A visit to the Textile Museum

Today I took my students to the Textile Museum in a nearby town called Borås. Textilmuseet, as it's called in Swedish, is a truly amazing museum. We had booked a tour of the machines and got to see some really cool cotton carding and spinnign machines as well as knitting, lace making, and of course sewing machines.

Lace making machine from the 1930s:

Corset sewing machine from 1919:

Overlock from 1940:

It was a very good tour, which tied together history and the present in a discussion about working comditions, the environmental impact of cotton, and of mass consumptionof textiles. Very recommended.

But the museum is really big, and has lots of different exhibitions and also an area where you can try on vintage clothing. This is clothign that has been given to the museum, but which hasn't a specific provenance and if it's not too fragile the public can study the clothes and try them on. Students at the department of fashion at the unviersity, which is in the same building, of course have even better opportunites to use the collections as research objects and inspiration.

This one was a bit special, a lovely 1920s silk evening gown. It has a slip inside which is only attached at the shoulders, from the same silk.

I love that perwinkle blue, and the dress was a dream to wear. My boobs are in teh worng position of course, since I'm wearing a modern bra, and you don't see my sensible wool tights an navy patent shoes. I would love to own a dress like this.