From the Victoria and Albert Museum: "Join Senior Curator Sonnet Stanfill as she examines Schiaparelli's uncanny evening dress, superimposed with the outline of skeletal bones. Get closer than ever before and see how padding, zips, and quilting have been used to construct such an elegant yet surreal garment."
Did you catch Alex's LIVE on Wednesday about her visit to the 50th Sisters Outdoor Quilt Festival? Did it make you excited to visit next year? Want to learn even more about this storied quilt show? Well, you're in luck, as founder of the Sisters Quilt Show, Jean Wells, has written a book about the history of the show and more entitled, Sisters, Oregon - Five Decades of Quilting in America. Listen to Jean, and her daughter Valori Wells, as the talk about the book, its release, and how you might be able to get an autographed copy for yourself.
From The Met: "Join Monica L. Miller, Guest Curator and Professor and Chair of African Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University, on a tour of the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, with an introduction from Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. The Costume Institute’s spring 2025 exhibition presents a cultural and historical examination of Black style over three hundred years through the concept of dandyism. Through a presentation of garments and accessories, paintings, photographs, decorative arts, and more, from the 18th century to today, Superfine interprets this sartorial practice as both an aesthetic and a strategy that allowed for new social and political possibilities."
From the Royal Collection Trust: "Step into the splendour of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra’s 1902 Coronation at Westminster Abbey, which ushered in a golden age of style and glamour for the royal family. The royal couple set new trends that shaped Edwardian fashion and taste. Go behind the scenes with our conservators to learn about the recent conservation of these iconic thrones, which have been on display in the Ballroom at Buckingham Palace since the 1902 coronation."
From the Victoria and Albert Museum: "Join New York-based designer, Marc Bouwer, and V&A Senior Conservator, Rachael Lee, as they take a close-up look at the glittering dress worn by Whitney Houston at the Grammy Awards in 1994. Bouwer's long-term working relationship with Whitney Houston saw him create hundreds of on-stage looks for the singer, each tailored to her preference for ease of movement and support for her vocal chords. Discover the inspiration behind the striking design and the painstaking process of its embellishment as the dress is prepared for display in our DIVA exhibition (24 June 2023 – 7 April 2024)."
Last year, Robert Eggers' reimagining of Nosferatu, itself a retelling of the classic Dracula tale, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Join Joe Zee as part of Focus Features: Dressed series as he sits down with the film's costume designer Linda Muir to talk all about the historical influences and design choices that went into making these characters clothes come alive.
From The Met: "Explore behind the scenes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Conservation Laboratory, where objects in the collection and exhibition loans are expertly conserved. In this video, Jessica Regan, assistant curator in The Costume Institute, offers a close look at an American dress from about 1885."
From the Victoria and Albert Museum: "Join Curator Stephanie Wood as she carefully unboxes a haute couture cocktail suit, hat and handbag designed by Gabrielle Chanel for her Spring/Summer 1965 collection. Made from a cloqué fabric, the suit jacket and dress are highly textured, giving the look a distinctive, sculptured quality."
"For Spring Summer 2025, you are cordially invited to join Liberty Fabrics as we raise the curtain on Retold, a 150-year anniversary theatrical spectacular." Join Liberty of London for a retelling of their first 150 years of history, how that history inspired their sesquicentennial Retold collection, and how that will influence the next 150 years to come.
From the Victoria and Albert Museum: "From the cocoon of the bombyx mori silk moth, to shiny couture dresses, join us on a journey through the fascinating world of silk – all the way from fibre to thread."
Join TQS's Susan Cleveland and co-hostess, Kimberly Einmo, in Japan this November! They've planned hands-on textile workshops and visits to Yoko Saito's quilt shop, the Yokohama quilt show, markets, a museum, shrine, garden and other surprises. Opulent Quilt Journeys takes great care to arrange top-notch experiences abroad. You really don't want to miss this opulent tour!
From the Victoria and Albert Museum: "This extraordinarily rare hunting coat was made at the Mughal court in the first half of the 17th century. Richly embroidered in extremely fine chain stitch on a white satin ground, it features detailed images of wild cats, deer and rabbits, flowers, blossoming trees, birds, bugs and landscapes. In this film, curator of South Asian textiles and dress Avalon Fotheringham takes an in-depth look at the cut and construction of the coat, both inside and out, explores the design and uncovers some secrets discovered during recent conservation work."
Over sixty years ago, on April 23, 1961, Judy Garland made her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. At the performance she wore a hand-stitched sequin jacket designed exclusively for her by renowned fashion designer Norman Norell. This jacket came to be known as her "Lucky Jacket" due to her successes while wearing it. "Join Broadway star Jessica Vosk as she explores artifacts from Judy Garland’s historic concert at Carnegie Hall in 1961," including the "Lucky Jacket".
From Netflix: "The Quilters follows the daily lives of several quilters inside the sewing room at South Central Correctional Center, a Level 5 maximum-security prison in a small town two hours south of St. Louis, MO."
From the Bayeux Museum: "Discover the entire Bayeux Tapestry scene by scene and follow online the 70 meter-long embroidered canvas which tells the story of the conquest of England in 1066."
Do you recognize this dress? It belonged to Fanny Seward, beloved daughter of William H. Seward, the Secretary of State for both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In this episode of Collections Unboxing, SHM Director of Collections and Exhibitions Emma Dailey shares a look at Fanny’s debutante dress as well as the history of debutante traditions around the world. Stay till the end to see a detailed walkthrough of this incredible outfit!
Are you a fan of Star Wars? If you are, or even if aren't, we're sure you'll love what Star Wars fan Becky Glasby made that hung in the National Quilt Museum in 2024 as part of her solo exhibition, My Quilting Medley: Becky Glasby. Hear the story behind her Star Wars Trilogy quilts as part of the Go Tell It at the Quilt Show series from the Quilt Alliance.
The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is launching a new exhibit this month featuring Revolutionary War flags to commemorate a number of anniversaries taking place this year. "The Museum will mark the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the creation of the United States Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) with a new special exhibition, Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags, opening April 19, 2025. The exhibition, which will be displayed in the Museum's first-floor Patriots Gallery, will feature the largest gathering of rare and significant Revolutionary War flags in more than two centuries."
Quilters by their nature keep lots of things, as evidenced by their large stashes. So you never know if you have a diamond in the rough amongst the collection of other things you have boxed up in your house. Take for example this Women's Cotten Printed Dress from the late 1700s that was gifted to a couple. They took it to Antiques Roadshow to find out some more about it and received quite a pleasant surprise with the information they received. Watch the video to find out what they learned.
From the Victoria and Albert Museum: "Discover a dazzling 1960s evening dress embellished with precious metal threads, beads, sequins, diamantes and coral (which was commonly used in fashion at the time but is now protected). This dress was designed by French couturier Yves Saint Laurent, who took the helm as Head Designer at the prestigious House of Dior when he was only 21 years old."