Fashion Design Commons^™

Intertwining The Past And The Present Through Textiles, Experiences In The Communities, A Vision From Peru, Rommel Angeles Falcón

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In recent years in Perú, a number of initiatives have been independently developed by collective groups, taking prehispanic textile heritage as a reference and beginning to replicate and teach ancient techniques. These initiatives were born from diverse interests, in many cases based on the experiences of weavers from the Andean highlands, textile traditions of the coast and a notable interest on the part of young people. Resist dye techniques, warp-faced weaving and tapestry have been most fully developed. This presentation reviews the principle initiatives developed in the Lima region, the ‘norte chico’ region and the far north coast.

Contemporary Oneida Beadwork: Revitalized Identity Through An “Adopted” Art Form, Beverly Gordon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A relatively new type of raised beadwork has “become a way of life” for the Oneida people of Wisconsin. “Beading extravaganzas” are important social events, and beadwork adorns ritual objects such as graduation stoles. This examination of contemporary Oneida beadwork functions as an intriguing update to Ruth Phillip’s 1990 TSA paper, “Moccasins into Slippers: Traditions and Transformations in Nineteenth-Century Woodlands Indian Textiles.” Phillips documented how indigenous forms “morphed” into objects made for sale to non-natives at sites such as Niagara Falls. While even tourist art was part of native cultural identity, its greatest significance was as a source of income …

Enigmatic Mediterranean Silk Quilts, Kathryn Berenson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Nearly two dozen centuries-old, corded quilts and fragments made of jewel-toned silks rest in North American and European collections. Expertly designed, they are variously stitched with imagery of ships sailing over waters that teem with fish, musicians who play amidst animals that gambol and prance to their music, armed hunters and their dogs in pursuit of boar, wolf, and even lion, and arcaded galleries where half-dressed women pose beneath the arches. Double-headed eagles, a symbol of both political and religious significance, and roundels featuring profiles of men wearing turbans or crowns, are also common motifs.

Each quilt is completely reversible; …

People, Landscape And Wool Weaving In Venezuelan Andes, María Dávila, Eduardo Portillo

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Wool weaving has been practiced in the Venezuelan Andean region for centuries, specifically at the Paramo ecosystem. This activity was introduced by the Spaniards and shaped by the relation of its inhabitants with the environment, warm clothing needs, climate, and the isolation of the place. Blankets and ruanas have been made traditionally on elementary handlooms by weavers who still use handspun wool, cotton, and natural dyes. Beauty in simplicity has built a singular aesthetic to be worn within the mist of the mountains. This paper intends to share a personal encounter of the authors with the community of weavers, spinners, …

Coming Together Again: A Case Study On Persian Silk Woven Textiles, Tayana Fincher

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Spanning well beyond the parameters of the Middle East, Islam has always had a global reach. It has adapted to numerous cultures and ancient histories encountered over the past 1,400 years. But, due to the prevailing Eurocentric purview in American museums, little has been recorded about the artists and makers of Islamic textiles. Many of these objects were produced by collective, royal workshops with unnamed contributors, or were intended for devotional use inside domestic spaces. With colonial ventures, too, many passed through the hands of collectors and dealers solely interested in the object’s material or aesthetic value.

A group of …

Transformative Power Of Stitchery: Sashiko From Cold Regions Of Japan And Embroidery Work Of The Nui Project, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper seeks to reveal the transformative power of stitchery by examining textile practices in Japan and articulating how a threaded needle can be viewed as the co-agent of stitchers, infusing their materials with properties in a “processual” and relational manner that reflects the currents of their lifeworld.^[1] I will contrast and compare two practices, one ancient and one modern, one responding to life’s necessities and the other simply to the act of stitching. In the ancient world, stitchery was essential for human survival, and later in rural Japan, sashiko stitchery was a medium that connected textiles with daily …

Where Can Objects Take You? The Case Of The World War Ii Japanese Airman's Suit, Madelyn Shaw, Trish Fitzsimons

