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The Textile Research Centre, Leiden.For three years starting mid-2026, the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, is offering a total of seven junior and four senior fellowships for up to six months each. The fellowships are being sponsored by the Gieskes-Strijbis Foundation, Amsterdam. Fellows are invited to carry out research based on the TRC’s extensive textiles and dress collection. The junior fellows will be supervised and assisted by TRC staff; senior fellows will carry out independent research.

The TRC will regularly advertise for the fellowships. Fellows are selected by a special committee of TRC staff and/or Board members after, if appropriate, the advice of external specialists.

The first fellow, appointed per 1 April, is Flora Kovacs-Wester, who on 23 May 2026 wrote an interim report.

We are now opening the second round of the fellowships that covers:

• Two junior positions
• One senior position

These will be starting in October 2026 (with a degree of flexibility), for a duration of up to 6 months. Applications for these positions should be submitted by email to the TRC by 20 June 2026 (Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.)  with the reference: ‘Fellowship programme Junior/ Senior' (depending on the position applied for).

In diverse recente blogs hebben we verwezen naar de behoefte van het TRC aan extra opslagruimte voor de TRC-collectie. We hebben meer informatie beloofd en die volgt nu!

Voorzijde van pand Boerhaavelaan 6, het nieuwe onderkomen van het TRC. De Annex wordt links van het huis geplaatst.

Zoals u wellicht weet, is het TRC Leiden een internationaal kenniscentrum voor textiel dat onlangs is verhuisd naar een nieuw pand (Boerhaavelaan 6, Leiden) dankzij de hulp van de Leidse gemeente, de semi-overheidsorganisatie Monumentenbezit en vele anonieme weldoeners.

Het gebouw (B6) is een stadsvilla uit circa 1909, die in de jaren twintig werd uitgebreid. Het was bijna honderd jaar lang de woning van één familie, de Barge-Nauta's (zie een recent TRC-blogbericht).

Het TRC beheert momenteel een collectie van meer dan 54.000 geregistreerde textiel-, kleding- en accessoirestukken. De collectie omvat objecten van over de hele wereld (cultuur en textiel kennen geen kunstmatige grenzen), daterend van de prehistorie tot heden. We hebben bijvoorbeeld enkele van de oudste textielfragmenten ter wereld, maar ook moderne objecten die actuele gebeurtenissen en trends weerspiegelen.

De collectie is een van de grootste in dit deel van Europa, en we zijn ons er terdege van bewust dat deze in de toekomst verder zal groeien. Het is een collectie die mensen kunnen bekijken, aanraken en voelen, en waar ze inspiratie uit kunnen putten.

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.

TRC Intensieve Textielcursus, studenten aan de slagDeze cursus wordt sinds vele jaren gegeven door mevr. dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood en trekt belangstellenden uit de hele wereld. De cursus combineert theorie met praktijk, met een nadruk op het uitproberen van verschillende technieken zoals spinnen, weven en verven, het onderzoeken en analyseren van organische en niet-organische vezels, en het bestuderen van complete stoffen.

Het is de bedoeling dat studenten leren wat er precies gebeurt rond de productie van textiel en welke combinaties van technieken kunnen worden gebruikt. Textiel, uit welke tijd of welke cultuur dan ook, kan daardoor beter worden begrepen. Gebruik wordt gemaakt van de enorme textiel- en kledingcollectie van het TRC. De cursus is een 'must' voor iedereen die betrokken is bij de studie van archeologisch, historisch of modern textiel, voor designers en mode-studenten, en in het algemeen voor iedereen die serieus is geïnteresseerd in alle aspecten van textiel, en meer wil weten en oefenen.

Cursussen in 2026: 22-26 juni; 10-14 aug; 12-16 okt.

In 2027: 22-26 febr.; 19-23 april; 21-25 juni; 23-27 aug.; 25-29 okt. 

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.