In Celebration of Her Majesty’s 7th cycle Birthday 2016 July is always a busy month at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok, as annual preparations take place for Her Majesty’s August birthday. This year was a big one—7 cycles of 12 is very auspicious and the museum pulled out all the stops. Two new […]
The ‘Lesage’ of Lao: Master Tiao Somsanith
I recently met Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith at the 5th International Conference on Lao Studies, in Bangkok. He transformed a drab classroom into a sacred space—golden embroideries of the Buddha, lace-like stencils of angels hovering like snowflakes on the windows overlooking the Chao Praya river, and an aura of the timelessness that imbues these ancient arts. Amongst […]
Puppet Masters: Conservation in Miniature
In the first partnership of its kind, I led the The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok and the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Museum in Taipei for a puppet textile conservation training workshop. In the lively one-week session, conservators Nuchada Piranprasankit and Yaowalak Bunnag, from the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, and I trained staff […]
Let’s Hear it for the Boys #3: The All-American Installment
The final post in Julia’s three-part series dedicated to the gentleman. If you missed my first two posts on ‘man-centric’ textiles (or if you just loved them so much and you want to reread) – you can find the first post here, and the second post can be found here. Over the years, Caring for Textiles has […]
Why we never run out of steam!
Here’s a story on a workhorse of our studio – our beloved Jiffy steamer!
Ahoy there, Mateys!–Part 2 of Let’s Hear it for the Boys!
The second of Julia’s two three-part* series dedicated to the gentleman. If you missed my first post on ‘man-centric’ textiles – you can read it here. Here are a few more of my favorites: *NOTE from Julia: I found so many great guys in our collection, I’m planning a third installment of this blog…stay tuned! Sailors’ […]
The Technological Significance of Textiles
Today I’m thrilled to share with you an amazing article by critically acclaimed author Virginia Postrel. An exploration of the technological significance of textiles, Virginia examines fabric’s cultural importance – whether buried in antiquity, hidden in our language, or glamorized in glossy periodicals. It’s a fascinating read that is sure to leave your head spinning! […]
Making Fashion Pop
The intersection of disposable clothing and pop art. by Lauren Klamm Production of paper clothing began with a 1966 American Scott Paper Company promotion offering an inexpensive paper dress, and quickly become a popular fashion novelty, with a large number of clothing items such as men’s vests, bridal gowns and even underwear. Major retail outlets such […]
Washington Post article features Julia Brennan’s preservation work on Lady Astor’s coronation gown
The Post’s Cathy Alter spent some time with Julia in her studio observing the restoration and preservation of the Danville, Va. native’s coronation gown. Click here to read about Julia and Caring For Textiles as she unfolds the history of this significant ensemble. (photos by Andre Chung/for The Washington Post) [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”16″ gal_title=”Lady Astor”]
Jakarta Post 3#: I am BECOMING batik!!
I am BECOMING batik! It’s my daily language, looking at patterns, learning the names, asking millions of questions, feeling the soft cotton, learning about maestros such as Go Tik Swan -who I now want to make a film about. Everyone at the Museum Tekstil is so knowledgeable about batik, symbolism, history and ritual. It’s […]
