Autumn Newsletter 2016

Contents Page News 3-7 Exhibitions and Events 7-26 Books 26-29

Editor: Paula Martin

Front cover image: Corset, cotton, whalebone, about 1890. Museum no. T.90-1984. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Part of Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear

News

DATS Conference, 3-4 November 2016, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

In response to feedback from DATS members the theme for this year’s annual training conference is ‘Unlocking the Commercial Potential of Fashion and Textile Collections’.

Booking is now open at http://www.dressandtextilespecialists.org.uk/event/dats- conference-2016/

In the current financial climate, many museums are facing unprecedented pressure on their budgets, with an increased emphasis on income generation. This year the DATS conference will take place at the National Museum of Scotland, to coincide with the opening of four new art and design galleries, which includes a dedicated fashion gallery. Speakers from a variety of backgrounds will discuss innovative approaches to income generation and share their knowledge and experience with colleagues. We hope that the conference will provide delegates with practical skills and act as a forum for lively discussion.

DAY 1 Thursday 3rd November 2016

09:30 – 10:00 Registration and Coffee. Welcome and Introduction 10:00 – 11:30 Session 1 Product Development and Creative Collaborations • Alan Shaw and Helena Brit (Glasgow School of Art) Classic Textiles: Commercialising 20th Century Designs through Digital Technology • Heather Audin (Quilt Museum) ‘Elizabeth’s Dowry’: Creating a new reproduction fabric line from the Mariner’s Compass Coverlet. • Ben Divall (textile curator and director, Kmossed silk scarves) Digital technologies, creativity, and commercial returns : a Kmossed silk commission for 575 Wandsworth Road 11:10 – 11:30 Questions 11:30 – 12:00 Tea and coffee

12:00 – 13:00 Session 2 Engaging New Audiences: Exhibitions and Events • Ciara Phipps and Claire Reed (Southend Museums) ‘Beauty and the Beach’ - Touring historic swimwear: how and why! • Kathrin Pieren (Petersfield Museum) History on the catwalk: a fundraising event inspired by a dress collection. 12:40 – 13:00 Questions

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch (provided)

14:00 -15:30 Session 3 Copyright, Intellectual Property and Commerce • Roxanne Peters (Victoria and Albert Museum) Fashion and IP: Creator, Curator, Consumer- Behind the scenes at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. • Catherine Gillies (Dunolie Museum) Tartan Gold Dust: from Discovery to Costume Bonanza.

• Rebecca Shawcross and Eilidh Young (Northampton Museums) Virtually Shoes: Is the future E-commerce? 15:10 – 15:30 Questions 15:30 – 16:00 Coffee

16:00 – 17:00 Session 4 Creative Approaches to Publishing • Celia Joicey and Dennis Northdruff (Fashion and Textile Museum) How to Draw Like a Designer: Unlocking the Commercial Potential of Fashion Publishing. Key Note 1 Mark Eastment (Yale University Press) Is it possible to produce and sell a book to promote a collection, research project or exhibition, cost effectively, well and hopefully even seeing a financial return? 16:50 – 17:10 Questions 17:10 – 17:30 Round up of the day and discussion led by DATS chair Edwina Ehrman

Optional Visit to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Meal at a local restaurant

DAY 2 Friday 4th November 2016 09:15 – 10:00 AGM, Registration and coffee 10:00 – 11:30 Session 1 Curator led tours of the new Art & Design galleries at National Museums Scotland 11:30 – 12:00 Tea and coffee 12:00 – 13:00 Session 2 • Mairi MacKenzi (Glasgow School of Art)Title TBC • Key Note 2 Charlotte di Corpo (Glasgow Museums) and Margaret Clift McNulty (National Museums Scotland) Fundraising: the Fabric of your Future Success. 12:50 – 13:00 Questions 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch (provided) 14:00 – 17:00 Session 3 Delegates will be able to choose between trips and tours including: • Dovecot Tapestry Studio Dovecot Gallery Curator Kate Greyner will give an introduction to the history of Dovecot Studios, formerly the Edinburgh Tapestry Company. Delegates will also have the opportunity to view the tapestry weavers in action from the viewing balcony, situated in a restored Victorian swimming pool. • National Museums Scotland Collections Centre and conservation lab Join NMS curators and conservators to view the fashion and textile stores including some highlight objects and the paper and textile conservation lab. • Science and Technology galleries, National Museums Scotland Science and Technology curator Elsa Cox will provide an introduction to the new galleries at NMS, focussing on objects and narratives relating to the textile industry.

Please direct any enquiries to: conference@dressandtextilespecialists.

Dear Members This is just a gentle reminder that your annual subscription fee to DATS was due for renewal on the 1st of September. Thank you to those who have already paid. For those who still need to renew payment can be made via Standing Order, BACS payment, Paypal (through the website) or by cheque (according to your personal preference). Full details can be found on the website http://www.dressandtextilespecialists.org.uk/membership/ and any queries should be addressed to [email protected].

Membership entitles you to the discounted conference fee rate and to attend any training events or group meet-ups which Regional Representatives organise throughout the year.

Members are also added to the group email list. This can be used to circulate enquiries about objects, research and to share information about exhibitions, events, projects and new acquisitions. The DATS committee uses it to circulate the bi-annual newsletter and details about the annual conference.

All members of DATS are encouraged to use this email list to request or share information. They can do so by addressing their email to [email protected]. Members who do use the DATS email list to request information are encouraged to share a summary of their discoveries with group via email, or in the newsletter.

Best wishes, and many thanks

Veronica Isaac (DATS Membership Secretary)

The Maharaja’s New Clothes Celebrating success and a thank you to DATS for help with this project.

