Blog

The last few days have been very busy at the TRC, especially as I was asked to go to London to give a lecture about Iranian regional dress. So early on Thursday (21st April), I flew to London. In the morning I had an appointment at Hand & Lock, a hand embroidery company that dates back to the late eighteenth century. It specialises in military embroidery using various gold work techniques, as well as machine embroidered patches, and so forth. They also make dresses and garments for film and pop stars and royalty from around the world. I was given a conducted tour of the premises as well as having the chance to meet various members of staff and to discuss how we can work together. Lots of potential, including shared exhibitions, reference collections of military laces, and so forth. They also have a very interesting archive that I would love to dive into, especially the folders marked Iraq and Oman that date back to the first half of the 20th century.

The next appointment was with a colleague who works at Bloomsbury Press (who are the publishers of The Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World, 2016). We are discussing the possibility of the TRC producing two more books about the history of embroidery and to make it into a series. We will shortly hear if Bloomsbury is officially interested and if yes, we will let you know.

And then in the evening I gave a lecture for the Iranian Society (London) at the Army and Navy Club. I should like to thank Janet Rady and Antony Wynn for asking me to come and give the lecture and for their hospitality in London. It was much appreciated. The lecture was based on one I gave in Edinburgh last year and is about how the TRC came to have the largest collection of Iranian regional dress outside of Iran. There were many people attending the lecture and the feedback was very positive, if not a little surprised that such a collection actually exists in Europe. This was one of the main reasons I gave the lecture, so that more attention can be given to the collection. I also announced that we are now looking for €8000 to pay for the collection to be properly catalogued and photographed, prior to it coming on-line on the TRC Collection Database, as well as for illustrations in the book we are currently writing about Iranian regional dress based on the TRC items.

In 2013, I would like to add, the TRC staged a large exhibition about Iranian regional dress called Beyond the Chador, which included 83 outfits, plus individual items. The items used in this exhibition are available to other suitable institutes should they wish to put on such a diverse and colourful exhibition.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 26 April 2016 

"Dat jurkje is hier vlakbij uit zee opgevist." ('That dress was fished out of the sea nearby').

This afternoon Gillian and I spent a few hours on a boat out shrimp fishing off the coast of the island of Texel, in the north of The Netherlands. At a certain moment the captain told us that 'that dress' was found nearby. He referred to an early 17th century dress that was found some two years ago underwater, in a chest covered with sand, near the island of Texel. The find was only made public some ten days ago, and since last week it can be seen in a local museum, Kaap Skil, in the village of Oudeschild, on Texel. It drew attention from all over the world.

The dress of Jean Kerr, found off the coast of Texel.The dress was of course the reason that Gillian and I, after attending a wedding in Alkmaar, travelled north yesterday evening, took the ferry to Texel, and checked in at an idyllic hotel at the little harbour of Oudeschild. First thing this morning we went to the local museum and there it was, beautifully displayed together with other finds from the same shipwreck. The dress almost looks as if it was worn yesterday and thrown into the laundry basket. It is incredible that the garment has been preserved underwater for so long.

I don't have to refer to the details of the dress. Much has been published about it in recent days (see also the TRC facebook pages). We now know it was part of the wardrobe of a lady at the court of the British King, Charles I, who around 1642 sent his eleven-year old daughter, Mary, to Holland to join her husband, William II of the House of Orange. The young girl was accompanied by her mother, the Queen, and many followers. Yet, the real reason for the diplomatic mission may have been to send his jewellery and other valuables over to Holland for safe keeping in the face of the growing opposition led by Cromwell. The revolt of the Parliamentarians, as you know, would eventually cost the king his throne and his head.

