration certainly makes a statement. Another volunteer is taken by the long black dresses from Georgia in the Caucasus, with its closely and minutely embroidered chest panel. Others find the Romanian embroidered blouses irresistible. Yet another volunteer fell in love with a heavy, black velvet belt from Albania.

Black velvet belt with beading, passementerie, embroidery, and applied ornate buckle, from the Xhubleta region, Albania, mid-20th century (TRC 2022.1028).

My own favourite? Hmmmm, just to walk around in, I would go for an embroidered blouse; just to look at, then it must be a gold embroidered waistcoat.

Embroidered woman's blouse from Humor, Romania, mid-20th century (TRC 2022.0687).

What I am certain about is that vol. 5 of the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery, which is about Central and Southeast European, Russian and Caucasian embroidery is going to be very different from what I had envisaged a few years ago. I knew there was a wide variety in embroidery forms in this part of the world, but I had never imagined the diversity, detail, complexity and colour combinations that existed and can be examined as a result of these two donations.

And shortly we will be picking up another donation of garments, this time from former Yugoslavia, so adding even more details to Volume 5!

The pop-up exhibition will be on display until the end of May 2022. A film about the exhibition will come online this week. More details to come.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director, 27 April 2022

Pair of knickerbockers, or breeches, the Netherlands, early 21st century (TRC 2020.0888).Perhaps a somewhat dubious subject, but a few days ago I asked my (British) wife about the origins of the word ‘ knickers’. I knew that knickers in Britain are generally referred to as ‘panties’ in American English, but where did the word knickers come from?

My wife suggested that the word ‘knickers’ was related to ‘knickerbockers’. Why not? It is a small step from one to the other. Actually, one of the dictionaries I consulted stated that ‘knickers’ was an abbreviation, used in America, for knickerbockers. So there you are: a man in America may be wearing knickers.

And what are knickerbockers? It is apparently a word that originated in America, but where, how, what and when?

Knickerbockers are normally associated with baggy trousers that reach to just below the knee. It is a garment that somehow we tend to associate with (middle-aged) men playing golf. There is a wonderful example of a pair of ‘knickerbockers’ in the TRC Collection. It is catalogued under number TRC 2020.0888 and was made in the Netherlands in the early 21st century.

Actually, the garment in the TRC collection was described for the catalogue by Gillian as a pair of breeches, not knickerbockers. So, in British English: knickers refer to ladies underwear, while knickerbockers, sometimes abbreviated to knickers in American English, refer to the trousers worn by male golf players, which in British English are traditionally called breeches.

Late 19th century pair of drawers with open crotch, the Netherlands (TRC 2018.1906).It is not difficult to see the link. British English ‘knickers’ underwear used to be much longer than the scanty garments of today. They were baggy underpants reaching down to below the knees, in shape comparable to the American knickers or knickerbockers outer wear worn by men. There may have been a small difference: women's underpants were often left open at the crotch, for obvious reasons. 

In Britain and America, such long baggy underpants were also named 'pantaloons' or 'drawers'. 

There you are: In England a woman wears knickers, in America she wears panties. And a golf-playing man in England wearing knickers, well, perhaps he had better go asap to America.

But I now have to make a confession. As a young boy in Holland I was always playing with knickers, and I was actually pretty good at it. I collected hundreds of them, and kept them in a box under my bed. You may wonder about me now. Actually, I was not playing with my mum’s underwear, but with knikkers, in English called marbles. The word knickerbocker is derived from a Dutch word, knikkerbakker, someone who ‘bakes’ (ceramic) knikkers. So the reader does not have to worry about me.

Diedrich Knickerbocker, as portrayed in an illustrated edition of Washington Irvings' History of New York.The Web will tell you all about the origin of the word knickerbocker. It became more popularly known when Washington Irving used it for the main character for his book: A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, published in 1809. The name he chose was Diedrich Knickerbocker, and the surname became commonly used in New York in those days for descendants of the 17th century Dutch settlers in Nieuw Amsterdam / New York.

Apparently my Dutch forebears used to walk around in trousers that reached to just below the knees. The name was later applied as a nickname for all of those living in Manhattan, and it even gave its name to the New York Knickerbockers, a basketball team, more commonly known as the New York Knicks (note: not ‘New York Knickers’). All of them knikkerbakkers.

In modern Dutch such half-long trousers are jocularly called drollenvangers, but I will spare you the translation. Finally, my wife insisted on mentioning the Knickerbocker Glory, which was (is?) some form of sundae (apparently named after the Knickerbocker Hotel in Manhattan).

For more information, see the fascinating blogs in the series ‘Recollections’, and in particular ‘Bloomers, pantaloons, and knickers – Oh my’, 10 April 2011. You may also enjoy reading another blog, with a comparable title, by Amy Olilla, 'Bloomers and knickers and drawers, Oh my!'

PS: The name of Diedrich Knickerbocker is a bit confusing; Diedrich is a German first name, certainly not Dutch. And ‘Dutch’ is the English term for the people from the Netherlands, who call the Germans ‘Duitsers’, who call themselves also Deutsche,  but the Dutch speak a language which they used to call ‘Diets’. Can you still follow it? Don't worry, all part of being European.

Willem Vogelsang, 20 April 2022

The TRC recently accepted two large donations of traditional clothing and other forms of textiles, which originate from central Europe (especially from various groups living in Albania, Hungary and Romania), as well as many other places around the globe, including a beautiful set of American quilts.

