All posts filed under: Textiles & Costume

A 1920s Asian for the Western market coat

Mrs C has given me a very interesting textile on long term loan, and I thought it would be the perfect ‘Textiles on Thursday’ feature. The textile is an embroidered silk coat with a rabbit fur lining. The coat is fascinating for all sorts of reasons. It’s an excellent example of an export textile, made in Asia (probably China, possibly Japan) for the Western market. As an export textile, it’s particularly interesting because it isn’t a particularly luxurious item. Chinese design features aside, the coat is a great piece of early 1920s fashion. Finally, it’s an exciting vintage item because it isn’t that small, it easily fits a modern 14-16. Poor Isabelle is a little swamped in it! So, let’s break it down. First, what’s this export textile thing? Well, the West has had a love affair with Eastern goods and aesthetics for centuries. Just look at Chinoiserie in the 18th century and Japonism in the 19th century, as well as the trade in kashmir shawls in both. The newest trends in Eastern imports always …

Get your textiles on!

Published by The Dreamstress

If you are in New Zealand, and interested in costume and textiles, you should definitely know about the Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand, and you should definitely be hurrying to get your registration in for their annual symposium by Friday June 3. The symposium takes place over the 17th and 18th of June in Tauranga, and will feature all sorts of fabulous talks about costumes and textiles (and probably some boring ones too, but hopefully not too many of those!) all with the theme of ‘Celebration’. Best of all, it will feature me, in fabulous frocks both days, and giving a talk about a particularly fabulous frock on Sunday. Here is a sneak peek at what I will be talking about:

Exotic Mexico meets Kiwi Housewife

Published by The Dreamstress

Carrying on from the Mexican theme of a few Thursdays ago, here is the final Mexican themed textile from my stash. It’s an embroidered apron, made by a Kiwi housewife, probably during the 1950s. I’d been collecting mid-20th century Mexican themed textiles since my interest in them was first sparked as a teenager by all the Mexican textiles in my Grandmothers stash. When I moved to NZ, I assumed that was the end of my collecting in that area, because I didn’t think that Mexico would have been a popular theme for fabric escapism so far across the world. You can imagine my delight when I found this apron in an op-shop a few months ago. I figured it was an anomaly, made by a talented embroiderer who had become tired of all the usual apron embroidery patterns. The apron was made by a skilled embroiderer. It uses only a few stitches, but they are expertly executed, and the choice of stitches for the different textures in the design, such as the delicately scalloped senorita’s …