Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine at V&A Dundee
In the Palestinian Museum's archives, there's a photograph from 1935 showing women from Ramallah working collectively on their tatreez. Their heads bent over fabric, fingers working in practiced rhythm, they couldn't have imagined their embroidery would one day serve as historical testimony. Yet that's exactly what Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine reveals.
Fatima Yousef Sewing a Palestinian thobe, Kobar-Ramallah, the 1970s, Palestinian Museum Digital Archive.
Curated by Rachel Dedman, and in partnership with Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, and the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit , the exhibition unspools across the V&A Dundee. Each dress presents evidence of regional variations in tatreez, revealing the logic in necessity - each stitch sewn according to the demands of daily life. In Galilee's agricultural north, women developed lighter embroidery on long coats - practical adaptations for heavy fieldwork that left little time for elaborate decoration. Move south to the more affluent areas of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and the story changes: gold and silver metallic threads create elaborate surfaces that speak of merchant wealth and urban leisure.
Widow’s dress, Bir al-Saba’, 1960-1970, The Palestinian Museum Collection. Donated by Laila Atawneh.
The psychology embedded in colour choices also run deep within the aesthetics. When Bedouin women used indigo to dye their bright threads blue during mourning, they created garments that literally faded back to life. The chemistry of the dye matched the process of grief - intense darkness gradually revealing the colours beneath. The chemistry of the fabric held emotional truth, becoming a medium for healing long before such language existed in therapy...
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Further Information:
V&A Dundee: Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine
If you would like to learn more about the history, culture, and techniques of tatreez embroidery, take a look at the following workshop with the Tatreez Collective:
Stitching Palestinian Heritage with the Tatreez Collective - Museum of the Home, London
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Image Credits:
Lead Image:
Detail of dress from Ramallah, 1930-1940, V&A.
Ramallah dresses were typically made of linen, woven in Palestine. Summer dresses used the natural colour of the linen (these were known as roumi), while winter dresses were dyed dark blue with indigo. Those with pointed (irdan) sleeves were a status symbol, but slightly impractical, so women would knot them behind their backs as they worked outside.
All other images as credited in photo captions.