The Maharaja’s New Clothes is a project to recreate the clothing of Maharaja Churachand Singh and his Maharani Dhanamanjuri for an exhibition at Alford Manor House Museum in Lincolnshire.

At Alford Manor House Museum we have been investigating the connection between a local man and the Manipuri Royal family which developed over his 20 years’ service in Manipur.

We have been given permission to use some black and white photos of the Raja and thought it would be an interesting project to pursue the re-creation of the clothes. I put out an appeal for help on DATS in May 2016; we started to weave the Phanek of the Maharani in July following research and documentation into the attire on the ground in Manipur.

The story so far can be found on our Facebook page: The Maharaja's New Clothes and also on the web https://aboutalford.com/about-higgins-india/the-maharajas-new- clothes/

The School of Historical Dress, 52 Lambeth Road, London, SE1 7PP, United Kingdom www.theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk

‘Near & Far’ - Postcard Project The School has an elegant staircase running up from the lower ground floor to the top of the building. We are creating a timeline of world dress consisting of postcards that feature images of clothing, textiles, portraits, sculptures and photographs from the origins of the protection and adornment of the human body, up to the present day and beyond. Please send us a postcard and address it to ‘The School of Historical Dress, 52 Lambeth Road, London SE1 7PP, United Kingdom’ and please write a message on the back about why you chose the postcard. We hope that those of you around the world who are too far away to attend our London classes and events will contribute to our new home by adding postcards to this timeline. The postcards will hang on little hooks so that they can be lifted off and the details on the reverse can be read; the two cards in the bottom image are of Charles Dickens, his friends and family. There is room for thousands of postcards on the walls around the staircase and we want as varied a selection as possible, featuring both male and female dress.

Costume: The Journal of The Costume Society

Please note that effective 1st January 2017 Edinburgh University Press (EUP) will be publishing Costume: The Journal of The Costume Society, previously published by Taylor and Francis.

Costume is a dress studies journal published twice a year and edited by Valerie Cumming (Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum) and Alexandra Kim (formerly Historic Royal Palaces), with Christine Stevens (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) as Reviews Editor.

V&A Professional Development Courses vam.ac.uk/CPD

These intensive courses provide you with the skills you need to work in today’s museums. Taught by V&A staff, they focus on practical training and use current projects as case studies and examples. Upcoming courses include: Integrated Pest Management Handling Museum Objects Documentation Nightmares and Due Diligence How to Organise an Exhibition

Exhibitions and events

London

Costume Society Study Day

Fashion: conform or resist

15 October 2016, 10.30 – 4.30 Rootstein Hopkins Lecture Theatre, London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes Street, London W1A 0BJ

Following on from the Costume Society summer conference, which considered the theme of 'Fashion and Democracy?, this study day examines the contradictory role fashion can play. Sometimes it can be a mechanism for rebellion and resistance and on other occasions a means for conformity. Keynote Speaker is Dr Djurdja Bartlett, London College of Fashion, speaking about ‘Female Fashion under Socialism: Rebellion and Conformity’. For more information on speakers, programme and booking see http://costumesociety.org.uk/events/details/fashion-conform-or-resist

The Costume Society Conference Writing Fashion - Celebrating 50 years of Costume and Conference

Friday, June 30th 2017 –Sunday, July 2nd 2017

Our 2017 Conference takes place at the Art Workers’ Guild in Queen Square – a magnificent Georgian building in the heart of Bloomsbury, with a Friday afternoon visit to the British Library and dinner on Saturday evening at the 5* Grange Holborn Hotel. Lectures on Saturday and Sunday will take place in the inspirational Lecture Hall at the

AWG where portraits of past masters line the walls. On Friday afternoon exclusive access will be given to the British Library’s collection of fashion books, pattern books and magazines, and your visit will coincide with the temporary exhibition marking 100 years of the Russian Revolution. A further event will be announced with the British Library in the Autumn.

On Saturday night all members of the Costume Society plus a guest will be invited to join Conference weekend delegates to mark these special anniversaries for the Society at a reception and fork buffet to be held in the Orion Suite of the 5* Grange Holborn Hotel.

Presentations will celebrate and explore the theme of fashion writing,

Key note speakers are:

• Lindsey Davis Historical Novelist LD, Gay attire or sombre garments?

• Susie Lau Founder of fashion blog Style Bubble in conversation with Agnes Rocamora, Reader in Social and Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London

• Aileen Ribeiro Professor Emeritus, Courtauld Institute of Art, Title to be announced

The Call for Papers is out now, further details on this and how to book are available on the website. Please send submissions to [email protected] by 21st October 2016. http://www.costumesociety.org.uk/conference

Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, London W8 4PX. www.hrp.org.uk

Fashion Rules: Restyled

Kensington Palace’s Fashion Rules exhibition to present new display of dress from the collections of HM The Queen, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales

Until 3 January 2017

The Fashion Rules exhibition at Kensington Palace will take visitors even further into the wardrobes of HM The Queen, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales, expanding our glimpse into the era-defining style choices of these three royal women. From the ‘New Look’ glamour of Princess Margaret in the 1950s, the elegance of HM The Queen in the 1970s, and the tailored drama of outfits created for Diana, Princess of Wales in the early 1990s, the display will continue to explore how these women navigated the fashion ‘rules’ defined by their royal duties in unique style.

As the Queen’s younger sister, Princess Margaret experimented with fashion, and in the 1950s patronised the Paris couturiers to create a distinctive high-glamour silhouette. Being among the first to embrace Christian Dior’s full skirted New Look – in stark

8 contrast to the frugal fashions of post-war rationing – the princess’s bold outfit choices were imitated the world over. An exquisite late 1940s candy striped dress created in the Paris style for Margaret by royal couturier Norman Hartnell will go on display at Kensington Palace for the first time, alongside silk scarves and sunglasses from designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and Hermes, revealing the discerning eye for quality and high fashion considerations of this thoroughly modern princess.

