‘Peacock and Vine’ embroidery
1875-80 – embroidery wool and linen, designed by William Morris and Philip Webb, made by the RSN.
A version of ‘Peacock and Vine’ worked by the RSN was sent to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. William Morris agreed to the RSN making up his designs for the show as it was a good way for his work to be seen in America. This is one of a number of Morris designs that the RSN made.
Lingerie department
The RSN started making lingerie in 1916 and it was an instant hit, even becoming the mainstay of the Workroom during the 1930s. Clients included royalty and members of high society, and the pinnacle of the work was a wedding trousseau.
The RSN embroiderers worked on many of these, including items for the Princess Royal, but the most celebrated set was for Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas Scott on her marriage to the Duke of Gloucester in 1935. Lady Smith-Dorrien, Principal of the RSN in the 1930s, would make regular trips to Paris to see the latest French designs for lingerie and bring back ideas and materials for them to be created with a British twist.
The lingerie department continued into the war years but had to be closed in 1942 as it was no longer viable. The shops had been bombed and materials were not available.
New lingerie
The RSN Degree provides live projects to its students each year so current second-year students were shown some of the lingerie from the 1930s in the RSN Collection and were challenged to create new pieces based on a camisole top.
Red Dress Project
Since 2010 – cotton, embroidery threads, appliqué, metal threads, beads, wool.
The Red Dress Project, conceived by Kirstie Macleod, provides an artistic platform for women around the world, many of whom are marginalised and live in poverty, to tell their personal stories through embroidery. So far, over 250 embroiderers have worked on the dress from 29 different countries! The dress has been worked on by RSN students twice, once in 2010 and again by current Degree and Future Tutor students in 2022.
Ostrich-feather dress
2015 – tulle, ostrich feathers.
Designed by Nicholas Oakwell, the RSN was asked to help work this dress on a very tight schedule. In total, 200,000 ostrich fronds were used in 18 shades of red to black with an increasing number of fronds per row. When complete, it was modelled by Erin O’Connor before going to the GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai. It then travelled around the world before returning to the UK, where it was worn by Cheryl for The X Factor final.
Signature project - Lockdown o’clock
2021 – metal, cotton fabric, metal threads, cotton threads, made by Kate Pankhurst.
This was the winner of the Hand & Lock Prize for Hand Embroidery - Textile Art 2021. As Kate Pankhurst’s final piece on the Future Tutor course, it combined many of the techniques she had learnt along the way. During lockdown, time seemed to slow down, hence the phases of the moon on the front of the clock, but it also flew by, hence the wings. On the back is a view of London, which she had time to study from her balcony, her only outdoor space.
Mantle or pallium for King Edward VII
1902 – cloth of gold and silk embroidery, lent by Her Majesty the Queen.
Princess Helena persuaded her brother to have cloth of gold woven for the mantle, but instead of having the motifs woven in like on Queen Victoria’s pall, Princess Helena wanted the RSN to embroider them. The design and placing of the motifs was undertaken by the head of the RSN Paint Room Nellie Whichelo and the embroidery was worked by the RSN Workroom. Other pieces made for the 1902 coronation included the canopy and some of the robes.
Robe of Estate of Queen Elizabeth (Queen Consort of King George VI)
1937 – velvet, ermine, gold thread embroidery lined in rayon, lent by Her Majesty the Queen.
The design on the Robe of Estate included not only the four emblems of the United Kingdom – the rose, shamrock and thistle – but also many of the flowers of the dominions, as they were known at the time, so the maple leaf, lotus and wattle, for example. The robe was made by a team of women at the RSN working side by side. The RSN made many items for the 1937 coronation, including a new canopy, the covers for the thrones and chairs.
Traditional skills; contemporary design
The most common hallmark of the RSN Degree programme is the variety of the directions pursued. The pieces on show here represent just a fraction of this variety. RSN degree graduates have gone on to work in film costume, haute couture and fashion, or as designer-makers producing embroidered jewellery and artworks. Some have worked with women in India, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, sharing a skill that can help the women to earn an income.
Graduates have had their work recognised by the Hand & Lock Prize for Hand Embroidery and by the Crafts Council. In 2020, trend forecaster Lij Edelkoort selected three RSN Degree graduates for the Textile Futures publication, most of the other featured students being at postgraduate level.