Textile History - Tumblr Posts
One side effect of my research for this novel being steeped heavily in textile history is my swelling disgust with modern fabrics.
Firstly they're so thin? Like most things you see in Old Navy or even department stores might as well be tissue paper?? Even some branded sports t-shirts I've bought in recent years (that are supposed to be 'official apparel' and allegedly decent quality) are definitely not going to hold up more than a year or two without getting little holes from wear.
This side of even two hundred years ago fabrics were made to be used for YEARS, and that's with wearing them way more often because you only owned like three sets of clothes. They were thick and well made and most importantly made to LAST. And they were gorgeous?? Some of the weaves were so fine and the drape so buttery we still don't entirely know how these people managed to make them BY HAND. Not to mention intricate patterning and details that turned even some simple garments into freaking ART.
I know this is not news, the fast fashion phenomenon is well documented. Reading so much about the amazing fabrics we used to create and how we cherished and valued them, though, is making it hard not to mourn what we lost to mass production and capitalism. Not just the quality of the clothing and fabrics themselves, but the generations of knowledge and techniques that are just gone. It makes me what to cry.
I need to get a sewing machine.
HOLY SHIT as a knitter who is also a historian i NEED to get my hands on one of these
Who wants to hear about my new obsession? Great. Textile people, knitting folks, fiber peeps, history of those things lovers, and archives/special collections comrades, this is for us.
So a few weeks ago, in the midst of A Big Sad, I set out on the simple distracting mission of giving my mom the link to something I want for Christmas. Long story short, I failed. I fell down a deep rabbit hole on traditional Estonian knitting and ended up ordering a book on the subject from Estonia for myself. Anyway, it arrived and holy shit.
300 pages of fiber/knitting/history nerdiness. The first hundred cover Estonian knitting history, including archaeological finds (bog body knitwear!), regional traditions, dyes and colors, museum collections and patterns reconstructed from them!
As an archivist, I lost it when I saw this, a helpful guide to searching Estonian museum collections for English speakers. Vocabulary for knitwear collections! Navigating the search features! MIND BLOWN. In the history intro section, they recommend books on knitting history with the website link to libraries with free digital copies. They are pulling me farther into the rabbit hole and I am here for it.
And because I am a knitter and an archivist, they included a basic guide on preservation and care of vintage knitwear. I am crying rn
Ok, history is cool and all but what about the knitting??? It is amazing. This volume is not complete patterns but more of a stitch/pattern encyclopedia that can be added to other projects. It includes tips on color palate while providing reference to various traditional plates of different regions of Estonia
So these are suggested stranded colorwork patterns for mittens. But use them wherever
Stranded colorwork, intarsia in the round, lace, cables, interlay, enterlac, fringes, brioche, boarders/edging, several cast-ons I had never seen
The second volume (hard to find) is all on socks/stockings, and volume 3 (which has just been released in English) is all about mittens and I might have ordered it this morning.
It is not the easiest book to track down, nor the cheapest. As I said, I ordered it from Estonia. Amazon and Amazon owned Abe Books both had it for around $70. I, personally, refuse to give bezos money and, in this case if you are considering buying it, I encourage you to order it from this shop in Estonia. Even with international shipping, taxes, fees, and such, it was actually about $10 cheaper.
Reblogging with words from the brilliant Chaédria LaBouvier — from her Instagram posts: 1, 2 — for additional context:
“It cannot be unseen that a museum, which posits its very existence is to preserve objects and this calling is so sacred you can’t know what it is that they do and how they do it, allowed a woman to wear the dress so singular the only other person to wear had to be sewn into it.”
1 /
“[...] this is a great time to discuss inequality, pro-choice, the oligarchy, ethics, museums, the Supreme Court, scholars and the fact that we are in hell. [...] I should preface this by saying many of you know me as a Basquiat scholar but! I actually attended film school and in my extra grad year, studied w/Deborah Landis, a legendary costume designer.