By contrast, items from the richly decorated wardrobe created for HM The Queen in the 1970s by British couture stalwart Hardy Amies showcase a century-long royal trend of diplomatic dressing, rendered elegantly across the finest silk, satin and delicately woven chiffon suitable for even the warmest of foreign tours. Stunning formal dresses created for state visits to France and the Middle East, and worn for engagements as diverse as a film premiere and a reception at the palace of Versailles, reveal the special considerations in dressing as a monarch. Even the wearing of insignia is considered in their design, in a long-standing tradition of diplomatic dressing which continues to this day.

For Diana, Princess of Wales, the early 1990s signalled a move towards a more slim-line, tailored look, with dresses from this period a result of collaboration with key designers such as Bruce Oldfield and Catherine Walker to craft a sleek signature look. The Princess’s faithful patronage of home-grown designers was credited with almost single- handedly reviving the flagging British fashion industry, and the outfits on display will explore the rules of her much-imitated style. From a tartan and black velvet evening gown designed for an evening of Scottish dancing at Balmoral, to the double-breasted styling of a bottle green silk velvet halterneck worn privately by the princess - and later made famous by Mario Testino’s iconic photographs commissioned to support the sale of her dresses at Christies – the display will explore how Diana’s wardrobe had the power to set trends both at home and abroad, and represented a truly modern royal style.

Libby Thompson, Historic Royal Palaces curator, said: “Fashion Rules has proved popular with our visitors, and we’re delighted to be able to expand on this theme to celebrate the style evolution of three iconic modern royal women. The new display will delve even deeper into the royal wardrobe, revealing some real surprises that I hope will challenge the way we think of royal style.”

Royal School of Needlework, Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 9AU www.royal-needlework.org.uk

Stories in Stitch. Until March 2017

Come to the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace to see your favourite stories brought to life with the Art of Hand Embroidery. The latest exhibition will showcase a wide range of Hand Embroideries in Appliqué, Stumpwork and Raised Embroidery, featuring pieces from the RSN’s Archive Collection and its students. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in these three enchanting techniques which lend themselves so perfectly to the world of storytelling. The historic heart of the exhibition will feature two 17th century pieces in Stumpwork, when this technique was at its most popular. It will then sweep into the 20th and 21st centuries using the range of themes in Stumpwork and Appliqué. The exhibition will also include Raised Embroidery featuring more three-dimensional objects, for example in jewellery.

Open Tours are available for individuals and small groups of up to 8 people. We offer Group Tours for 8 to 24 people. All Tours must be pre-booked on our website or by telephone. There is also an opportunity to see current Studio commissions and permanent display pieces.

Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Street, London SW7 http://www.vam.ac.uk/

Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery

1 October 2016 – 5 February 2017 #OpusAnglicanum

The Steeple Aston Cope 1330-40 (detail). The Rector and Churchwardens of St Peter and St Paul, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire. On long term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

From the 12th to the 15th centuries, England enjoyed an international reputation for the quality of its luxury embroideries, and were frequently referred to as ‘Opus Anglicanum’ (English work). Often featuring complex imagery, and ambitious in their scale and intricacy, they were sought after by kings, queens, popes and cardinals across Europe. This exhibition is the first opportunity in over half a century to see an outstanding range of surviving examples in one place. Paintings, illuminated manuscripts, metalwork and stained glass will be shown alongside, to explore the world within which these exquisite works were created.

Luxury embroideries were made by professional craftsmen and women living in the City of London, some of whom we can still identify by name. London was a hub for commerce, and the embroiderers formed part of an international mercantile network. The rare survivals of this extraordinary period of English art are today scattered across Europe and North America. Some of the embroideries have not been seen in Britain since they were produced.

Book now! vam.ac.uk/opus

Support generously provided by the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts

Supported by Hand & Lock

Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear

Sponsored by Agent Provocateur and Revlon 16 April 2016 – 12 March 2017 www.vam.ac.uk/undressed | #vamUndressed

This year the V&A will tell the story of underwear design from the 18th century to the present day, considering the practical and personal, sensory and fashionable, and exploring underwear’s roles of protecting and enhancing the body.

Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear will display more than 200 examples of underwear for men and women. The exhibition will explore the relationship between underwear and fashion, notions of the ideal body, and the ways that cut, fit, fabric and decoration can reveal changing attitudes to gender, sex and morality. It will consider health and hygiene and address the critical importance of innovations in design and technology to the development of underwear. On display will be corsets, crinolines, boxer shorts, bras, hosiery, lingerie and loungewear alongside contextual fashion plates, photographs, advertisements, display figures and packaging. The exhibition will also demonstrate how underclothes and nightclothes morphed into lounge wear, and the many ways in which designers have revealed and referenced underwear in outerwear.

While the majority of the exhibits are drawn from the V&A’s own archives the Museum is very grateful to the following British museums and archives for lending us key pieces from their collections: the Bowes Museum, British Museum, Fashion Museum, Bath, John Smedley Archive, London College of Fashion Archive (Lorraine Smith Collection), Manchester City Galleries, the Museum of London, Natural History Museum, the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove, and Tate Gallery. Other lenders include FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles, USA, and private collections and design archives in Britain and overseas.

The South East Chertsey Museum, 33 Windsor Street, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 8AT, Tel. 01932 565764.

Fashion Accessories Gallery featuring shoes, fans, hats, bags, parasols, lace, shoe buckles and jewellery with items from the 17th century to the present day. Look out for a beautiful linen cap featuring exquisite black work embroidery and dating from 1700 – 1720.

