*Tickets will be on sale soon, to be the first to know sign up to our mailing list here.*
Textiles: The Art of Mankind celebrates the ancient and deep entanglement between textiles, people and our world.
This ambitious exhibition introduces materials and methods that have produced cloth, but also the ropes, reins, bands and gut-strings that gave us ships, ploughs and carts, the ability to transfer electricity and make music.
Through the juxtaposing of stunning garments, dress and textiles originating from around the world, the exhibition aims to connect with everyone, proving the existence of a universal, shared narrative. Exhibition pieces express global identities as well as our cultural regard for animals. There are depictions of complex ideas, illustrations of the origins of computing in weaving, and the antiquity of the principle of ‘waste not want not’.
Also on display is work by UK based artist Lynn Setterington. Through textiles Lynn explores contemporary issues in society and how stitch can be used to commemorate people and communities.
About the curator
Mary Schoeser MA FRSA has authored some 280 publications large and small. Books related to the Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition include World Textiles: A concise history (Thames & Hudson: 2003/2023), Silk (Yale University Press, 2007) and Textiles: The art of mankind (T&H, 2012/2013).
Formerly Archivist for Warner & Sons, since 1991 she has been consultant archivist to firms such as Liberty of London, as well as advising museums in Britain and America, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over 40 curatorial projects range from the contribution to Chintz: Cotton in Bloom at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London (2021) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Off the Wall: American Art to Wear (2019).
She lectures widely, since 2018 at Textilmuseum St Gallen, National Museums Scotland, University of Lisbon, Textile Center Haslach (Austria), Winterthur Museum (Delaware USA) and the Wellcome Institute, London. She is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the V&A and also Patron of the Bernat Klein Foundation and School of Textiles, Coggeshall.
This exhibition brings to London a range of ethnographic garments and textiles from the Jo Ann C. Stabb Collection at the University of California Davis, where Mary was taught by Jo Ann during her first degree (a BSc in Design) and developed her interest in global and interdisciplinary studies.
infoInfo
In place of a permanent display, the Fashion and Textile Museum hosts a diverse programme of temporary exhibitions, displaying a broad range of innovative fashion and textiles from designers and makers around the world.
On arrival: Please ensure you arrive within the first 20 minutes of your chosen entry time, for example if your ticket is for 11am please arrive between 11.00 and 11.20am. Please do not arrive early as you will be refused entry. There is no waiting area in the museum. Upon entry, please present your ticket(s) on your device or a note of your booking reference number.
Eating and drinking: No food or drink is permitted in the Museum, other than bottled water. The Fashion and Textile Museum is located in the heart of Bermondsey Street, surrounded by award-winning restaurants, cafes and pubs. So, if you would like to enjoy a meal or a drink before or after your visit, there is plenty to choose from.For more information, check out our plan your visit page or our FAQs.