AROUND THE WORLD AND ACROSS TIME

Image: Italy, 1580-1629. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-2845. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center. Photo by Bruce M. White Photography. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

The Cotsen Textile Traces Global Roundtable: Lacing Around the World and Across Time takes place on 12 and 13 October, 2022. Accessible online, this third annual virtual Cotsen Textile Traces Global Roundtable is hosted by The George Washington University and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. Participants will explore the rich traditions of lacemaking through examples from the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection. The collection represents a lifetime's passion of business leader and philanthropist Lloyd Cotsen (1929-2017). Comprising nearly 4,000 pieces, the collection includes fragments from Japan, China, pre-Hispanic Peru, and 16th- to 18th-century Europe. 

Image: Italy, 17th century. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-0703. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center. Photo by Bruce M. White Photography. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. 

The roundtable event will include keynotes from Emma Cormack (Associate Curator, Bard Graduate Center, New York), and Ilona Kos (Curator, Textilmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland), as well as some fifteen international scholars, artists, and designers, addressing the traditions and transmissions of needle lace and bobbin lace; mimicking lace; handmade lace today; and industrial innovations. 

Those interested in attending should register early to receive the full programme, links, and details for joining each day on Zoom. 

Image: France, c. 1725. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-0598. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center. Photo by Bruce M. White Photography. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

Meanwhile, Prof. Michele Majer, Emma Cormack, and Ilona Kos are co-curating Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilmuseum, currently showing at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York (September 17, 2022-January 1, 2023). 

The first large-scale American installation in 10 years, the show brings together approximately 175 examples of lace from the extensive collection at the Textilmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, tracing the development of lace from its early sixteenth-century origins to the present. The main themes of the exhibition include the introduction of early needle and bobbin laces around 1600 and their centres of production (primarily Italy and Flanders); lace as a luxury commodity, a symbol of power and status for the clergy and aristocracy; the decline of the industry following the French Revolution; the rise of machine-made lace in the nineteenth century; the resurgence of this textile as a status symbol for affluent women; lace collectors and collecting in the late-nineteenth century and lace revivals in Britain, Continental Europe, and among Italian immigrants in New York City; the importance of St. Gallen as a centre of machine production from the turn of the twentieth century to the present; and the innovations that shape today’s industry.

Image: Rose-Lynn Fisher, Tears & Lace (Last tear I ever cry for you), United States, 2009-2016. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-3256a, b. © Rose-Lynn Fisher. Photo by Bruce M. White Photography. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. 

Those unable to attend either should not despair. A book of the same name accompanies the exhibition, and those very clever people at Dressed: The History of Fashion have made an excellent podcast on the subject, available here.