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

“Dad always said that ‘It’s made out of Australian wool,’ and I thought that was just a joke because you couldn’t see how the Japanese would get hold of Australian wool during the war…. But it is a fine material…. They weren’t scrapping for something to wear.” —Wally Lanagan

In December 1942, the Yokosuka Military Department manufactured, surely among hundreds of others, a flying suit, which may or may not have ever been worn by a Japanese pilot. It did, however, end up on display at the Pioneer Park Museum in Dalby, a small town in rural Queensland, Australia. It …

Textile Memory In Colchane: Weavers Revitalizing The Aymara Tradition, Soledad Hoces De La Guardia

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In Aymara culture, textiles have played a fundamental role as highly valued community possessions and significant media for ritual and tradition. In Chilean territory, the Colchane community has been fortunate, because they have here retained, with fidelity and vigor, their culture and traditional textile practices. However, the average age of active weavers is rising and those younger do not have the technical expertise of their elders, which has led to the loss of a significant part of traditional technical knowledge.

To not forget the “handwork” became an urgent concern for artisans in the community, members of the Aymar Warmi association, …

Viscacha: Luxury, Fate And Identification In Precolumbian Textiles, Elena Phipps, Caroline Solazzo

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Since the sixteenth century, references by Spanish chroniclers to the use of chinchilla hair (Andean rodents of several species including viscacha) by Andean weavers indicate that the fine hair of these animals had been incorporated into textiles. Their fine soft hair, often mottled in color, has distinctive characteristics which vary and, as a result, make them difficult to identify. Some archaeological finds, primarily in Chile have reported viscacha skins and fur bags, but few if any reports have identified the presence of textiles or spun yarns that incorporate this special fiber. The depiction of the animal takes on special meaning …

Unseen, Unheard, Unnamed: The Matchless And Unsung Heroes Of The Textile Art And Craft Of Rajasthan, Simrita Singh, Anu H. Gupta

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Rajasthan is known for its exquisite handicrafts, especially the textiles. In spite of having the most vibrant and glorious traditions, this sector has been grossly unorganized due to the poor socio-economic status of the artisans. The educational background of the artisans also is not satisfactory; hence, they lack public relations skills. They are totally dependent on big traders and middlemen for marketing purposes. Moreover, in this era of labels and designers, the artisans, however skilled or endowed they may be, have to work under some renowned brand or name to have a regular livelihood. However, not all artisans are lucky …

Artistic Philanthropy And Women’S Emancipation In Early Twentieth-Century Italy, In The Life And The Work Of Romeyne Robert And Carolina Amari, Ruggero Ranieri

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Romeyne Robert, married as Ranieri di Sorbello, started an embroidery school in 1904 in Umbria, at the family’s country estate of Pischiello. Her goal was to teach young peasant women to emancipate themselves by learning the craft of embroidery. She was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in America and by contemporary programs developed in settlement houses along the East Coast. Their aim was to help the emancipation of immigrant women from Italy by fostering the recovery of artisan skills. At the Sorbello Embroidery School, Romeyne rediscovered the Renaissance technique originally called the punto Umbro, later renamed punto Sorbello. …

Tribal Textiles And The Mingei Circle In Japan: Muneyoshi Yanagi’S View On Carpet, Yumiko Kamada

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Tribal carpets and textiles have been enthusiastically collected by connoisseurs and ordinary people in Europe and the United States for years. Along with a number of publications on tribal carpets and textiles, several recent exhibitions such as Portable Storage: Tribal Weavings from the Collection of William and Inger Ginsberg at the Metropolitan Museum of Art indicate a keen academic interest in the West. In contrast, tribal carpets and textiles did not gain the attention of the majority of Japanese. However, some Japanese, especially Yanagi Muneyoshi and his friends in the Mingei circle, notably Hamada Shoji, Serizawa Keisuke, and Tonomura Kichinosuke, …