Marilyn Monroe’s dress that she wore in 1962 was sketched by a young Bob Mackie and created by Jean-Louis, a fashion and costume designer whose influence of/in Golden Era Hollywood rivals Adrian and Edith Head (my personal favorite). Its made of soufflé silk, a fabric created by the defunct silk weaving and textile company, Bianchini-Fériér, whose archives are now w/ The Design Library in upstate NY. It is impossible to recreate it; it is banned due to its incredibly high flammability. It also created a nude look that was unrivaled before or after, essential during a time when censor laws were stringent and enforced. Before it was banned (the 80s I believe?), Bob Mackie famously used it to create nude looks for Cher. I’ve included a photo of her &Mackie at the Met Gala, ‘74. Monroe was a Dietrich fan and also a heavy student of film history (she loved silent actors) and costume design. I believe she was inspired by this gown (slide 6) worn by Dietrich also designed by Jean-Louis. Monroe was doing what the best fashion does — dialogue w/history while elevating it. Monroe’s dress should’ve never left Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The dress was so custom for Monroe — she was sewn into the dress, totally nude so it would be made only for her, and Jean-Louis hand dyed the silk to match her skin— that there’s no way Kardashian’s body, crash diet starved as it was, would not stress the 60 yr old dress, weight, seams, fabric or one of the 6,000 rhinestones sewn into it.
We are in hell. Not b/c a billionaire on paper wanted to wear Monroe’s dress, but b/c all of the safeguards are failing. A Met gala while the SC quietly tried to gut abortion rights is so apropos, Seneca himself could not write it.”
2 /
“You’re probably like, “what does a dress have to do with abortion rights?” I mean that’s fair. But I would venture that Kardashian’s request — and the fact it was meant and met w/seriousness— is an example of the fact we have no recourse for how to tell people with everything, no. Some things are simply not for sale. And yet. It cannot be unseen that a museum, which posits its very existence is to preserve objects and this calling is so sacred you can’t know what it is that they do and how they do it, allowed a woman to wear the dress so singular the only other person to wear had to be sewn into it. Let us not forget the pole heels which surely crushed a few rhinestones too. A dress is a red flag. And is because we have gutted and devalued what scholars, activists and writers and artists do — who are almost always, when doing their job correctly, the first line of defense in a healthy and functioning society. We live in a society where women are not full citizens, Black people are not full citizens — and we refuse to codify that into law. Yet, corporations, as the Supreme Court declared, are people. The Met Gala is, in this decline and end of empire, a true reflection of the incuriosity which governs our imaginations, dullness which brightness the diamonds, and the obsession w/money when none of it is actually real. None of it. Historians have been crying foul at Kardashian wearing the dress, as they should. But I hope the irony is not lost on my colleagues — it *would* be a museum failing in this ethical responsibility to safeguard a garment which is irreplaceable the formation and ideation of (White)American ideals and ideas of its on sexuality, sensuality and vitality. It should be available to future generations. And how often have museums disregarded their responsibility to the archive and the public — it’s future— for a cheque? And at what point is the point of no return? We will soon find out. I am writing those questions and hopefully answers, but I have to say, this episode of End of Empire could not have been better staged and set designed than if we had been sewn into ourselves. #metgala #metgala2022 #marilynmonroe Citation: @thelingerieaddict
Conservators ‘speechless’ that Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress to Met Gala
[Image: Evan Agostini / Associated Press]
Los Angeles Times — 3 May 2022 | Byline: Nardine Saad, Deborah Vankin
“The Met Gala is now part of the garment’s history — and it didn’t need to be.”
Keep reading
Making your own clothing is so fulfilling for exactly this reason! And you can make it actually fit in a way that mass produced clothes never do. Used sewing machines are cheap or free (and come with thread!), and all you need is an old iron, a seam ripper, measuring tape or string, and good scissors (or a cutting roller and pad).
Fabric can be very cheap in store and online. Or start with an old bed sheet and don’t worry about wasting good fabric.
Our grandparents’ clothes looked so good because they were hand made to fit.
One side effect of my research for this novel being steeped heavily in textile history is my swelling disgust with modern fabrics.
Firstly they're so thin? Like most things you see in Old Navy or even department stores might as well be tissue paper?? Even some branded sports t-shirts I've bought in recent years (that are supposed to be 'official apparel' and allegedly decent quality) are definitely not going to hold up more than a year or two without getting little holes from wear.
This side of even two hundred years ago fabrics were made to be used for YEARS, and that's with wearing them way more often because you only owned like three sets of clothes. They were thick and well made and most importantly made to LAST. And they were gorgeous?? Some of the weaves were so fine and the drape so buttery we still don't entirely know how these people managed to make them BY HAND. Not to mention intricate patterning and details that turned even some simple garments into freaking ART.
I know this is not news, the fast fashion phenomenon is well documented. Reading so much about the amazing fabrics we used to create and how we cherished and valued them, though, is making it hard not to mourn what we lost to mass production and capitalism. Not just the quality of the clothing and fabrics themselves, but the generations of knowledge and techniques that are just gone. It makes me what to cry.
I need to get a sewing machine.