Travels with Textiles September 2024

What do clothes tell us about the times we live in and the people we are? A unique collection of American women's clothing goes on display in New York in the next few days. This is very far from the art or elite clothing normally held in museums and galleries: instead, this is what women really wore in good times and bad. Kiki Smith, who created this collection as a research resource, says that these garments have a huge amount to tell us: if anyone reads Steinbeck's book, The Grapes of Wrath and wants to know how the poorest of the poor coped, then showing them a dress from this time becomes a tangible connection to that story of survival.   In this month's Tales of Textiles, we also hear from Ekta Kaul about Bengal's beloved kantha cloth. For women in India and Bangladesh creating this cloth became a way of recycling old worn out saris and also a way of telling stories. Kantha is something that is passed on with love and affection from family member to family member. Ekta understands kantha and teaches people to use different kantha stitches. We also have news of a special Winter School for Textile Archaeologists and a preview of the podcasts coming up on Haptic & Hue this autumn.