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 31:2—Fall 2019, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America: Newsletters

Letter from the President

TSA News:
Announcing the 2019 Fellows of the Textile Society of America
New Professionals Convening: Envisioning Textiles Futures
Observations of New Professionals Convening: Envisioning Textiles Futures
Board Workshop with artEquity
Announcing Research Travel Grant Recipients
Textiles Close Up: Textiles Old and New in Detroit’s Cultural Center
Cooper Hewitt’s Object of the Day Blog Hosts TSA Members for NYC Textile Month

In Memoriam: Marion Coleman

In Memoriam: Archie Brennan

TSA Symposium News
17th Biennial Symposium: Hidden Stories/Human Lives
16th Biennial Symposium Workshop Review: Rediscovering the Potential of WARP(S)

International Exhibitions

Featured Article
A Land of Light and …

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 31:1—Spring 2019, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America: Newsletters

Letter from the President

TSA News:
Textiles Close Up: Andean Meets Anni in Chicago
R. L. Shep Ethnic Textile Book Award 2018 Nominees
Special Issue of JTDRP [Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice] Published
TSA Seeking a Newsletter Editor
International Report

In Memoriam: Sandra Alfoldy

TSA Symposium News
TSA Symposium 2020: Call for Submissions
Report from Student and New Professional Awardees

Book Reviews
The Art and Science of Natural Dyes: Principles, Experiments, and Results
Call for Submissions: Textile Month

Featured Exhibitions
Anni Albers
TSA Members at Fiberart International 2019
Contemporary Muslim Fashions

Member News

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 30:2 — Fall 2018, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America: Newsletters

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the President

TSA News
Welcome New TSA Board Members
Our Focus on Diversity: Vision Statement
R. L. Shep Ethnic Textile Book Award
Diedrick Brackens Honored with 2018 Brandford/Elliott Award

International Report
Featured Exhibitions
Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT)
Opportunity
The University of North Texas to Close Fibers Program by Spring 2019

TSA Symposium
The Social Fabric: Deep Local to Pan Global in pictures
TSA Members' Exhibition
Reports from Student & New Professional Awardees

A Long-Delayed Professional Conversation

Book Reviews
Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Fante Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana
Polychromatic Screen Printing …

Development And Marketing Of A Repurposed Textile Product For Homeless Individuals In Northwest Arkansas, Mckenna Whitaker, Beau Broyles, Lindsey Stone

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Growing concerns over waste disposal methods have led to a greater focus on recycling efforts in the textile industry. Second only to the oil industry, the textile industry continues to be one of the most wasteful among leading businesses around the world and determining ways to repurpose fashion materials could be a reasonable solution to this growing problem (Dobilaite, V., Mileriene, G., Juciene, M., & Sacevičienė, 2017). In addition to alleviating disposal issues, repurposed materials could serve the humanitarian needs of local communities, and even more importantly, could specifically benefit homeless populations. The purpose of this project was to design, …

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 30:1 — Spring 2018, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America: Newsletters

Letter from the Senior Editor

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the President

TSA News:
From the Nomination Committee
Slate of Candidates

TSA "Meet Up" at the Textile Museum, Washington, DC

R. L. Shep Ethnic Textile Book Award 2017 Nominees

Textile Society of America 30th Anniversary
A Personal Connection to TSA

Call for Submissions: Textile Month

RE: Gender Bend: Women In Wood, Men at the Loom

Coping with the Perils from Apparel

Book Reviews
Women Artisans of Morocco: Their Stories Their Lives
From Tapestry to Fiber Art: The Lausanne Biennials, 1962-1995
Inside the Royal Wardrobe: A Dress History of Queen …

The Future Of Textiles: Disruption And Collaboration, Susan Brown, Matilda Mcquaid, David Breslauer, Suzanne Lee, Anais Missakian, Abby-George Erikson, Salem Van Der Swaagh