Twelve ships brought the Queen and her daughter to Holland, together with the valuables of the king and his followers. One of these ships was shipwrecked off the coast of Texel, and that particular ship contained the wardrobe of one of the British ladies. From recovered contemporary correspondence we now seem to know the name of the owner of the dress. It was Jean Kerr (1585-1643), the Countess of Roxburghe, who was 57 at the time. She was (partly) identified because of her dress size, namely what is now size 42. She was a Catholic, and lady-in-waiting to Henrietta Maria, the French wife of King Charles I, and the mother of the young bride. When the news of the shipwreck reached England, one of the opponents of the King gleefully said that the Ladies and their maids now had to cover themselves in Dutch cloth. Whether or not wearing Dutch clothing is such a bad thing I could not honestly say, but sadly she did not survive the loss of her clothing for long.

Willem Vogelsang, 23 April 2016

Chris Lebeau, 1878-1945

The TRC has just been given a collection of textile books for its library. Among the many items was a thin booklet with the title, Catalogus van Lakens en Sloopen van E.J.F. van Dissel en Zonen te Eindhoven. The booklet dates from about 1911/12. The company of Van Dissel was set up in the early 1870s by the Rev. E.J.F. van Dissel, initially in the village of Bladel in the eastern part of the Netherlands and from 1873 it was established in nearby Stratum (near the town of Eindhoven).

From 1890 the company was run by other members of the Van Dissel family and it developed into a large linen concern that employed a number of famous Dutch designers, as well as hundreds of workers. Van Dissel fused with another Dutch company, Van den Briel and Verster (also known as the Koninklijke Eindhovensche Damast-Linnen & Pellen Fabriek), in 1963. The factory was closed in 1971.

The booklet given to the TRC is basically a sales catalogue of designs for hand and machine embroidery that could be worked on Napkins, with designs by Chris Lebeau.pillows and sheets intended to make up part of a bride’s dowry. There are over forty designs in the book that was intended to show how pillow covers and sheets could be used together to create various artistic scenes. There is also a section on monograms that could be worked by the company or at home.

The embroidery designs and illustrations in the sales catalogue were produced by the Dutch illustrator, painter and graphic designer, but also anarchist and vegetarian, Chris (Joris Johannes Christiaan) Lebeau (1878-1945). He worked for Van Dissel in the early part of the twentieth century. He also worked for a number of other companies, including those producing flags and banners, glass wear and graphic designs. Between 1926-1928, for example, he made wall paintings for the Old-Catholic Church (built in 1926; Zouterwoudsesingel 49), in Leiden. He even produced a series of Dutch stamps called the Vliegende Duif (“Flying dove”), which were available in the Netherlands from 1924, and which were again issued in 1941.

Lebeau was also famous for his graphic textile designs that were used for batiks, curtains and tapestries. But he was particularly known for his wide range of patterns for woven linen items, such as damask table cloths, serviettes, pillow cases and sheets. It is some of these designs that are illustrated in the catalogue.

Just before the beginning of the Second World War (1939-1945), Lebeau entered into a fake marriage with a German Jewish refugee in order to help her staying in Holland. During the war itself he used his artistic talents to create false identity papers for various people. He was arrested in November 1943 and sent to Dachau concentration camp where he died on 2 April 1945. American troops entered the camp on the 28th. An exhibition of Lebeau's work was set up in the Drents Museum, Assen, in 1987.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 19 April 2016

Dutch stamps (the Vliegende Duif series) designed by Chris Lebeau

Four traditional men's belts from Romania. TRC collection.It has been an exciting day at the TRC (when is it not?). As you may know, in January (2016) we heard about a large collection of European regional dress that was looking for a new home and the TRC agreed to help out. Thanks to the support of various members of the Nederlandse Kostuumvereniging and a very generous donation from Rotary Leiden, we have been able to cover the main costs of bringing the collection to Leiden and purchasing storage racks. Other donations, including one particular donation from Australia, means we have enough money to cover the boxes, etc. And today, 2nd April, saw the first batch of the collection coming to the TRC. The second group of items will be coming in two weeks.

