Past exhibitions

Glittering embroidered garments and jewellery from Yemen, 

17 August until 19 December 2015

Detail of embroidered neck opening of Tihama dress, Yemen. TRC collection. Photograph: Joost Kolkman

The image of the Queen of Sheba, dressed in exotic garments and jewellery and dancing in front of King Solomon, has fired the imagination of artists for hundreds of years. The Biblical land of Sheba, now known as the Republic of Yemen in the extreme southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, has long been described as the source of abundant trade goods, including emeralds and rubies, purple, embroid-eries, fine linen, coral and incense (Book of Ezekiel 27:16). Dutch traders in the 17th and 18th centuries went to Yemen to acquire silk (stickzijde) and metal threads (goudtraet), silk textiles and much more that came from as far away as Syria, Egypt, Iran, India, China and Indonesia, to bring these goods back to The Netherlands for its wealthy citizens. In the 20th century Yemen was still attracting trade from all over the world. Sadly, in recent days Yemen has become the scene of a bloody civil war and interference from outside.

Appliqué panels from the Street of the Tentmakers, Cairo.

TRC Gallery exhibition, until 2 July 2015

One of the joys of walking around the bazaars of ancient Cairo is a visit to the Street of the Tentmakers. It is a 17th century complex of buildings, with a long street with shops filled with appliqué panels of the most amazing range of colours and designs.Man working on an appliqué panel, Street of the Tentmakers, Cairo, Egypt. Photograph: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, December 2014.

The appliqués from the Street are part of a tradition that goes back to at least the time of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun (died 1323 BC). The new TRC exhibition includes historical and technical information as well as a very wide range of panels with traditional geometric designs, intricate Arabic calligraphy, ancient Egyptian tomb scenes, modern lotus designs, as well as birds, fishes, landscapes and folk stories. In fact, all aspects of traditional Egyptian life.

The exhibition at the TRC has been made possible with the help of the appliqué makers from the Street of the Tentmakers, Cairo, and the director and staff of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute, Cairo, Egypt.

The exhibition will be open to the general public, and free of charge, during the normal opening hours of the TRC (Monday-Thursday, 10.00 - 16.00). On Wednesdays and Thursdays, there are guided tours of the exhibition, starting two o'clock in the afternoon and lasting about one hour. Costs: 7.50 euro. Registration beforehand is not necessary.

For a brief film about the opening of the exhibition on 4th January, and about the exhibition itself. please click here. The film was made by Andrew Thompson, Restorient, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Until 18 December 2014, the TRC presents the exhibition "Renewed Fezzes made out of bobbin lace. Lacemaker: Nel Butter.from Afar: Modern bobbin lace inspired by the collection of the Textile Research Centre". The exhibition displays the work of a group of Dutch lacemakers, called EXPERIKANT, which is engaged with the production of modern lace. The old craft is thereby translated for modern times. All the members of the group have followed the traditional schooling of lace production. Now they design their own work and in doing so they make use of many different materials. For this exhibition they were inspired by the large collection of textiles and dress of the TRC. The choice of items is very diverse: a beautiful skirt, a tie on a kimono, a belt, a typical form of headdress or a head covering. These items have been 'translated' into bobbin lace.

This very colourful and three-dimensional exhibition shows the 'original' item from the TRC collection, and the modern bobbin lace 'translation'. With each group of textiles there is a workbook with a description of the production process.

The exhibition of modern lace is accompanied by a display of different traditional laces, which have been grouped together under the heading "What is lace?". The display contains a series of examples, including pieces made of needlelace, net lace, embroidered lace, knotted lace, knitted lace, and last but not least, of crochetting and tatting. The actual examples are all described in text boards, that together tell the long and fascinating history of lace, in all its forms and techniques.

The TRC is presently engaged with the preparations for the next few exhibitions. The first, that will open on Monday, 6 October, is called: "Renewed Fezzes made out of bobbin lace. Lacemaker: Nel Butter.from Afar: Modern bobbin lace inspired by the collection of the Textile Research Centre", and will be on show until Thursday 18 December of this year. The exhibition displays the work of a group of Dutch lacemakers, called EXPERIKANT, which is engaged with the production of modern lace. The old craft is thereby translated for modern times. All the members of the group have followed the traditional schooling of lace production. Now they design their own work and in doing so they make use of many different materials. For this exhibition they were inspired by the large collection of textiles and dress of the TRC. The choice of items is very diverse: a beautiful skirt, a tie on a kimono, a belt, a typical form of headdress or a head covering. These items have been 'translated' into bobbin lace.

This very colourful and three-dimensional exhibition shows the 'original' item from the TRC collection, and the modern bobbin lace 'translation'. With each group of textiles there is a workbook with a description of the production process.

7000 years of hand woven textiles in one exhibition!

TRC Gallery exhibition, 26 May – 23 September 2014

The exhibition that opened on the 26th May at the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, is a must for textile lovers and has been especially set up for the national Week van het Weven (27 May – 1 June).

Woman from Lima, Peru, with backstrap loom. Photo: Jefke van Iterson 2014.The exhibition includes some of the oldest textiles in the world. They come from Çatal Hüyük (Turkey). These tiny fragments are about 7000 years old, and what a story they tell about the long history of hand weaving! Other unusual items on display include textiles that were originally wrapped around the Dead Sea Scrolls, examples of Coptic tapestries from Egypt, as well as medieval and Renaissance velvets and silk woven textiles. All of them are hand woven!

