Fashion & textiles
Textile:
LESSON 1: 25 september
Introduction
SAPE group = (french: clothing), Congolese style, sapeur clothing, usage of African textiles
Why textiles?
Sheila Hicks: uses textile to create art
Textiles & gender
↪ fashion & textile has always stereotypically been a feminine field, was seen lower in the
hiërachy of arts, marginalised, other mediums like painting were male dominated and seen
as higher
Textiles & inner spirit
↪ entry into womanhood, community beliefs
Textiles & economy
↪ huge textile industry, Karl Marx, largest female strike in textile factories (France) protest for
higher wages, capitalism was born of the back of the textile industry
picture: child labour in England
Textiles & art history
↪ multiple patterns, colours and textiles were important in art for their symbolic meaning
Textiles & musicology
↪ Chinese traditional: music and clothing go hand in hand, fashion used to enhance musical
performance (controversy)
Textiles & theatre/ dance studies
1. Linen
oldest textile fragments that were discovered, oldest garment ever found was made out of
linen → Tarkhan dress: from ancient Egypt
linen was used for multiple purposes in Egypt such as mummy wrapping , clothing, linens,
ropes, … (however it was not invented in Egypt)
linen is also used for canvases
linen = made out of flax, it is a based fibre (meaning it comes from plants, from the root)
picture: flax fields
,process: from flax to linen
- flax has to grow (grows quick and high)
- flax has to be pulled from the ground not cut (longer fibre, otherwise the root gets cut
of)
- finer fibres = green flax, courser thread = when golden brown (stronger)
- rippling = beating the seeds of the plants
- retting = submerging the flax in water so the outer harder layer becomes soft
breaking (beating) and scutching = beating the flax in order to break the outer
protection to get to the finer inner fibre
- hacking = modern technique, pulling through needles, weeding out the smaller and
ruffer fibres in order to get silky long fibre
- splicing = technique Egypt, intertwining threads to get one long one (takes a lot of
time and labour) → Egyptian linen is the finest linen
- spinning = faster modern technique to intertwine threads, using a distaff to collect the
fibre, then hooking it to the spindle to intertwine it into a nice thread
Egypt: piece of linen found that was dyed blue but most linen is left undyed, the whiteness of
the linen was associated with power, worn by the most powerful in society, the whiter the
linen the higher the social class the yellower/browner the lower the class
painting: depicts the bleaching of linen in the sun, Flanders
picture: Martinique
wealthy people would send their linen to get bleached
portraits:
- male: linen pants (colour!), linen scarf, jacket lining, his shirt, belt (dark colours
probably never linen
- woman: all lace is made from linen, little girl is fully dressed in linen, the underwear
and garments under the dress all linen
bad form to have yellow lace or shirts (lower class) had to be bright white, people took good
care of their clothes
white fabric before 1600: linen
after could be cotton (India)
painting of Josephine wearing a cotton dress with a cashmere band (Napoleon's wife)
rough linen was worn by slaves, it was uncomfortable to wear
movie American gigolo: linen suits from Armani were essential to the character being played
by Richard Gear, unstructured suits (wealthy leisure), very loose fitting
Linin in Belgium: thriving linen production
- early 15th century
- flax grown by the Leie
- Gent Vlasmarkt (flax)
, damast = originally silk fabric with a pattern woven into it, used for tablecloth, candles would
reflect the patterns
damast later becomes known as a linen fabric, luxury product from Belgium (Kortrijk, damast
capital of Europe)
Flemish lace was also a luxury product
factories take on the production from the workers, much cheaper, linen gets by taken over
cotton, machine made fabrics, people lose money and jobs
Flanders instead changes the focus on the production of flax instead of the end product
(linen), they profit on the war for uniforms but still the rise of synthetic fibers is unstoppable
LESSON 2: 1 oktober
2. Silk
video: In the mood for love
silk, luxury and the development of economic globalisation
overview
- originated from China, sericulture = process from cocoon to thread, production: 3600
BCE-400 BCE
- trading silk: 500 BCE-500 CE
- global spread of sericulture: 300-1500 CE
- sericulture/ silk weaving in the mediterranean
- Italy
- France
- Spitalfield England
- 1800
properties
- strong and flexible
- one of the most absorbent natural fibres
- fast drying
- good for dying
- breathable
- lustrous (not shiny) and soft
- hypoallergenic and antimicrobial (used in surgery for stitches)
- biodegradable
used for parachutes and painting
Textile:
LESSON 1: 25 september
Introduction
SAPE group = (french: clothing), Congolese style, sapeur clothing, usage of African textiles
Why textiles?
