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This year, the TRC in Leiden is exhibiting a large number of American quilts. The TRC does so through the current American Quilts exhibition, and from September as part of an exhibition about textiles, dress and World War II. This display will include a number of relief-quilts made by the Mennonite community in the USA and Canada during the war to be sent to Europe to provide warmth and protection to the refugees in war-torn Europe. 

The Bible Quilt, completed by Harriet Powers in 1886.

Dress with long train from the island of Socotra (TRC 2017.0242). The dress is more than two metres long; the front reaches to the knees. The back of the dress includes the long train. Socotra is a small island in the Gulf of Aden, between the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. You may never have heard about it, but this weekend it reached the world’s headlines because of an attempt by some of the local people to make themselves independent of nearby Yemen. Mainland Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that still continues, so the attempt to cut links with Yemen are understandable.

I won’t go into the political details, but what struck me was the information that journalists must desparately have been collecting about this place, in order to provide some couleur locale. They could have written something about its human history, which goes back for thousands of years. The island features already in a two thousand year old sea manual for the trade between Roman Egypt and India. But what the media came up with was that the island was famous for a particular tree, the Dragon’s Blood tree, and for the Socotra cormorant, which is a type of sea-bird.

Now trees and birds are enormously important, but my well-informed spouse also knew about the island, not because of its ancient history or a type of sea-bird, but because of a particular type of dress worn by the local women. It has a very long train that is, so we assume, wrapped around the body, forming some sort of second covering. In all, the dress is more than two metres long, and decorated with embroidery and/or silver-coloured bands on the front and back.

The Textile Research Centre in Leiden has two examples of this unique form of garment, both dating to the late twentieth or early twenty-first centuries (TRC 2015.0551 and TRC 2017.0242).

The cover page of the latest issue of The Journal of Dress History shows a detail of an early nineteenth century lace veil, which is now housed in the collection of the TRC in Leiden (TRC 2014.0381). The veil once belonged to Queen Anna Paulowna (1795-1865), a daughter of the Russian czar Paul I. She was the wife of the Dutch king, Willem II. The photograph was taken by Joost Kolkman, one of the TRC webmasters and a professional photographer.

Summer 2020 Cover

T-shirt referring to the legendary eye-sight test of the British official, Dominic Cummings, to Barnard Castle (TRC 2020.3015).The TRC has now been officially open for two weeks and things are (slowly) beginning to get back to normal. Visitors are coming in – usually by appointment, but very occasionally simply drawn in by the wonderful and colourful quilts that are on display in the Gallery.

Throughout our premises there are bottles of soaps and hand cleaners. There are face masks available should people wish to use them. These are important because guided tours, courses and workshops have started again. We have to get used to the smaller numbers of participants, but it makes it more personal and more time can be spent on the many questions and comments. Because of these limited numbers we are repeating various workshops on different days and many events are already full. So if you are interested in attending something (see the programme), please email and register as soon as possible (Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.).

If allowing a woman to cover her face in public is a matter for discussion and, at times, heated debate, then the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the discussion of face coverings to an entirely new level. Depending on your perspective, the COVID face mask is political, fashionable, essential -- and is being produced in quantities like never before.

A group of people standing outdoors wearing masks over their mouths. This was probably during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. One of the women has a sign in front of her reading 'Wear a mask or go to jail." Courtesy Digital Public Library America.

During the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, individuals, corporations, and governments faced similar challenges to those confronted today. American cities that passed masking ordinances in the autumn of 1918 struggled to enforce them among the small portion of people who rebelled. Some even poked holes in their masks in order to smoke. Common punishments were fines, prison sentences, and having your name printed in the newspaper.

Queen Victoria's wedding dress, RCIN 71975.A recent TRC blog on a wedding dress (3 May 2020) made me look closer at the fascinating history of wedding clothes. Wedding dresses are seen as very traditional garments, but they can also reflect surprisingly contemporary history and social issues.

Two of the wedding dresses in the TRC collection, one Dutch (TRC 2019.2154), the other American (TRC 2020.2126), reflect both the scarcity of materials and the make-do attitudes of the Second World War.

A burgundy coloured bow tie (TRC 2019.1614) in the TRC’s LGBTQ+ collection, which I wore at my own wedding, reflects a groundbreaking December 2000 law that made the Netherlands the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriages.

Suzan Sukari (right) and her daughter (left), wearing modern charugas.On Sunday, 31st May 2020, Fatima Abbadi from Capelle aan den IJssel in The Netherlands, who recently has been writing various blogs for the TRC about her teaching of Middle Eastern embroidery to immigrant women and others, wrote about a particular type of embroidery from a Christian community in northern Iraq:

In 2016 I had the privilege to view a rare festive garment, called a charuga, from the city of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq. It dated back to the mid-20th century. It was love at first sight. What attracted me most was the traditional, geometric pattern that is unique to this type of attire, contrary to the Palestinian garments which I am far more familiar with.

The complete festive outfit consisted of several garments, completed by the charuga, a sort of mantle-like, embroidered piece of attire  (in this case red ), which is traditionally knotted at the shoulder. The embroidery and its patterns are unique. I had never seen it before, which makes it more fascinating and mysterious at the same time.

Mannequin with face mask, decorated with Paisley motifs. Photograph by Gillian Vogelsang.We have just been putting up (or rather re-putting up) the TRC’s American Quilts exhibition. It really looks good and has some lovely and intriguing quilts. The exhibition opens on the 2nd June and has been extended until the end of August so you have time to come and see it. The TRC’s visitor’s protocol can be found here. We can only welcome a limited number of visitors at any one time. You are therefore kindly asked to tell us in advance if and when you are coming! (please send us an email: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.). 

We have slightly re-arranged the shop, so that payments by pin (card) can be made from a distance. TRC volunteer Beverley Bennett has also made a series of special face masks for the TRC and these may be borrowed during your visit, should you wish it. The illustration here shows a mannequin wearing one of Beverley's face masks. It is decorated with Paisley motifs, in anticipation of the big TRC exhibition about the Paisley motif (or buteh, in Persian/Indian terms) planned for next year.

Setting up again the American Quilts exhibition at the TRC. Photograph by Gillian Vogelsang.I am very curious about the range, types and styles of face masks people will be making and wearing over the next few weeks/months! It may not surprise you that we are making a small Corona collection for the TRC, which reflects textile happenings during this strange period. This includes, of course, a variety of commercial and domestically made masks, T-shirts with relevant slogans in various languages, and a de-stressing embroidery entitled ‘Be Well 2020’. We are also trying to get some of the designer (Gucci, etc) face masks…. Other ideas, suggestions and, of course, donations of actual objects, would be most welcome.

Gillian Vogelsang, Friday 29th May, 2020.