WAISTED EFFORTS. 17th September 2016 to 2nd September 2017

This exhibition will chart the waistline in fashion from the mid-18th century to the New Look. Cultural, social, aesthetic and individual attitudes towards waistlines will be explored through men’s and women’s clothing, both outerwear and underwear. Beautiful examples of fashionable garments which both freed and constricted the waist

12 will be on show, as well as pieces of original foundation-wear essential for achieving the correct silhouette.

Waisted Efforts - Fashion Study Day – Saturday 12th November 2016, 10.30am – 3.30pm

To coincide with the Waisted Efforts exhibition, we are holding a very special study day. There will be talks from Brigid Strowbridge, fashion tutor and costumier for film and television, and Grace Evans, Keeper of Costume at Chertsey Museum. There will also be a first- hand opportunity to see further garments from the collection.

Booking Essential. Cost £12.50 for Friends of Chertsey Museum and SCCS members, £15.00 for non-members. Tea/coffee served, lunch not included. To book, call 01932 565764.

Further events connected to Waisted Efforts will take place during the course of the exhibition run. Please check the Chertsey Museum website for details: www.chertseymuseum.org

Publication

Fashion in Focus, 1600 – 2009, Treasures from the Olive Matthews Collection by Grace Evans. A beautifully illustrated 152 page book featuring in-depth information about the very best pieces from the Olive Matthews Collection of dress at Chertsey Museum. Price - £11.99. Available from our website: www.chertseymuseum.org

For further information contact Grace Evans, Keeper of Costume on 01932 565764 or email [email protected]

The Beecroft Art Gallery and the Central Museum, Victoria Ave, Southend- on-Sea SS2 6EX http://www.southendmuseums.co.uk/

Biba. The Fashion, the Lifestyle, the Brand. Until 14th January 2017

The South West The Fashion Museum, Bath Assembly Rooms, Bennett St, Bath, BA1 2QH Tel: +44 (0) 1225 477789 http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/events/history-fashion-100-objects A History of Fashion in 100 Objects

Now until 1 January 2019

Celebrating fashion throughout history, from around 1600 to the present day, this headline exhibit will showcase 100 star objects drawn from the Fashion Museum’s world- class collection.

Fashion touches everyone’s life – it is intrinsically linked to society – and A History of Fashion in 100 Objects will reference moments in history, as well as more personal stories. Graceful silk robes and embroidered and tailored coats for men, the styles fashionable during Bath’s Georgian heyday will be on display, along with Regency fashion from the time of Jane Austen and dresses by the big names of fashion history, including the House of Worth and Christian Dior.

A History of Fashion in 100 Objects will also include ten shoe ‘moments’ throughout history, from Georgian silk shoes to trainers as well as a children’s trail featuring ten ‘historical fashion’ looks for kids, from the 1700s to the 2000s.

Keep up to date with news of the exhibition on Twitter – you can follow @Fashion_Museum or use the hashtag #HFx100.

Killerton House, Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, EX5 3LE 01392 881345 http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton

Fashion to dye for. Open daily until 30th October

Would you risk your life in the name of fashion? A rainbow of vintage and designer pieces, ‘toxic’ colours and dye recipes are revealed from one of the National Trust’s largest fashion collections.

The Fashion to dye for exhibition opens its doors to invite people to delve into the wardrobe for a look at how colours, dyes and design shaped fashion history - so if you think green is the colour to die for, find out how people used toxic arsenic to formulate a particular shade of green in the name of fashion. If absorbed through the skin, it could be deadly.

The exhibition picks out key pieces from the collection: from a 50’s red silk gown (said to have belonged to Princess Margaret), a 1960s shirt by Pucci, a skirt suit and tweed jacket by Bernat Klein and an early Laura Ashley dress, the collection brings to life how colour can reveal much about the wearer and also looks into the origins, status and function of colour in fashion.

Drawing on the extensive 20,000 piece collection at Killerton, selected objects will tell the story of how colour in fashion has evolved and signified different meanings over time - why black is associated with mourning, white with weddings and why red is seen as racy but was also a masculine colour in the Tudor period. It also looks at cultural shifts in fashion – why young boys were often dressed in red frocks similar to girls’ clothing until aged four, when they were dressed in trousers and had long curls cut.

The production of dyes has a colourful history - natural methods of dyeing started with pigments and stains from crushed flowers, berries, roots and bark. By the eighteenth century, natural dyes were complex and recipes were well protected. Following the discovery of the first, real synthetic dye, mauveine, in 1856, chemists began to experiment to produce brighter, more permanent shades. Visitors can learn about colourful dresses from the historic collection made of silk, wool, cotton and synthetic materials dyed both naturally and chemically. We also explore how the First World War

15 impacted on fashionable colours, from who invented synthetic dyes to the natural origins of denim blue.

Rare treats from Killerton’s collection include: Designer pieces by Bernat Klein, Emilio Pucci, Laura Ashley and Ossie Clark (1960s and 1970s) Reception gown in red Chinese silk, 1950s, said to have belonged to HRH Princess Margaret Boys red wool frock, 1855 Man’s denim jacket and flares, 1970 s Afternoon gown of printed yellow silk, 1860s Evening d ress incrimson jersey by Worth, 1950s

It also includes an exciting display of over 100 pieces of work by Exeter College Art and Design students, inspired by the ever-changing colour palette of Killerton’s estate.

