Two Manchester students at the TRC Intensive Textile Course, March 2018.This last few weeks have had a Manchester flavour! And I am not talking about football teams. On the 6th-7th March, I was in Manchester, UK, to discuss the various ways the TRC Leiden and the Manchester School of Art (part of the Manchester Metropolitan University) could work together. The School is geared towards the training of textile designers who specialise in a variety of subjects, such as embroidery, knitting, printing and weaving. These subjects include both hand and machine forms. There is also a large fashion department training the students to design future fashions.

I was asked to give a lecture on the 7th March to a group of students under the X-Initiative (crossing), including students from various textile and fashion backgrounds who are coming together to hear lectures that should inspire them. My lecture was about how I got into textiles (at a very young age), my early training as a textile historian (at what is now the Manchester Metropolitan University), my career as a textile archaeologist in the Middle East, and, of course, the work of the TRC Leiden as a source of research, presentation and inspiration. There then followed various meetings with the staff to discuss possible ways we can work together. This will include sending Manchester students to the TRC to help photograph, catalogue and run a ‘small’ textile and dress collection.

The first of the students have now arrived, and they will stay in Leiden for two months. They are Kate Askham and Kazna Asker, who are both fashion students. Kate is interested in going into the museum world, so there is plenty of work to do here! Kazna is interested in using ethnic dress as a source of inspiration for her work. Her family originates from Yemen, so we are going to help explore her cultural heritage by cataloguing the TRC’s Yemeni dress collection and prepare a digital exhibition on this theme.

But before all of that can happen they are taking part in the TRC's five-day intensive textile course. They, and the other course participants are looking at textiles from fibre to the end product. Lots to do and learn. This course is very practically orientated and will be re-run in April, October and November of 2018. Both Kate and Kazna will be publishing blogs about their experiences in Leiden and it will be interesting to see what they have to say.