Passing On The Comfort

A couple of posts back I mentioned the current QGM exhibit in York of 'Sewing in Wartime', which includes Red Cross Quilts made in Canada and sent to the UK and Europe during WW2.  I just came across this post from another blogger about a similar exhibition, entitled Passing On The Comfort, which is also the title of the related book.  The book documents the world of women in Holland who found themselves fighting with the Resistance, and also illustrates the war experiences of the quilts which went to mainland Europe.
The blog post dates back to 2008, at which time the exhibition was still available to tour, I'm not sure whether that is still the case.

Not Queen Mary's Slipper

This is the story from the BBC of a shoe dating from the 17th Century which has been found 'in a box under a bed' on the island of Canna.  It was part of a large archive of Gaelic culture collected over time by Margaret Fay Shaw and her husband John Lorne Campbell and now cared for by the National Trust for Scotland.  Made of satin, silk, leather and metal, it has now been dated to between the 1640s and 1660s. The alert amongst you will realise this dates it after the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, which is a shame because when found it was labelled 'Queen Mary's Slipper'.  Sadly, time-slipped oral history is as common in the textile world as in other branches of museum life.  I say sadly, because wouldn't it be wonderful if it was Queen Mary's slipper.

Costume at Leeds City Museum. From 23rd July 2010

Opening shortly at the new Leeds City Museum, an exhibition which combines historical costume from the City's collection with reproduction items made for film and television productions such as The Duchess, Pride and Prejudice, Cranford and Pirates of the Caribbean.  While the historical items will be displayed in closed cases, the reproduction items will be on open display.  So, for example, Mr Darcy's pond-dipping number will stand next to a beautiful period shirt of the finest, lightest linen and the tiniest hand stitching. Cranford costumes will be accompanied by a delightful straw bonnet of the period, newly conserved. There are always compromises to be made when constructing for modern bodies and the demands of film action and screen reproduction, so it should be an interesting opportunity to make comparisons.
This exhibition lasts until January, and the City Museum is just around the corner from the  Intarsia exhibition at the City Art Gallery, so you can make a full day of it.  The City Museum itself is a new exhibition space in an old building and has plenty to entertain the rest of the family should you want to spend quality time with that linen shirt......

*Editor's note: The exhibition is now open, and I have to report that Darcy's shirt is well covered by his waistcoat, jacket and breeches... But somehow the curators have managed to pose the mannequin in a perfect Darcy/Firth stance, so there is still plenty to sigh over.   

Sewing in Wartime exhibition in York

A reminder about this exhibition at the Quilters Guild Museum in York, of which I gave advance notice back in April. It now starts a day earlier than originally stated.  Tomorrow, in fact, 9th July.  If you saw the solitary Red Cross Quilt in the V&A exhibition, this is a chance to find out more about them and see other examples in the first big exhibition to acknowledge the huge effort put in by the Canadian Red Cross volunteers to support Britain during WW2, and the role these quilts played in peoples lives.

A BQTHL member who has visited the exhibition writes:

"I thoroughly enjoyed both new displays at QMG. I was a child during the Second World War and have many memories of my own which were half-forgotten. The display about clothes rationing was most interesting,

also details given about how many clothing coupons were needed for each item bought out of a not very generous annual allocation, which was cut when times were particularly difficult. No wonder we had to resort to make-do
and mend and I looked forward to occasional parcels which came from aunts who each had a child a few years older than my brother and myself. My chldren and grandchildren have no conception of what the reality was but
this display may help younger people to appreciate something of what life really was like 'on the home front.'
There was a dress on display made from material printed with maps. These were given to men (presumably mostly in the air forces) to help them find their way should they land in enemy territory. I think I had heard or seen something about that somewhere. In a show chest there were other items of clothing although I think I was the only visitor who pulled out the lower drawers to see items of silk lingerie made for a trousseau - very delicate
and wonderful that they survived use.

A book has been produced (£10) giving colour photos of the Canadian Red Cross Quilts on display and all details so far known of their histories.'

Horrockses Fashions in the 40s and 50s. London at the FTM.

At the Fashion and Textile Museum 9th July 2010 to 24 October.  Horrockses' wonderful full-skirted fashions have been getting a number of museum outings recently.  I managed to miss them all so am delighted to see another one at the FTM in London, and a book to be published by the V&A .  These full-skirted, trim-waisted dresses in powerful bright prints were the thing to be seen in the 40s and 50s, when women still wore lightweight  'waspie' waist corsets to get the shape (I remember sneaking my mother's out of the airing cupboard to try).  The quality of the fabric and print design was what made them so special, together with the full-skirted New Look shape.  Worn by Queen Elizabeth 11 when she went on overseas tours, in a master stroke of retailing the very same dresses were available for the woman in the street to buy (if she could save a week's wages).  The company finally folded after production went overseas years later.  Some blame changing fashion, but fabric buffs might suspect a decline in the quality of the fabric and print did not help. 
From the FTM website:
"The colourful prints will provide a visual feast for visitors to the exhibition, which focuses on the range of the firm's production, from glamorous evening dresses, to vibrant summer frocks and sophisticated housecoats and beachwear. It will follow the story of the Horrockses dress from initial fabric and fashion design, to production, promotion and consumption."
Looking at the events being offered alongside the exhibition I see a 'make do and mend' 4-week course on simple clothing alterations and repairs.  Wasn't that what we used to learn in school?

Raphael's Tapestries for the Sistene Chapel. V&A from 8 Sept-17 October

I don't want to wish away my summer days, but this is something to look forward to in September.   For the first time in nearly 500 years four tapestries woven for the Sistine Chapel will be reunited with the cartoons used by the weavers who worked them.  Cut into strips, the coloured designs were hung behind the looms as a template and since the weavers worked from the back, the cartoons and tapestries are mirror images of each other. This September, to mark the visit to the UK of the current Pope,  they will hang face to face.

The tapestries, according to an article by Jan Dalley of the FT writing in the V&A magazine, were woven 'on low-warp horizontal looms, worked in wool with highlights of silk and even gold and silver thread........the weavers could render every nuance of colour and shade of the original:  it was highly skilled work, more akin to embroidery than weaving.  Weavers even had their specialities: one was renowned for foliage, another for the feathers of the water birds who prance in front of the fishermen-apostles, the most prestigious of all being those who could reproduce the subtleties of flesh.'

The designs are surprisingly 'un-Catholic' in their representations, with a lack of the usual iconic symbols. The halos I think I spotted in the online pictures are very under-stated, Virgin Mary is nowhere to be seen, and there is a distinct lack of arrows and bleeding saints.  There is, however, some wonderful depiction of figures, flora, fauna, landscape and drapery, and a simple telling of biblical stories.  Dalley suggests this may be why they escaped destruction by Oliver Cromwell when he disposed of the rest of Charles I's art collection. 

This is quite a short exhibition and in a limited space, as usual the V&A recommend advance booking. Admission is free by timed ticket.

For more information:

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=38304

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/27/raphael-sistine-chapel-tapestries
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/paintings/features/raphael/sistine-tapestries/index.html