The Midlands Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Guildhall Road, Northampton NN1 1DP http://www.northampton.gov.uk/museums Experienced Hands - the Art of the Shoemaker Saturday 12 November - Sunday 19 February 2017 Northampton Museum & Art Gallery Using the painting ‘Experienced Hands’ by artist Frederick Hall as a starting point, this exhibition investigates the tools and techniques of traditional shoemaking, using tools and objects from the Shoe Collection at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. Experienced Hands

Shoemaking Demonstration

Saturday 12 November 10am - 4pm Discover the fascinating craft of hand shoemaking with Peter Prince, an independent boot and shoe maker, whose journey through the craft has taken him from the historical world of museums and castles, through to film and fashion industries. Peter has honed his skills by working alongside some of the original traditional shoe makers of Northampton. From shoes to boots to belts to bags, Peter has developed his own unique style incorporating a fusion of ancient techniques and modern design. Suitable for all ages. Drop in. Free

There’s No Business Like Shoe Business! Enjoy a short series of three talks to complement the shoemaking exhibition ‘Experienced Hands’. The talks will look at the history of shoemaking in Northampton, the evolution of the shoe factory and allied buildings, and a history of shoe fashions, with a chance to take a closer look at a selection of shoes from the Designated Collection. Saturday 3 December 2pm at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery Factory Life in the Boot and Shoe Industry Ruth Thomas

In less than a century from 1800, Northampton developed from a small shire town to become the shoe manufacturing centre for the region, the country and eventually the world. We will look at the development of shoe manufacturing in Northampton from the medieval period as a small cottage industry of hand sewing men to a factory industry employing thousands of workers which dominated every aspect of the town. Saturday 21 January 2017 2pm at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery Dedicated Followers of Shoe Fashions Rebecca Shawcross

A light-hearted look at shoes from Roman times to the present day by Rebecca Shawcross, Shoe Curator and author of ‘Shoes: An Illustrated History’. Encompassing the distinctly lewd medieval poulaine, the delicate flats of the early nineteenth century and the 70s platform, the talk takes in all the highs and lows of shoe fashions illustrated with shoes from the collection. Saturday 28 January 2017 2pm at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery Northampton’s Boot & Shoe Factory Heritage Peter Perkins

This illustrated talk looks at the evolution of the boot & shoe factory in Northampton and the history of some of the buildings that remain today in the town’s’ Boot & Shoe Quarter’. £5 per lecture or £12.50 for the series ticket. No refunds or exchanges on tickets Ring 01604 837397 to book.

Association of Art Historians 43rd Annual Conference & Art Book Fair Loughborough University http://www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/sessions2017/session35

Textile, Art & Design: Reciprocity and development. 6th to 8th April 2017

Convenors: Alice Kettle, Manchester Metropolitan University, [email protected] Uthra Rajgopal, Manchester Metropolitan University, [email protected]

The reciprocity and division of textiles and the fine arts are in continual negotiation. This session examines the nexus between the fine and decorative arts, craft making and commercial production. Many artists of the 20th century such as Abakanowicz, Dali, Delaunay, Matisse, Moore, Parker, Picasso, Paolozzi and Warhol (to name but a few) have been celebrated for their collaborations in sculpture and/or pattern making, but this approach presents one avenue of the artist’s intervention in textiles. This session will consider a wider view, asking how contributions of textile designers and artists working across a spectrum of geographical and historical periods, such as those working in Spitalfields, Lyon, Japan or India for example, or designers such as Dora Batty, Marian Clayden, Marion Dorn, Bernat Klein or John Piper influenced and collaborated with artists, fashion designers and art movements or contributed to the synergy of these practices.

In this session we welcome papers from academics, researchers, textile artists, textile and fashion historians, curators and archivists. The term textile can be interpreted in its widest sense.

Suggestions for proposals of papers or panel discussions include but are not limited:

• The evolution and circulation of a particular motif in woven or printed textiles • Artists/designers and textiles: an exploration of their oeuvre through pattern making • The influence of textile designers in art/dress/fashion history • Historical and contemporary collaborations between artists and textile designers

Deadline for Paper Proposals: 7 November 2016

North of England

ULITA – an Archive of International Textiles, St.Wilfred’s Chapel, Maurice Keyworth Building, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT+44(0)113 343 3919 [email protected]

The Synthetics Revolution: man-made fibres and everyday fashion

22 June – 1 December 2016. Tuesdays – Thursdays 09:30 – 16:30, Fridays by appointment

The rise of man-made and synthetic fibres has placed ‘miracle’ materials at the heart of the modern fashion system. Today, these high-performance test-tube materials are found in clothing, furnishings and household goods. From the mid-20th century, firms such the DuPont Company, ICI and Courtaulds revolutionized people’s relationships with fibres by making and promoting a family of man-made and synthetic fibres, including rayon, nylon, polyester and acrylic. As the world’s largest fibre manufacturer, DuPont publicised one new material, acrylic, as a ‘better fibre by design than a sheep produces inadvertently’.

The Enterprise of Culture project (School of History) has teamed up with ULITA and the Yorkshire Fashion Archive (School of Design) to look behind the scenes of the synthetics revolution with the aim of bringing the story of man-made fibres and how we interact with them to life.

Drawing on these two university archive collections, the exhibition delves into how the introduction of synthetic fibres into a predominantly woollen manufacturing area, Yorkshire, had an impact on the lives of its inhabitants and changed the face of the textile industry in the region. Synthetic fibres were a global phenomenon but many technical innovations originated in Yorkshire. A programme of events will investigate the experiences of people in Yorkshire as they came to know the new wonder fibres and their love/hate relationship with them.

This exhibition particularly promotes ULITA items from the Fibre Collection and Department of Textiles Industries Collection, including items only recently discovered.

The exhibition is financially supported by HERA II (Humanities in the European Research Area) and the EU-funded Rethinking Textiles project.

Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, PR1 2PP http://www.harrismuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/929-style-and-substance

Style and Substance: Fashion, Society, Change 1880-1930s. Ongoing From the elaborate dresses of the 1880s to chunky knits in the 1930s, we explore how British style, for men and women, evolved during a time of major social, political and cultural change. Find out about the phantom bustle of the 1880s and dangerous

19 accessories of the 1900s. Compare the practical clothing of World War I to the flimsy but fabulous flapper styles of the 1920s, and enjoy the relaxed and glamorous fashions of the 1930s. Look out for an additional new display of World War 1 style soldiers' gloves, knee pads, scarves and eye patches made by the Knit Wits.

Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3JL Tel: 0161 235 8888 www.manchesterartgallery.org

Vogue 100: A Century of Style. Until 30 October 2016

The NPG show which has been completely redesigned for Manchester and is free

Vogue 100: A Century of Style showcases the remarkable range of photography that has been commissioned by British Vogue since it was founded in 1916, with over 280 prints from the Condé Nast archive and international collections being brought together for the first time to tell the story of one of the most influential fashion magazines in the world.

Featuring iconic images of many of the faces that have shaped the cultural landscape of the twentieth century, from Henri Matisse to Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst; Marlene Dietrich to Gwyneth Paltrow; Lady Diana Cooper to Lady Diana Spencer; and Fred Astaire to David Beckham. Also featured in the exhibition are the fashion designers that defined the looks of the century, including Dior, Saint Laurent and McQueen.

The exhibition brings together vintage prints from the early twentieth century, ground- breaking photographs from renowned fashion shoots, unpublished work and original magazines. Images by leading twentieth-century photographers, including Cecil Beaton, Lee Miller, Irving Penn and Snowdon will feature alongside more recent work by David Bailey, Corinne Day, Patrick Demarchelier, Nick Knight, Herb Ritts and Mario Testino.

Fashion & Freedom. Until 27 November 2016

Vivienne Westwood, Roksanda Ilincic and other contemporary designers create new pieces inspired by the First World War and its impact on the role of women and women’s fashion

Modern Japanese Design. Until January 2017

Stunning Japanese costume, furniture and crafts collections will be brought together and displayed in the newly restored 19th century former Athenaeum theatre space. This exhibition will unite Manchester City Galleries’ collections of Japanese fashion, furniture and decorative arts to highlight their recent acquisitions including fashion by Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, furniture and lighting by Masanori Umeda, Shiro Kuramata, Shin & Tomoko Azumi and Isamu Noguchi and crafts by Takahiro Yede and Yasuko Sakurai. Works by contemporary jewellers Mariko Sumioka and Mizuki Takahashi will also be exhibited.

Drawn primarily from Manchester’s own collections, the show will provide an overview of the importance over the last fifty years of Japanese designers and makers on the international fashion, design and craft scenes. Designed to highlight the breadth of Manchester’s collections, the display will bring together fashion, furniture, lighting, ceramics, glass, metalwork and jewellery. Thirty two designers will display over one hundred pieces in a dynamic display that will convey the essence of the unique Japanese design ethos through the presentation of an eclectic range of visually stimulating and provocative pieces.

Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EL www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker. Telephone 0151 478 4199

Transformation: One Man’s Cross-Dressing Wardrobe 24 October 2015 – February 2017

A display of 16 outfits on loan to National Museums Liverpool from the collection of local costume enthusiast and cross-dresser Peter Farrer. Peter was born in 1926 and has been cross-dressing since he was 14. Peter’s interest in women’s period costume has led him to collect extensively and he now has a huge number of garments, mainly taffeta evening dresses made between the 1930s and the 1980s. He has had a wardrobe of taffeta dresses created for him to wear by the Brighton-based dressmaker Sandi Steyning, owner of the Kentucky Woman Clothing Company. This ground-breaking display, the first of its kind in a British museum, will feature garments from Peter’s historic and modern collection of cross-dressing clothes.

Free entry Open daily 10am-5pm

Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Rusholme, Manchester M14 5LL Manchester City Galleries www.manchestergalleries.org

Mary Quant: fashion icon. From 3 November

22 outfits dating from early Bazaar pieces of the late 1950s to a wealth of iconic 1960s Ginger group costume, and including loans and new acquisitions (as below).

The Whitworth Art Gallery. The University of Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER

Revolutionary Textiles 1910-1939

26 March 2016 to 29 January 2017

In the early decades of the 20th century textile design took off in new directions throughout the Western world. Invigorated by experimental techniques, art styles such as Fauvism, man-made fibres, and the Ballets Russes, this outburst of creativity took place against a backdrop of political ferment.

Among the works featured in this exhibition are fabric lengths, garments and samples designed or produced by the Omega Workshops, Paul Poiret, Raoul Dufy, Barron and Larcher, Cryséde, Josef Hillerbrand, Ruth Reeves, Marion Dorn, and Bauhaus-trained Otti Berger.

Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, The University Of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/

From Malacca to Manchester: Curating Islamic Collections Worldwide 23-24th February, 2017 The conference is part of a wider project to catalogue and research collections of Islamic art and material culture across the Manchester Museums and Galleries Partnership (MMGP), and is supported by the John Ellerman Foundation.