They were collected by experts in Paris and in Arizona, and were recently transported to the TRC. Are you puzzled how the the TRC is processing, cataloguing, photographing, and storing these items? Would you like to see some examples? Please join us at the TRC along the Hogewoerd for an informal meeting on Sunday afternoon, 24 April, from 13.00.

Woman's blouse from the Suceava region, Romania, made from handwoven cloth, and with hand embroidered decoration, 20th century (TRC 2022.0600).

The TRC was recently informed that the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from Central Asia, the Iranian Plateau and the Indian Subcontinent, edited by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and Willem Vogelsang in close cooperation with the TRC in Leiden, and published by Bloomsbury in London in 2021, can now be ordered by friends and followers of the TRC directly from the publishers with a discount of 40% (£200.00 / £120.00).

Please open the attached flyer for more information about the book and how to order the encyclopedia with a considerable discount.

A few months ago we published a blog about Kazna Asker, a British-Yemeni fashion student from Sheffield, who some time ago did part of her training as an intern at the TRC in Leiden. One of her T-shirts is now in the TRC Collection (TRC 2021.2654). Kazna has sent an update about her final collection that has just been viewed during the London Fashion Week. She is doing well! …… Here is her report, with some exciting photographs:

Two models showing part of Kazna Asker's collection during London Fashion Week (18-22 February).

On Sunday, I presented my final collection to conclude my MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins, London, during the London Fashion Week. I presented the first hijabi collection they ever had! I used my experience to combine traditional woven textiles, in this case from Middle Eastern carpets and furniture such as a majlis, with technical outerwear fabrics and details such as nylons, fleece and sportswear tracksuits!

Two models showing part of Kazna Asker's collection during London Fashion Week (18-22 February).

My collection focuses on community and challenges the narrative and stereotypes associated with Muslim men and women – to show that we are actually cool people! I combined my British upbringing of tracksuits and outerwear with my Yemeni heritage and Islamic garments. I specifically designed in pairs, to create matching looks to show the brother and sisterhood of our community and that we are all watered by one water.

I got my friends and community to model and wear their own shoes to show the beauty of our sincerity, despite circumstances. The Sheffield community and charity work have always been important to me and bearing in mind that Yemen is facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, I have always felt responsible to showcase the beauty of my culture and the selflessness of my people.

Two models showing part of Kazna Asker's collection during London Fashion Week (18-22 February).

I also asked my local community in Sheffield three questions: what does community mean to you, who inspires you today and what are you fighting for? I printed their answers on the back of the garments throughout my collection, as I knew I wanted this collection to be as interactive as possible in order to showcase the voices of my community.

I have attached some fitting pictures and the final runway pictures!

Hope you like them, Kazna, 24 February 2022

We have been waiting for this moment for some time and yesterday afternoon it finally arrived, namely the Amsel Collection from Paris. The collection was made by Prof. George Amsel and his wife Monique during most of their married life.

Equally as remarkable as the items themselves are the detailed and fascinating stories that Monique is sharing with us about the people and crafts they had encountered collecting all of it.

A small part of the Amsel collection, being prepared for cataloguing and photographing at the TRC, 21 February 2022. Photograph: Augusta de Gunzbourg.

Packed and prepared by TRC volunteer Augusta de Gunzbourg and the owner Monique Amsel for the past few weeks, the items were then transported from Paris to Leiden over the weekend by two other TRC volunteers, Rebecca and David Hix. In it, there are over 700 textiles and garments, mainly from Hungary and Romania.

Waistcoats and coat from the Amsel collection, 21 February 2022. Photograph: Augusta de Gunzbourg.Among other miscellaneous items in this wonderful collection: pieces from China, Central Asia, India, Thailand, as well as a group of hitherto unprovenanced textiles.  So far, we have handled a lovely early 19th century hand embroidered Kashmir shawl with numerous buteh (paisley) motifs, and various examples of mola from Panama that complement the mini-exhibition on the same subject that we are currently preparing (they will be on display from March in the TRC Gallery). There are even some raffia embroideries from the Congo.

Blouses from the Amsel collection, 21 February 2022. Photograph: Augusta de Gunzbourg.A group of volunteers led by Augusta spent today starting to sort out the various groups of textiles and clothing, by tagging, numbering and hanging related items on clothing racks prior to them being fully catalogued, photographed and eventually put in the new deep freezer to prevent insect damage. A job that will take weeks to complete.

From the 1960s and '70s onwards, the Amsels regularly travelled to various regions of Hungary and Romania and deliberately collected regional costumes - from various groups such as the Csangos or Hutsuls - that reflect the diversity of Hungarian costume and its diaspora in neighbouring countries. Embroidery is certainly one of the main features of these items: numerous embroidered and beaded dresses, blouses, as well as fleece waistcoats or even belts both for men and women are all represented.

Dresses from the Amsel collection, 21 February 2022, together with one of the TRC volunteers. Photograph: Augusta de Gunzbourg.We are in contact with various groups in Hungary about this collection, such as Dr Maxim Mordovin from the Eötvös Loránd University and historian Orsolya Zay, in order to gain a deeper understanding of these items. There will be certainly be numerous embroidery charts being worked out in the following months,

One of the long-term plans is to make an online (and real-life eventually) exhibition about the Hungarian items, as well as a complete catalogue of the Hungarian pieces that will be written in conjunction with Monique Amsel. We would need about 6000 euros to make such a catalogue so if you know of a funding body that is interested in Hungarian culture, please let us know!

Over the next few months there will be a regular blog about this collection, reflecting a range of techniques, designs and functions, related to individual items or groups of objects.

Augusta de Gunzbourg and Gillian Vogelsang, 21 February 2022.