What’s in a carpet? Discover the hidden histories woven into the world’s most coveted textiles. In this episode of Travels with Textiles, the historian, Dorothy Armstrong, discusses her new book Threads of Empire, revealing how carpets—from Japan to Romania and Siberia to the Sahara—became symbols...
Was Marie Antoinette a fashion victim who met a tragic end, or a visionary style icon whose influence still shapes fashion today? In this episode of Haptic and Hue’s Travels with Textiles, we explore the opulent world of 18th-century France through the new exhibition, Marie...
Danish textiles take centre stage for the first time at Copenhagen’s Design Museum, celebrating a century of innovative—and often overlooked—female designers. This episode also journeys into the past with Bog Fashion, a guide to recreating Bronze and Iron Age clothing, and brings things right up...
Five thousand years ago, weavers in southern Egypt were given an unusual task: please create a linen shroud for an elephant. In this episode of Travels with Textiles, we explore why we know this commission was made and what it tells us about ancient societies....
A new project by the University of Bergen is documenting the traditional clothing skills of Arctic peoples from Greenland, Western Canada, and the European Arctic. Jo and Bill explore the university’s unique low-oxygen collection, featuring garments like sealskin trousers, bear gut coveralls, and walrus-toggle anoraks....
Edinburgh is a wonderful city for the textile enthusiast to spend time in, one that gathers together the finest of the textiles Scotland is famous for: this is where you will find the world's best tartans, tweeds, and cashmere, as well as a tradition of...
It's not often that UNESCO adds a textile skill to its list of the world's intangible cultural heritage. But today, thanks to the work of Dr Jess Bailey and Deb McGuire, rocking stitch in a flat frame, or whole cloth quilting, is being added to...
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...
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...
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...