Enjoy a private tour of Textiles: The Art of Mankind with curator and textile expert Mary Schoeser. Mary will be joined by Adele Zhang, Collection Manager of the Jo Ann C. Stabb Design Collection at the Department of Design at University of California where many of the objects on display have travelled from.
The exhibition celebrates the ancient and deep entanglement between textiles, people and our world. Through the beauty of textiles, you will encounter human ingenuity that can be traced from pre-history to our digital age. They reveal the human desire to engage with texture and colour, record histories, thoughts and feelings, and preserve skills to hand down generations. Across the globe, they carry sacred significance, express our cultural regard for animals, while other’s symbolise life’s mysteries.
The exhibition brings together a vibrant collection of exquisite and unexpected objects from around the world that tell stories, communicate human individuality, celebrate collaboration and explore ideas of sustainability. Exploring how craft and creativity connects society, Textiles: The Art of Mankind shows us that textiles are fundamentally intertwined with the story of humanity and continue to remain relevant today.
Tours take place while the exhibition is closed to the public and are limited to 20 people. The tour will last around 45 minutes and attendees are welcome to stay and view the exhibition at their leisure once the tour is finished.
About the speaker
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.
The Jo Ann C. Stabb Design Collection is a special resource that supports and enhances the teaching and research goals of the Department of Design at University of California, Davis. Managed by Adele Zhang, also a former student of Jo Ann’s, the collection consists of over 5,000 items ranging from the 16th Century to present day with the focus on ethnic and endangered textiles and costumes from around the world.
infoInfo
Confirmation email: Once you have made a booking, you will receive a confirmation email detailing all the information you will need prior to your event, this is your event ticket. You will also receive a reminder email one week prior to your event.
Event details: Please check your confirmation email for the start and finish times of your event. Upon entry, please present your ticket(s) on your device or a note of your booking reference number. Exhibition entry is included in your ticket, you are welcome to view the exhibition before or after the event.
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.