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The textile field, while not “local” in the geographic sense, is a community: a group of people with a shared language, history, and practices that date back thousands of years. As deeply-rooted as those materials and practices are, textiles is also an area that has historically experienced enormous disruptions due to changing technology and globalization. In the 21^st century, we are undergoing something like a second Industrial Revolution. Advances in digital and robotic technologies and shifting labor markets are driving a revolution in where and how things are made. Global climate change, lack of food security for much of …

Timberline Textiles: Creating A Sense Of Place, Annin Barrett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Timberline Village holds an iconic place in popular culture, serving as a symbol of Western U.S. mountain tradition. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was filmed there, dozens of ski-wear advertisements feature it as background, and it has even been used for an immersive horror game setting. During the early 20^th century, other great mountain lodges were built in the West, but what makes Timberline unique is its textiles. It receives almost two million visitors a year who come from around the world to admire this handcrafted building perched at 6000 fee elevation on Mt. Hood in Oregon. The Lodge was …

Wrapped In Wool: Coast Salish Wool Weaving, Vancouver’S Public Art, And Unceded Territory, Alison Ariss

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Coast Salish blankets, lovingly woven with hand dyed, home spun, and commercially produced yarns, adorn the walls of an international airport, museum, universities, and national broadcasting studio, and a mixed-use development project in Vancouver. All of these publicly accessible sites are located in unceded Coast Salish territory, upon which this city exists. These weavings present a conundrum. Simultaneously viewed as public art and symbols of cultural revitalization, their recognition as fine art has been limited, as most discourse about Coast Salish blankets has occurred outside of the discipline of art history. How then, have these weavings found their way into …

Schoolgirl Embroideries: Integrating Indigenous Motifs, Materials, And Text, Lynne Anderson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Hand embroidery was an integral part of female education in Europe, America, and their colonized territories until the late 19^th century. All girls embroidered at least one sampler and many stitched more than one. Because needlework was part of the school’s curriculum; a sampler’s composition, technique, and text communicate a great deal about the teacher’s goals, as well as community and family expectations, including those of indigenous students. This presentation explores ways in which indigenous motifs, materials, and text were integrated into schoolgirl samplers and other girlhood embroideries, leaving visible evidence of cross-cultural accommodations. Motifs are recurring patterns or …

Eliza Calvert Hall, A Book Of Hand-Woven Coverlets, And Collecting Coverlet Patterns In Early Twentieth Century Appalachia, Philis Alvic

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In her 1912 book, Eliza Calvert Hall describes looking out of her window and seeing coverlets thrown over tobacco wagons on way to market. She would run out and try to bargain with the owner for the coverlet. She collected coverlets, their design names, and their patterns. Since Hall supported herself with her writing, she counted on her coverlet book appealing to the wide audience of people interested in the Colonial Revival in home decoration. Although hall published the book, she was just the more visible of those interested in coverlets during the early twentieth century. Throughout Appalachia, there were …

Chilean Arpilleras: Writing A Visual Culture, R. Darden Bradshaw

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper highlights a recent inquiry into the contemporary visual culture of the Chilean arpillera from a cross-global perspective. This art form derived from political, social, and economic conditions of the times yet contemporary manifestations do not address these origins. Arpilleras, historically created in the home and sewn by hand, are constructions in which bits of discarded cloth and burlap were used to compose pictorial narratives. The art form arose in Chile during a period of intense political oppression. This manifestation of women’s fiber art has and continues to serve as both seditious and reconstructive forms of visual culture. While …

The Embroidery Artisans Of The Kashmir Valley: Cultural Imports And Exports From Historical And Contemporary Perspectives., Deborah Emmett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

On a visit to the Kashmir Valley in northern India during the winter months I was given a pheran to wear. This long woolen garment is the customary apparel worn by Kashmiri men and women in cold weather. While the men’s are plain, the women’s pherans are embroidered on the front and sleeves. The skills of those Kashmiri artisans who hand embroider clothing such as the pherans, shawls, and other textiles including rugs, curtains, and cushions are well recognized in India and beyond. Considering the Kashmir Valley’s geographic position surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains, I presumed that their embroidery crafts …

