Research Network Themed Meetings 2011-2012

Five themed network meetings were held during 2011 and 2012 with the aim of bringing together researchers in the three fields of textile conservation, dress & textile history and technical art history in order to initiate new projects and to apply for research funding.  Many exciting interdisciplinary projects were discussed and we already have some ideas for research topics, as listed below, but we still welcome other suggestions.

Click on the meeting header for a summary of the meeting.

1. Modern Materials - 10 June 2011

  • Manufacturing, marketing, consumption
  • Modern and contemporary art: making and meaning
  • Twentieth century dress
  • Sustainable practices


2. 'The Real Thing': the value of authenticity and replication - 7 October 2011

  • Dress historians and re-enactors: different approaches to research
  • Digital transformations: the danger of loss of the ‘real thing’
  • Authenticities and appearancesThe ‘fashion show’ : wearing objects
  • Copying, replicating, emulating in 16th and 17th century Europe


3. Technical studies: exploring concept, practices and results - 5 December 2011

  • Dyestuffs in textiles and fine arts
  • Painted objects, interiors and artefacts
  • ‘Cross-over’ artists rooted in practical tradition
  • Traditional multi-media works of art
  • Historiography of technical art history
  • Painted textiles
  • Red dyes


4. Enhancing the value of collections: investigation and preservation - 30 March 2012

  • Translating cultures: China and the West: meaning, conservation, vocabularies
  • Tapestry research
  • Re-evaluation of treatments
  • Object investigation: biography and provenance
  • Skills – professional, value, vocabularies


5. Connected histories: making, meaning, interpretation - 14 May 2012

  • Stoddard-Templeton Carpets
  • European regional fashion
  • Terminology of colour
  • Embroidery, late 16th century- 17th century needlework