A short video showing the work of user researchers at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) – featuring Anna Rzepczynski who I taught* when she studied Textile Design at the University of Dundee!
*she might beg to differ 😉
Category: Textiles
A plain woman’s guide to nylon for her husband
A brilliant (for all the wrong reasons) article from 1958 in which a Guardian journalist pondered the place of nylon in a man’s wardrobe.
Does the tired business man slosh it through in the bathroom basin, rinse, and drape over the edge of the bath or over the towel rail, to leave a puddle on the floor which is bound before long to rot the linoleum? Or does he leave it for his wife to run through in the morning? She would undoubtedly rather do her washing in bulk, however thankful she is to lighten the load of her ironing.
Who can argue that these are pressing issues? (no pun intended – unless you laughed).
Read the full story here – honestly, it’s well worth it!
The handknitted ‘trauma teddies’ comforting child refugees
Marion Gibson first started knitting “trauma teddies” 15 years ago, after she saw firefighters in Australia give cuddly toys to children fleeing bush fires. After seeing how much comfort they gave them she started making gifts for children caught up in hurricanes, conflicts and other disasters around the world. Now, she is doing the same for refugee children. “I think there’s something about a cuddly toy which is very reminiscent of a time when you were safe as a little one”, said Marion, a volunteer for the British Red Cross, one of six charities chosen as beneficiaries of the Guardian and Observer’s refugee appeal.
The Fabric of India: Victoria and Albert Museum
I took the opportunity to visit this exhibition at the V&A recently and it is really very good. A far cry from the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition in the same rooms last summer. And yet, for all its quiet unassuming nature in many ways this is the more appealing. Less about spectacle and more about the craft of textile production, the exhibition includes several short videos showing the laborious techniques used to create the materials on display. Having said that, it is still rather spectacular.
It’s scandalously short-lived, this exhibition – it closes on 10 January 2016 so go see it now while you can.
India’s handmade textiles are embedded in every aspect of its identity. The history of these fabrics date back at least 6000 years. Courtly splendour was proclaimed by sumptuous fabrics, while religious worship still finds expression through sacred cloths. Centuries of global trade have been shaped by the export of Indian textiles and patterns, in demand around the world. These celebrated hand-made textiles even survived the threat of industrialisation, instead uniting India as symbols of power and protest. Today, young designers are adapting traditional making techniques to create exciting new fashion, art and design for a global audience, giving India’s textile history a new relevance in the modern world.