Sheila Hicks: uses textile to create art
Textiles & gender
↪ fashion & textile has always stereotypically been a feminine field, was seen lower in the
hiërachy of arts, marginalised, other mediums like painting were male dominated and seen
as higher
Textiles & inner spirit
↪ entry into womanhood, community beliefs
Textiles & economy
↪ huge textile industry, Karl Marx, largest female strike in textile factories (France) protest for
higher wages, capitalism was born of the back of the textile industry
picture: child labour in England
Textiles & art history
↪ multiple patterns, colours and textiles were important in art for their symbolic meaning
Textiles & musicology
↪ Chinese traditional: music and clothing go hand in hand, fashion used to enhance musical
performance (controversy)
Textiles & theatre/ dance studies
1. Linen
oldest textile fragments that were discovered, oldest garment ever found was made out of
linen → Tarkhan dress: from ancient Egypt
linen was used for multiple purposes in Egypt such as mummy wrapping , clothing, linens,
ropes, … (however it was not invented in Egypt)
linen is also used for canvases
linen = made out of flax, it is a based fibre (meaning it comes from plants, from the root)
picture: flax fields
,process: from flax to linen
- flax has to grow (grows quick and high)
- flax has to be pulled from the ground not cut (longer fibre, otherwise the root gets cut
of)
- finer fibres = green flax, courser thread = when golden brown (stronger)
- rippling = beating the seeds of the plants
- retting = submerging the flax in water so the outer harder layer becomes soft
breaking (beating) and scutching = beating the flax in order to break the outer
protection to get to the finer inner fibre
- hacking = modern technique, pulling through needles, weeding out the smaller and
ruffer fibres in order to get silky long fibre
- splicing = technique Egypt, intertwining threads to get one long one (takes a lot of
time and labour) → Egyptian linen is the finest linen
- spinning = faster modern technique to intertwine threads, using a distaff to collect the
fibre, then hooking it to the spindle to intertwine it into a nice thread
Egypt: piece of linen found that was dyed blue but most linen is left undyed, the whiteness of
the linen was associated with power, worn by the most powerful in society, the whiter the
linen the higher the social class the yellower/browner the lower the class
painting: depicts the bleaching of linen in the sun, Flanders
picture: Martinique
wealthy people would send their linen to get bleached
portraits:
- male: linen pants (colour!), linen scarf, jacket lining, his shirt, belt (dark colours
probably never linen
- woman: all lace is made from linen, little girl is fully dressed in linen, the underwear
and garments under the dress all linen
bad form to have yellow lace or shirts (lower class) had to be bright white, people took good
care of their clothes
white fabric before 1600: linen
after could be cotton (India)
painting of Josephine wearing a cotton dress with a cashmere band (Napoleon's wife)
rough linen was worn by slaves, it was uncomfortable to wear
movie American gigolo: linen suits from Armani were essential to the character being played
by Richard Gear, unstructured suits (wealthy leisure), very loose fitting
Linin in Belgium: thriving linen production
- early 15th century
- flax grown by the Leie
- Gent Vlasmarkt (flax)
, damast = originally silk fabric with a pattern woven into it, used for tablecloth, candles would
reflect the patterns
damast later becomes known as a linen fabric, luxury product from Belgium (Kortrijk, damast
capital of Europe)
Flemish lace was also a luxury product
factories take on the production from the workers, much cheaper, linen gets by taken over
cotton, machine made fabrics, people lose money and jobs
Flanders instead changes the focus on the production of flax instead of the end product
(linen), they profit on the war for uniforms but still the rise of synthetic fibers is unstoppable
LESSON 2: 1 oktober
2. Silk
video: In the mood for love
silk, luxury and the development of economic globalisation
overview
- originated from China, sericulture = process from cocoon to thread, production: 3600
BCE-400 BCE
- trading silk: 500 BCE-500 CE
- global spread of sericulture: 300-1500 CE
- sericulture/ silk weaving in the mediterranean
- Italy
- France
- Spitalfield England
- 1800
properties
- strong and flexible
- one of the most absorbent natural fibres
- fast drying
- good for dying
- breathable
- lustrous (not shiny) and soft
- hypoallergenic and antimicrobial (used in surgery for stitches)
- biodegradable
used for parachutes and painting