The exhibition also includes textiles and handlooms from Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East, including a Bedouin loom from Jordan, as well as a replica of a warp-weighted loom of the type used by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Vikings. Some of the looms on display can be used by the general public.

The exhibition also contains weaving equipment and woven textiles of one of the Grandes Dames of textile archaeology, Grace Crowfoot (1877-1957), who lived and worked in the Middle East between 1909 and 1937. She was one of the first to reconstruct some of the textiles found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and to do so, she constructed a simple frame. Both the frame and one of the replica textiles woven by Grace Crowfoot can be seen in the exhibition.

Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the work of 16+, a group of Dutch weavers who specialize in using looms with sixteen or more shafts. The textiles produced by this group are very varied, from small to large items, some of them are even woven with copper threads. These pieces are new and especially woven for the 'Week van het Weven'.

The exhibition opens on Monday 26th May 2014 for the general public and during the national Week van het Weven (27th May until 1 June) the TRC is open every day including the weekend.

Front panel of a woman's dress from Ghana, with batik image of Africa. TRC collection.The vast continent of Africa is home to a wide range of cultural and ethnic groups, many of whom have their own styles of traditional textiles and garments. For thousands of years these have been used as an important means to show, not only of the group's identity, but also a person's social and economic status, and his or her role within the group. And above that, the textiles also reflect ideas about colour, patterns and iconography, as well as religion and spirituality.

The aim of this exhibition at the TRC Gallery, which runs until 15 May 2014, is to give a feel for this diversity by focusing on various types of garments and textiles from different parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, emphasis is placed on types of fibres used for special garments; on some specific dyeing techniques, and on some of the silhouettes created by the garments and outfits worn by both men and women. Overall, many developments in the use of local and imported textiles have taken place in the 20th and early 21st centuries, and these are reflected in the garments. As a result, there have been some dramatic changes in the fibres used, the dyeing techniques, and the silhouette of Africa and Africans. For a photographic impression of the exhibition, click here.

The exhibition is co-produced with Paul Spijker (Toguna Art), a specialist in African
textiles and artifacts.

This exhibition is completely focussed on embroidery. The exhibition shows a wide range of examples of embroided cloths and garments from all over the world, emphasizing the wide variety of materials, techniques, designs and colours. The exhibition not only shows actual examples, including a large number of completely dressed mannequins with embroidered clothing, but also the tools associated with this ancient craft, and provides detailed information on all the associated technical aspects. The term embroidery is being used in its broadest ‘umbrella’ sense. The exhibition includes (among others) historical and modern examples of free style and counted thread forms, as well as appliqué, couching, drawn and pulled thread work, patchwork, quilting and smocking.

Foto uit ca. 1904 van Henriëtte Braunstahl (1885-1983). TRC Collectie.The first part of the exhibition is used to show technical details such as equipment, thread, ground cloths, and means of transferring a design. The second section uses examples of embroidery from the TRC’s extensive collection, and presents a wide range of forms and uses of this decorative technique from around the world. Truly a source of information and inspiration !

The third section is about a young lady called Henriëtte Braunstahl from Den Haag (1885-1983), who was presented 1904 with a diploma from the Industrieschool voor Meisjes (‘s-Gravenhage) as a handwork teacher. The TRC was given her collection of exercise books, water colour albums, photographs, as well as samples of her work, by Henriëtte Braunstahl’s family a few years ago. The TRC embroidery exhibition is seen as the moment to show the embroidery skills of a girl from over 100 years ago and to illustrate the teaching methods of the time.

To get a feel of the exhibition, see the YouTube film, made by Andrew Thompson, and featuring Shelley Anderson, one of the TRC volunteers, as guide. For a photographic impression, click here.

If you don’t know what all these embroidery terms, such as appliqué, couching, drawn and pulled thread work, patchwork, quilting and smocking, mean exactly, then come and have a look. If you do, then there will be many items on display that will surely inspire you to explore further the amazing world of embroidery!

From 23 January until 29 August 2013, the TRC presents a spectacular exhibition of clothing from Iran in its Leiden gallery. Visitors will be struck by the sheer diversity, the bright colours and multitude of shapes, which constitute such a marked contrast with the dominant perception of Iranian clothing as being dull and uniform.

TRC exhibition "Beyond the Chador". Photographer: Andrew Thompson.Iran is a country with a very ancient and proud history. It is also a country with a harsh climate, with deserts and mountains and an overall lack of water. Formerly known as Persia, it lies at the crossroads between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Iran is also the homeland of many empires, including the Persian Achaemenids, the Parthians, the Sassanians and the Safavids. Over the centuries numerous groups crossed the country, in both directions. Some of the newcomers settled down, others moved on. Nowadays Iran shares frontiers with (clockwise) Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The country’s geography, climate and human history have thus created a complex tapestry that reflects a wide diversity of cultures and traditions. Although rapidly vanishing in some areas due to national pressures and globalization, many aspects of these traditions can still be found in the regional dress of the country, especially that worn by women.

Most of the outfits in the exhibition date from the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and are now housed in the collection of the Textile Research Centre, Leiden. Many of the garments were collected during long periods of field work in Iran between 1998-2003 by Gillian and Willem Vogelsang. The garments originate from among most of the main ethnic groups, plus some smaller ones.

Perhaps you want to see a brief film of the exhibition, then please click here.