Friends of Haptic & Hue

Mary Schoeser is one of the world’s great authorities on textiles. She has devoted her life to understanding textiles and the extraordinary connections between them. Now the Fashion and Textile Museum in London has just opened a new exhibition curated by her. In this month’s Friends of Haptic & Hue we have a special interview with Mary where she talks to us about the exhibition and her thinking behind it. 

Haptic & Hue travels to the unique Westminster Menswear Archive to talk to Professor Andrew Groves about how men see their clothing and how that differs from womenswear. We discuss the incredible range of garments he has gathered in the collection from the beautiful to the unexpected. Amongst the 3,000 items are silk brocade waistcoats, utterly functional diving suits, string vests, mid century industrial workwear, smart blazers and even
prison uniforms.

This month we find out about a mystery collection of lace donated to the New York Met in 1908 that has been called the Rosetta Stone of lace. We hear how DNA technology is being used to unravel the secrets of ancient clothing and where it came from, and there is news of a survey of all Scotland’s Bronze Age sites.

As 2024 comes to a close, we wanted to send the year away with a look back at some of your favourite episodes of Haptic & Hue. We learn a great deal from researching and putting together each one, but we wondered: what do they add up to? Does paying close attention to textiles down the ages reframe our history in a fresh way?

To celebrate Friends of Haptic & Hue’s second birthday and to mark your support to the podcast, we have adopted two stitches at the Royal School of Needlework’s famed Stitchbank. Stitchbank is an incredible effort to document every stitch in the world as a living heritage and to prevent them from being lost to us as part of human knowledge. Find out more about the two stitches that will have Friends of Haptic & Hue’s name on them and the stories behind them.

For the poor of the Victorian era the fun and interesting jumble or rummage sales were a serious business and a vital resource to help find the clothes necessary to send their children to school and dress themselves. Emma Donovan’s new research explores their hidden stories and origins dating back to the Victorians.

Woven through the fabric of the city of New York are the textile traditions of the people who made the journey across the Atlantic to seek a better life. New York is a celebration of the contribution of waves of talented immigrants and the efforts of passionate craftspeople who continue the savoir-faire of their ancestors today. There is so much to see and to do – this is a selection of our favourites to help you negotiate your way through all that is on offer.

Venice is one of the great textile cities of the world. For centuries it was a centre of intense cultural activity and exchange across the Mediterranean. Venice has always been a place where original design and superb craftsmanship is prized and rewarded. That is still true today. You can discover the traditional lace makers and the carnival costume creators, the private collections where you can see antique embroidery and handwoven silks, and find the last studio in Venice where they weave figured velvets by hand.
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Lyon is a fantastic city for the traveller interested in textiles. It is the birthplace of the famous Jacquard loom and was once the beating heart of Europe’s luxury textile industry. Thousands of silk weavers once made this their home turning out some of the finest fabrics of the day. There is a huge amount to explore, from historic silk weavers’ studios to secret passageways that wind their way under the old houses. Along with it comes a great deal of good food!