"At CFT we believe textiles have the innate power to connect, inform and lift us."
Caring For Textiles (CFT) was established by Julia M Brennan in 1994 to address the abundant need for the conservation of privately owned and institutional textiles.
Born and raised in textile rich Southeast Asia, encouraged to weave and stitch, conservation as a profession came naturally, blending dual interests: a love of textiles, their stories and who made them, with a deep caring to preserve textiles and their rich histories. The CFT team is trained in highly skilled hand work, and rigorous museum-grade conservation practices, to repair and preserve beloved textiles.
We work locally from our Washington DC studio, across the country and internationally. We feel honored to work for many leading museums, collectors and every individual who has a cherished textile.
Over our 30-plus year history, we have taken pride in preserving a wide range of textiles from around the world, to ensure that cultural heritage is enjoyed by future generations.
Meet Our Team
Photo by Sarah Goolishian
Julia Brennan
Julia has worked in the field of textile conservation since 1985. Her company, Caring For Textiles, founded in 1994, is based in Washington DC. She offers a range of textile treatments, display, installations, storage, assessments, and survey work for institutions, historical sites, and private clients. She frequently lectures on the care and display of textiles and is passionately committed to conservation outreach and the protection of cultural property. Born and raised in Southeast Asia, she has returned to this beloved region to support the preservation of heritage, at both grassroots and institutional levels. From 2000 to 2008, she led the first textile training workshops in the Kingdom of Bhutan and helped establish the National Textile Museum. A major focus of her outreach is preventive conservation and hands-on practicum workshops, conducted over the years in Madagascar, Algeria, Laos, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Since 2008, she trained a new generation of textile conservators in Thailand, establishing the Conservation Department at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok, and leading research in traditional and indigenous methods of textile preservation in Southeast Asia.
Expertise in the area of negative heritage has taken her to Rwanda and Cambodia to lead textile conservation projects at genocide memorial sites. Unlike any other textile protocols, she has developed site-specific, innovative, and sensitive protocols for triage, inventory, and long-range care of extremely degraded materials, deeply infused with emotion and memories.
Early training included an apprenticeship with a master conservator in Philadelphia, followed by projects at the Philadelphia College of Textile’s Paley Design Center, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1989 she began a tenure at the Textile Museum in Washington DC, with a Getty Research Grant on the analysis of dyes in historic Tai textiles, oriental carpet repair, and then as Assistant Conservator for Exhibitions. She prepared over 30 exhibits and was the guest curator of a show on Faith Ringgold.
Ms. Brennan is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation and Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), and a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC). Additional professional affiliations include the International Council of Museums, Committee for Conservation ICOM CC, Washington Conservation Guild, Textile Society of America, Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums.
Katherine Hill McIntyre
Katherine has worked in the museum field since 1999, with collections positions at Dumbarton Oaks, Condé Nast, the Brooklyn Museum, Atlanta History Center, and the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati at Anderson House. She has managed photograph and paper archives, garment collections from the 18th–21st centuries, decorative arts, and Revolutionary and Civil War firearms and armaments.
Katherine is a co-principal of Blubox Consultants, a D.C.-based museum and private collections consultancy. She is a social media administrator for the Costume Society of America and co-founder of the 12K+ member, professional networking Facebook page “Fashion Historians Unite!”. She has an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology, focusing on costume and textile history and theory, curatorial services, exhibition planning and mounting, and conservation.
Isabella (Bella) Moritz
Bella (she/her, @mozzebella) is an MA candidate in FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, and Museum Practice program, specializing in conservation. She received her BA in Art History, with minors in French and Anthropology from Roanoke College. She spent the last year working as exhibition designer on the FTS graduate student exhibition at MFIT, Untying the Bow, and interning at the DAR Museum working on the Sewn in America exhibition.
Bella is an interdisciplinary artist with particular love for fiber arts, and in her graduate thesis examines how the reconstruction of historical garments can serve both as a conservation technique and provide tactile understanding of their construction and use.
Oliver Petersen
Oliver, a DC native, graduated from the Museum Studies and Chemistry program at University of Pittsburgh. Working in the library and archives preservation lab at Pitt, lit his passion for conservation. Oliver has interned in the conservation department at the Carnegie Museum of Art PA, and the Mariners Museum in Newport News, VA.
Taught to knit as a child, Oliver has fostered a love for all things textiles throughout his life by knitting, embroidering, quilting, and mending. He believes deeply in the importance of education surrounding mending, leading clothing repair and patch making circles in his community.