Scotland National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF. +44 (0)131 247 4288. http://www.nms.ac.uk/

Colour in Cloth Pasold Research Fund Conference, 10-11th April 2017 CALL FOR PAPERS From initial design to production and dissemination, colour is central to the manufacture and use of cloth and clothing. This unique international conference will explore the various and multifarious relationships between colour and textiles, from dyeing and distribution, to chromatics and conservation. Through a combination of papers and workshops, it will demonstrate new and continuing research through historical, theoretical and practical investigation, drawing on interdisciplinary expertise that includes history, archaeology, conservation, sustainable futures, design and material culture. The conference will be held over two days and in two locations: the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art. These two cities represent the diverse heritage of textile manufacture and design in Scotland, from the industrial scale Turkey red dyed and printed cottons, to the artisanal tapestry workshop of the Dovecot and design education. The conference will celebrate the differences of these two cities, as well as drawing on what unites them and the wider world through the history and current practice in colour and textiles. Day One will be held in Glasgow and will consist of papers that deal with the history and theory of colour and textile design, production and use, in addition to contemporary practice within the field. On Day Two we will hold complementary and exploratory hands-on workshops and site visits in Edinburgh, exploring the history, theory and study of textiles through practical and innovative means. The organisers particularly welcome proposals that combine a paper and complementary workshop idea, but also encourage individual papers (20 mins) or workshop proposals (expected to last 1-1.5 hours) that examine textiles and colour in theory and practice. Working under the wider umbrella themes of the production, consumption and conservation of colour in cloth, suggested themes for paper and workshop proposals include, but are not limited to:

• Scotland and the World • Science and Technology • Colour and Perception • Colour, Fashion, Trend • Colourless or the Absence of Colour • Learning with Colour and Textiles Limited student bursaries will be available, more details to follow. Titles and abstracts (200 words) for papers and/or workshops, should be sent to Sally Tuckett [email protected] and Lindy Richardson [email protected] by Monday 15th January 2017. Full registration details and bursary information will be available in January 2017.

Ireland

National Museum of Ireland: Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, Benburb St., Dublin 7, Ireland, www.museum.ie

Ib Jorgensen: A Fashion Retrospective. Continues until Spring 2017.

For nearly forty years Danish-born Ib Jorgensen was at the forefront of Irish fashion, dressing Ireland’s wealthiest and most stylish women. He was a founder member of the Irish Haute Couture Group in 1962 and was the first chair of the Irish Designers’ Association established in 1982. Jorgensen was known his fine tailoring and perfect finishing as well as for his elaborately decorated evening wear. This exhibition looks back at his long career, displaying some forty garments supplemented with original fashion photography. http://www.museum.ie/Decorative-Arts-History/Exhibitions/Current-Exhibitions/Ib- Jorgensen-%E2%80%93-A-Fashion-Retrospective

International

Cloth Cultures: Future Legacies of Dorothy K. Burnham An International Conference at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada

November 10 - 12, 2017

During Canada’s 2017 Sesquicentennial celebrations, the Royal Ontario Museum will host an international conference to explore the material culture of textiles through the work and legacies of Dorothy K. Burnham (1911-2004), internationally renowned textile scholar and member of the Order of Canada (1985). Burnham was in the vanguard of the generation of early 20th century curators who made textiles and costume a field of valid scholarly research by finding out how and why objects are made in particular ways, what they meant when produced and what they mean to us today.

Dorothy Burnham’s pioneering work demonstrated the many layers of meaning that could be revealed through object-centred research by looking at woven, knitted, embroidered, quilted and stitched objects from Indigenous and Western cultures. Often working alongside her husband Harold B. Burnham, she devised rigorous and systematic techniques for analysis of the origins of technique and forms. Her imaginative studies clearly documented how skin and cloth distinguish and bridge cultures, continents and time. Burnham’s publications and exhibitions foreshadowed and influenced material culture studies, textiles and costume history, design and technology history as well as gender studies, anthropology, and ethnology.

This international conference will examine the contemporary trajectories that stem from Dorothy K. Burnham’s legacies by bringing together an international group of academics, artists and maker communities directly or indirectly influenced by her work. It will be of interest to those working from many scholarly disciplines and practices including anthropology, sociology, history, economics aesthetics, museology, weaving, spinning and fibre art. Together, we will explore the current diversity of interdisciplinary methods used to study the technologies, economics, meanings and cultural imbued in

25 global textiles and clothing, and in the process acknowledge and assess Burnham’s many contributions. Keynote Speakers

• Dr. Adrienne Hood, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Toronto, Toronto • Dr. Ruth Phillips, Canada Research Chair, Professor, Art History, Carleton University, Ottawa • Dr. Timo Rissanen, Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability, Parsons School of Design, NYC • Workshop Master Class • John E. Vollmer, Vollmer Cultural Consultants Inc., NYC and Research Associate, Royal Ontario Museum

Books

Refashioning and Redress: Conserving and Displaying Dress - Edited by Mary M. Brooks and Dinah D. Eastop

This book explores the conservation, presentation, and representation of dress in museums and beyond as dynamic, complex, and collaborative processes.

Amongst the 17 articles the book contains, is a discussion of the conservation of the Beetlewing Dress at Smallhythe Place, written up by Zenzie Tinker (Conservator) and Emma Slocombe (Regional Curator) - http://www.zenzietinker.co.uk/work/case-study- beetlewing/

Further details can be found here: http://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9781606065112

Shoe Book Reviews June Swann

I am sorry I was unable to get to York for the March-June exhibition ‘A Century of Shoes’, the ‘long eighteenth century’. The few illustrations on the website are of women’s with textile uppers, not ideally photographed, and no hint of any other related publication. Such a rare exhibition was surely worth at least a hand-list ? I hope other members might contribute a report.

