Textiles: The Art of Mankind at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London

Wodaabe Artisans - Young Woman's Wrapped Skirt (detail) 

The main exhibition on at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London is Textiles: The Art of Mankind. This exhibition celebrates the ancient relationship between textiles, people and the environment. Amazing textile techniques that have been developed across the world are illustrated.  It shows skills handed down through generations, and illustrates people's thoughts and histories.  It is organised through themes of materials, identity, collaboration, and sustainability.  Here is just a flavour of the items on display.

The Wodaabe skirt above is embroidered in chain stitch in patterns meaningful to these migratory people.

Tuvalu - Pandanus Skirt for the traditional Te Fatele song/dance

This skirt from Tuvalu, a pacific Polynesian island, is coloured using natural dyes including bark juice, burnt nut soot and turmeric root. 

Grace "Molly" Crowfoot - Peruvian Backstrap Loom Model

The above piece of double weave cloth was made by Crowfoot in the 1920s to understand ancient textile techniques.  Crowfoot could be described as a English textile archeologist.

French Basketmaker - Nest Basket

Inspired by birds' nests, this basket by a French basketmaker, uses twigs, branches, wire and nails. 

Chinese Artisans - Baby's Tiger Hat

Made in the early 1900s, this tiger hat has moveable tassels that would move with the baby's head.

Sara Impey - Why Stitch?

Sara Impey's piece Why Stitch makes an argument for the importance of textiles. One of the quotes stitched on this, which resonates with me - "Anyone who loves textiles, touches them. It is an instinct" - Jessica Hemmings 2012. That's just so true - they are so tactile.  Sara's artwork is made from calico fabric with free-motion machine-stitching and machine-quilting with polyester thread.

Bogolanfini Cloth

Bogolanfini cloths are worn by hunters as camouflage, for status and as ritual protection or by women as they reach adulthood or after childbirth.  Traditionally these cloths were woven by men on narrow looms and dyed by women.

Tadek Beutlich - Figures in Cocoons 2

Made from PVA soaked cotton wool, modelled over a woven structure of esparto grass, this piece features helpless people, and is supposed to reflect the trauma of war.

Jo Ann C Stabb - Swan Song - My last academic plan ever

This wearable art coat is made from appliqued recycled industrial silk scraps with dollar signs hand embroidered round the bottom to signify "the bottom line".  The inside is stamped with the different stages of the academic planning process.

English Artisan - Sweet Bag

This drawstring bag is an example of goldwork from the mid 16th Century and has intertwined hearts on the front, a symbol of love and devotion.

Rajasthan Dyer - Just dyed cotton cloth

This cloth from India is an example of tie dyeing from the 1980s, that has been dipped several times.  The patterns are supposed to evoke the waves formed by winds blowing across the desert sands. 

Lynne Setterington - Been Shopping

Reflecting on our preoccupation with retail therapy, Setterington has created this piece from Suffolk puffs made from plastic carrier bags that reflect her own retail preferences.  More of Lynn Setterington's work is on display in the Connecting Threads exhibition in the Museum's Fashion Studio and is really interesting.  For more on that click here.

Both exhibitions are on until Sunday 7 September 2025. There is no cafe in the Fashion and Textile Museum but there are plenty close by and the Museum does have a shop.  London Bridge station is a short walk away.