I've been obsessed with Elsa Schiaparelli for as long as I can remember, and this exhibition does stunning justice to her work and her legacy. I'll be visiting this more than once for sure.
#schiaparelli @vamuseum
It was such an honour to present at the Marie Antoinette Style conference on her influence on 19th century fashion! This was such fun research and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface - thank you @sarahgrantcurator for this wonderful opportunity!
1. In action, with thanks to @anna.saund
2. The Royal Family of France in the Prison of the Temple, Edward Matthew Ward, 1851
3. Manteau à la Marie Antoinette, La Belle Assemblée, June 1843
4. The scandalous Marie-Antoinette in a Muslin Dress, Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1783
5. ...which perhaps inspired Portrait of HRH Princess Marie Clementine of Orleans, Franz Xavier Winterhalter, 1832
6. Nothing can be more distingue! Mantlet Marie Antoinette, Modes Vrais, 1852
7. The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, March 1863
8. Marie Antoinette fichu, Lady's Own Paper, March 1869 (not to be worn past the age of 25)
9. Inspired by the fichu Marie Antoinette never wore - detail from The Trail of Marie-Antoinette, Auguste Raffet, 1845
10. Another veritable Marie-Antoinette design, day dress, England, 1869 - in the V&A collection
Thank you to all who visited Laundry Day, spent time with the exhibition, and engaged so generously with the work!
Laundry Day brought together feltwork embroideries and written work by artist and poet Dee Light while studying Textiles at Goldsmiths in the 1980s. Playful and surprising, the works transform the domestic sphere, bringing the inanimate to life and rendering the familiar strange. Living between worlds, Light’s work reflects questions of belonging that run through both her artworks and poetry. (Adapted from the exhibition text by Ruby Hodgson.)
Finally, a massive heartfelt thank you to Ruby Hodgson, Curator of the Goldsmiths textile collection, who introduced us to Dee Light’s work and who generously cares for the collection. Her knowledge, kindness, and support have meant a great deal, and we have learned so much from her!
Laundry Day was produced by Every Mouth Needs Filling in partnership with The Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery.
Photos: Elisha Fall
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our panel discussion in the Goldsmiths Textile Collection. As part of our public programme for exhibition ‘Laundry Day’, we gathered with @marfsummers , @withamemily , and @rubyjhodgson to reflect on the queer potential of textiles and material practice (or as Marf put it, the Physical Deliciousness of materials and textiles).
We spoke about how materials carry histories of desire, class, labour, and belonging. With each panelist touching on their practice and the care that comes along with it. The conversation moved between materiality, inheritance, and queer time. We touched on dyke druidism, sigils and symbols, stone as material, and the needs of leather. We expanded on femme and dyke-on-bike histories & trans identity, they consider how the home, studio, archive, and market functions as sites of queer practice, holding memory, material, and method.
It was a real pleasure to ruminate and think collectively within the exhibition of Dee Light’s work. Especially as contemporary queer practitioners in South East London, asking what queer materiality in art practice and in the archive might mean today, and what it may still become!
Once every couple of years I get overwhelmed by the desire to embroider something. I've rarely made it to a finished article, so I'm pretty chuffed with how these presents for my parents turned out! The angel is based on a doll my mum made, which sits at the top of our Christmas tree each year. The dog is my parent's very own Huggy Bear. Swipe for the inspiration!
#embroidery #handmade #handmadechristmas #handembroidery #beardedcollie
As part of the Cross Campus Collaborations project ‘Across Grounds’, MFA Curating students Christina Purvis @christina__r.m.p , Meimei Yu @_mmmeiiiii.y , Charlotte Kaczmarek @char10tteee & Eve O’Connor @eveoconnor.art have been developing new responses with the Textile Collection @textilesgold and Constance Howard Gallery, working with Curator, Ruby Hodgson @rubyjhodgson
The group took part in a workshop on Orphaned Objects, exploring the afterlives of materials, repair, and the unseen labours, histories, and ethical considerations embedded in textile. They were invited to approach response as an active process, asking: what questions arise, how does it make you feel, what were the lives lived by the garment?
Drawing from Book, The Dress Detective as an expanded observation toolkit, the session encouraged us to think through touch, time, and trace.
Join us on Friday 28 November, 4–6:30pm for the opening event.
The display continues throughout the Autumn Term during opening hours in Deptford Town Hall, basement until Friday 12 Dec 2025.
This project is a part of ‘Across Grounds’ Cross Campus Collaboration Project which has been guided by Elisha Fall @elishafall_ , curator and Junior Fellow on the MFA Curating.
A trip to the (beautiful) Cosprop exhibition at @fashiontextilemuseum has to include analysing all the fabrics and fastenings with @jules_saunders_ and gossiping about which actors are sweeties in real life with @anna.saund , and, of course, going "aren't they TINY" several hundred times.
Why yes I shall require a pair of delicately embroidered false sleeve cuffs. Nevermind that I don't like wearing things around my wrists, that they're probably made as samples and don't attach to anything, or that I couldn't keep a white item of clothing unstained if my life depended on it - I have seen them and I need them!
#textiles #embroidery #goldsmithstextilecollection #dowereckontheseareedwardian #canwebringbacktumblrstylehashtags
Visible-ish mending on my favourite @joanieclothing dress that I ripped the second time I wore it! With thanks to the lovely Saskia @the_mend_house for the new repair skills!
Any textile pals have thoughts on where/when this might be from? It's a gorgeously fine silk, only 8cm wide, 80cm long. More brown than this photo shows! Selvedge edges so 8cm is the total width.