So, in chronological date order of the shoes, here are the books I have seen. Dirk Booms and Peter Higgs, Sicily, Culture and Conquest at the British Museum, accompanying the Exhibition with same title, 288 page soft cover, published by The British Museum Press, 2016, ISBN 978 0 7141 2289 2, many colour photographs. The 5 chapters concentrate on the 2 great periods: Ancient Greek and the Norman Conquest. The former includes, as well as the usual sandals, a terracotta altar supported by three goddesses, the central figure showing a pair of right/left shaped shoes with healthy toe-shape, straight by big toe, tapering gradually to shorter at outside, sturdy sole; the only other remaining shoe on it is similar; dated c500 BC. The Norman period includes illuminated manuscripts, a mosaic showing Roger being crowned by Christ, both wearing the red shoes then used for royalty and, perhaps more noticeable, also on the Virgin Mary. Those illustrated are

1140s. The only surviving footwear included is the pair of sandalia ankle boots, here said to have been worn by Frederick II for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in Palermo – and used continually for subsequent HRE coronations to 1792; obviously repaired, restored and perhaps size adjusted; resoled last probably c1612-19 using randed construction with visible stitching on side of rand, wedge heel; an amazing survival, worthy of an exhibition to themselves. Another British Museum exhibition produced Sunken cities, Egypt’s lost worlds 56 page soft cover, brief text with captions to the photographs, ISBN 978-0-500-981875, 2016. P.53 has a splendid ‘marble foot’ on a shoulder-high plinth with inscription which translates “Flung from his carriage by his horses at this spot, Isidoros, restored to health by divine intervention, in exchange for his feet dedicated this image of a foot to the ‘Blessed’ ”, which would be Isis or Serapis. It is a right foot with all toes exposed, the big toe up-curling and the little one bent. The boot extends above the ankle, broad strap at centre front, with bow tied underneath, 150-200 AD. It came from a temple between cities where Isis was one of the 3 gods worshipped. I would be interested to know if any similar boot on plinth exists. p. 33 in the same book states that foundation deposits, such as the plaque pictured, 221- 204 BC, were placed below the corners of the shrine, this with brick model, and 8 other plaques established the boundaries of each new sacred construction. This may be a fore-runner of the practice of deposits under foundation stones of grand buildings in more recent centuries?

Wolfgang Glüber, Johannes Pietsch & Jutta Reinisch Chic! Mode im 17. Jahrhundert, Der Bestand im Hessischen Landesmuseum, Darmstadt 143 page hardback, published by Schnell & Steiner 2016 ISBN 978-3-7954-3094-8, many illustrations to the text and for each of the catalogue entries of the accompanying exhibition. I would not describe the 8 pair/single shoes as ‘chic’. But they include 2 splendidly embroidered pairs of open-side shoes, the 1620s with red leather covered heel, and the 1630s with brown leather covered, platform sole and heel. Sadly there are no shoe roses that would have tied and decorated them even more, but it is good to have 2 views of these pairs. My ideal would be to have a picture too of the sole, especially in the 17th century when some were also elaborately decorated.

I missed the 2011 publication of Charles Dickens and the Blacking Factory by Michael Allen, 310 page paperback, 38 B&W illustrations, Oxford-Stockley Publications ISBN 978-143687908. Though it is well known that Charles, aged 12 & 2 days (1824) worked in a boot blacking factory, tying covers on the stoneware bottles then used, while his father was in a debtor’s prison. With good reason he was frightened of walking the 3 miles of London streets to Hungerford Stairs on dark winter days 6 days a week, 10 hours a day for 6 shillings a week. This author has studied more documents on Warren’s Blacking Factory there and adds to Dickens’ version of this period.

Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeological Group Newsletter 139, Summer 2016 includes p.8-11, Peter Perkins article on London Shoe Manufacturers in Northampton the Bermondsey chapter. After a brief glimpse at Hickson’s efforts to organise their co- operation in a warehouse in West Smithfield during the Napoleonic Wars, he continues with the imposing Isaac Campbell & Co. 3 ½ -storey factory on the highest part of the town, notorious for disorganised supplying of army boots in the Crimean war. But it set the style of shoe factories to the 1890s. 2 photographs show a similar factory in Northampton and the more modern version in Bethnal Green Road, London. Joanna Kowalska Modna i juz/Fashion able in Communist *Poland*, 2 volumes, the Polish 153 page soft cover, with more photographs (in colour) than the English 80 page with

28 black and white pictures only; published by Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowe 2015 ISBN 978-83-7581-205-3, with the English version ISBN 978-83-7581-216-9, to accompany the exhibitions. The English version reveals that the clue to survival was at first ‘make do & mend’, as here, but continuing to wear extravagant pre-war styles and keep up with French fashions, including the New Look, which England could not do with the rationing of textiles to the manufacturers and limited coupons for the public from June 1941, decreased 1945 and ’46 to 1949, with the Utility standard continuing to 1952. So my New Look was lowering the existing hem as far as it would go, which was 1 inch, and skimpy. There is a good range of shoe styles, many with high heels through all the problems, with thin stilettos earlier than in England, even the French comma heel with pointed toe but aeroplane-shaped ‘foot’: has it been worn? Please, when something looks unwearable, check the sole for signs of wear! The Polish clothes provoke rather envious joy, which must have been far worse for the Communists. Imaginative lay-out, though finding and reading captions at various angles makes it slow work, but still a lesson for us all, and fun.

Rather dull with perhaps misleading title, David Rosenberg Rebel Footprints, A Guide to Uncovering London’s Radical History, 307 page soft cover, b&w illustrations including street maps for the walks described, as well as a few buildings and group photographs, 2015, Pluto Press ISBN 978 0 7453 3409 7. It covers the 1830s – 1930s describing the ‘rebels’ from Chartists onwards, not infrequently in chaotic order. I looked in vain for the famous (at least in our family) suffragette my grandmother was said to resemble, Margaret Bondfield, including the Index, which turned out to be very inadequate: no mention of boot & shoe makers or taylors, the 2 trades which usually employed the most people, with the shoemakers usually the most outspoken, a quiet trade, free thinkers, always ready to talk about life to visitors as they worked. Indeed the trades of the people concerned are rarely mentioned. There is a brief mention in the Bermondsey chapter of Dickens working in the boot blacking factory (as above) with 2 quotations that experience may have provoked. There is doubtless much useful information here, but dividing it into ‘walks’, with the snippets scattered and too often undated, may please residents, but few others. June Swann 9’2016