Dressed figures, outfits, individual garments and textiles, all arrived this afternoon in numerous boxes and by the rack load. We are now busy sorting out  and examining the contents, working out where items come from and what they go with. There are many items from Germany, including a wide range of 20th century women's caps decorated with embroidery, ribbons and in some cases pom-poms. There are also outfits from the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, as well as Lapland. And that is just in the boxes and on the mannequins. We have not yet opened the clothing bags that are hanging from two large racks. We will be cataloguing those next week. The exciting job, which is made a little harder because we are not sure what will come in the second batch of the collection. But that is what makes working at the TRC fun, challenging and inspirational.Close-up of leather-embroidered traditional Romanian belt. TRC collection.

In August 2016 we are going to use many of these items in an exhibition about European regional dress, with an emphasis on embroidered and beaded items. It is going to be a colourful display that will include some unusual items. More details to come .....

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 2 April 2016

Since I started working as an intern/volunteer at the TRC in January 2016, I have been involved in the process of cataloguing textiles and dress-related gifts by generous donors. Every time a guest arrives at the TRC with a donation, I am curious and excited to learn what is in that mysterious bag or box they have with them. And every textile has its own story, big or small. I would like to highlight the story of a very special donation that the TRC recently received, from a donor who wants to remain anonymous.

The donation concerns a wedding outfit from the 1974 Spring/Summer collection of the famous Dutch fashion designer, Frank Govers (1932–1997). It consists of a wedding dress, made of heavy cream white fabric, with yellow flower appliqué at the bottom of the dress. The dress, which is very wide, has a low neckline, and long, wide sleeves, which have a remarkable large opening along the arms. The large, circular tulle veil ought to be placed on top of the head, and secured with a long, narrow scarf made of yellow silk fabric that one ties around the head like a crown. Two big, yellow flowers, made of artificial silk, were then fastened to the hair at the height of the ears.

This ensemble was purchased by the bride herself at Govers’s atelier for 1400 guilders, a considerable sum in those days. At the moment of purchase, the dress was too long for her, so the atelier adjusted the dress to fit. However, besides being too long, the dress was also too wide for the ‘petite’ bride at the neck line. She cleverly concealed this by wearing the yellow silk scarf and the flowers around her neck, instead of the way described above. This beautiful bride married on the 28th of June, 1974. In the picture you see her together with her little niece, who was her bridesmaid, wearing a dress by the famous Welsh fashion designer Laura Ashley (1925–1985), a very en vogue choice at that time.

The bridal dress can be seen at the TRC upon request.

Nelleke Honcoop, 18 March 2016

Congregation in a Coptic church, Egypt. Photograph by Tineke Rooijakkers.Thursday, 10 March 2016, was a special day for various reasons, but mostly because of the defence of her PhD thesis, by Tineke Rooijakkers. Tineke became part of the TRC family when she was a first year archaeology student and attended a lecture I gave about archaeological textiles. It apparently made sense to her and she has been following and studying dress and identity and Middle Eastern textiles ever since. Initially she was helping at the TRC as a student volunteer, later she was working with the collection, helping visitors, and writing a BA thesis on dress, and so forth.

All of this led to her working on a PhD as part of a project organised by Prof. Bas ter Haar Romeny (Amsterdam University, VU; and TRC board member) about Coptic identity in Egypt, with Prof. ter Haar as supervisor, and dr Mat Immerzeel and myself as co-supervisors. Her thesis looks at dress and identity in both antiquity and the present. It is called Dress Norms and Markers. A comparative study of Coptic identity and dress in the past and present. Much to Tineke’s surprise (but nobody else's), her thesis not only gave her the title of Dr. but also a cum laude, which within the Dutch academic system is the highest distinction you can achieve.