Fish In The Desert – North Africa’S Textile Tradition Between Indigenous Identity And Exogenous Shifts In Meaning, Silvia Dolz

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Among the oldest handcraft products of North Africa are woven, knotted, and embroidered textiles (flat woven fabrics, knotted carpets, clothing) primarily made of wool and hair from sheep, goats, or camels. Those products have great importance, beyond their practical purpose, as a communicative and artistic medium. Changes and re-evaluations of the textile from a utilitarian object with potent pre-Islamic and Islamic symbolism towards a modern abstract art object reveal centuries of cultural transfer between the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe on the one hand, and between North and West Africa on the other. At the same time, this has …

Co-Creating Craft; Australian Designers Meet Artisans In India, Katherine Bissett-Johnson, David Moorhead

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

There is no word for design in India, creativity and making are intertwined. Craft and culture are inseparable, yet craft practice has become both a cultural and increasingly financial activity. The income from crafts in India is estimated to be only second to agriculture, yet many artisans still live in poverty. Precedents for designers working with artisans in India to develop products for both local and global markets have proven successful. Different types of co-creation (sometimes called co-design) activities have been documented between both local designers and local artisans, and, between foreign designers and local artisans. Although the outcomes of …

The Tent-Dweller: Visual Markers Of Migration In Art, Sara Clugage

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The current migrant crisis has brought new complexity to an object that enables transition: the tent. Tents are structures most often meant to be temporary-they both practically enable journeys and visually signify the temporary. A language of migration, territory, and dislocation is mapped onto canvas, ropes, and poles. Migration depends on concepts of land rights, movement, and the finite duration of a journey. As Deleuze and Guattari set for in “A Thousand Plateaus,” migrants move from one place to another but are defined as belonging to those spaces. Nomads, on the one hand, do not have land distributed to them-they …

Balancing Local Tradition And Global Influences: Design And Business Education For Traditional Artisans In Kachchh, India, Ruth Clifford

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the craft-rich region of Kutch, western India, and the historical sari weaving town of Maheshwar, central India, two institutes are providing design and business education to traditional artisans. These are Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV) and The Handloom School (THS); they form case studies for my PhD research. SKV encourages students to focus on their traditional designs believing them to be their unique selling point, but to innovate upon these traditions making them relevant to contemporary markets. Graduates face challenges of balancing the maintenance of the traditional aspects of their craft, their identity and integrity, with urban and global market …

Reawakening Chahta Nan Tvnna (Choctaw Textiles), Jennifer Byram

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Choctaw people have crafted textiles from the land for thousands of years. Native to Mississippi and Alabama, U.S.A., the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma resides today in the Southeastern part of the state and numbers over 200,000 citizens. This paper comes out of the tribe’s Historic Preservation department’s work in conjunction with community efforts to reawaken Chahta nan tvnna, Choctaw textiles. By piecing together disparate parts of the Choctaw textile narrative, the Choctaw community is creating new textile work that recalls the ancestors and brings the identity of Chahta nan tvnna to new generations of Choctaw artisans.

A Local Motif; Use Of Kōwhaiwhai Patterns In Printed Textiles, Jane Groufsky

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper considers the role of patterns derived from kowhaiwhai in printed textiles, and how these have been used to project a national identity. Kowhaiwhai refers to the design traditionally used my Maori (the Indigenous people of New Zealand) on parts of meetings houses, canoe paddles, and other painted objects. Although kowhaiwhai art has developed to include figural representation, it is the curvilinear decoration based on the natural forms of koru (fern shoots), kape (crescent), and rauru (spiral) which has become a distinctly recognizable “New Zealand” pattern. Situated in the meeting house, kowhaiwhai designs have a style and meaning which …