Well done Tineke, we are very proud of you.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 13 March 2016

Courtesy APThe Boston Museum of Fine Arts recently stopped visitors from trying on a kimono and posing in front of a painting by Monet of a woman wearing this characteristic Japanese garment. There was also a production of Gilbert & Sulivan's 'Mikado' that was apparently cancelled. Why were people not allowed to wear a kimono? Why was watching the Mikado considered improper? What had the organisors done wrong? Well, they committed the unforgiveable sin of what in Boston was called 'cultural appropriation'. It is about, shock horror, adopting aspects from one culture and incorporating it into your own. It is about a Westerner practising yoga, eating Chinese food, wearing a kimono, watching the Mikado, and, to cap it all, sin of all sins, wearing a sombrero at a party (I am not joking). Perhaps you should look at the photograph of three young women (I think they are Mexican, although wearing very 'Western' style clothing) protesting in the Boston museum against people wearing a kimono. Some of the words they use are Orientalism, Exotification (sic), Dehumanization. And of course, racism is also mentioned.

Actually, the term is used incorrectly. In earlier days the phrase cultural appropriation was used when a certain aspect of a culture is appropriated by another and the origins deliberately obscured or misrepresented. The term was used, for example, for Palestinian garments being sold as 'Israeli'.

But apart from the incorrect application of the word, the events in Boston remain remarkable. It is easy to make jokes about this movement and about the long words that are being used. May Mexicans or Japanese eat a pizza, and if so, are they involved in cultural appropriation? But there is much more than that. I understand that minority groups need, and have every right to fight for their position in society, and use various means to achieve this objective. These means are fortunately often symbolic. In Holland it is the saga of Zwarte Piet; in other cultures it may be a particular statue (in Oxford plans were only recently scrapped to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes), changing a street name, or whatever. In many cases the minority groups are absolutely right in demanding these changes.

But this new wave of denouncing what is called cultural appropriation goes much further than that. It means that people in the Western world (I understand it is only the Western world that is at fault) should distance themselves from other cultures, look at them as strange, not to be touched (literally), and in fact, contrary to what the protesters in Boston want, regard these 'other' cultures as exotic. And what does it mean for those who are born in those 'other' cultures? Do they have to remain there, and retain and defend to the death their inherited culture? Are the three young women in Boston, enjoying no doubt the advantages of Western life, going to tell their Mexican (?) family that they should go on living as they always did? I think the campaign against what is called cultural appropriation leads to something else, namely folklorisation, which, as I interpret it, is the framing of other people and their culture into a romantic mould that clearly separates 'them' from 'us'. 

In a recent article published by the BBC (11 March, "A point of view: When does borrowing from other cultures become ' appropriation'?"), it is clearly explained that the sharing of different aspects of culture helps towards a better understanding of other people and even to celebrate other cultures. At the TRC in Leiden, the visitors enjoy wearing a kimono, a burqa, or a Mexican sombrero, so that they can have the chance to learn about other cultures. Knowledge, and direct experiences with other cultures, stimulate understanding. Creating a distance between cultures leads to ignorance and misunderstanding.

Willem Vogelsang, 13 March 2016

New outfit for Afghan national women's soccer teamWomen want to play football, also in Afghanistan, but what should they wear? Not a simple question in a country that is so deeply conservative and torn apart by more than thirty years of civil war. On the 8th of March, International Women's Day, the national women's team of Afghanistan showed its new hijabi outfit, which covers them from head to toe. The outfit includes a close fitting body shirt with sleeves, a hood and leggings; a jersey; and shorts. The new outfit was designed by the Danish sportswear firm of Hummel. Its owner wrote on the Hummel website: "We don't sponsor the biggest teams in the world, but we make partnerships with teams and clubs with a story to tell, like Afghanistan". Khalida Popal, a former captain of the team, tells that "this new uniform represents the past. This new uniform represents the future." And, as such, Popal tells, this new uniform represents the true makeup and the true objective of her national team.

The home stadium of the Afghan national teams is what is popularly known as the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul, which in the 1990s was the location of public executions, including those of 'adulterous' women, by the then Taliban rulers. Looking at the women's outfit it may look somewhat weird to Westerners, but considering the history of women's position in Afghanistan, this space suit nevertheless shows, I think, enormous progress.

Willem Vogelsang, 9 March 2016