Dress
Chuvasia, Central Russia
c. 1900
International Folk Art Foundation
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The museum holds approximately 20,000 textiles
and costumes which cross many cultures and curatorial disciplines.
It is viewed as one collection because of the special requirements
for storage and care and includes clothing, domestic, hats,
shoes, jewelry and related items. Primarily made by the people
who use them, the pieces date mainly to the 19th and 20th
centuries. Household items, ceremonial pieces, everyday and
special occasion dress, animal trappings, and sacred and ritual
textiles are all represented.
Textiles and dress and their production and use often represent
cultural norms and expectations, especially when they are made
at home. But these norms and expectations change over time with
education, economic change, and influence from the international
media, among others. These changes are then reflected in the
objects used and made by people. Changes can be as small as
the substitution of buttons for coins as trim or can be as significant
as buying machine woven cloth instead of spinning the fiber
and weaving it at home. The collection encompasses these changes
in culture and material to illustrate how people cope with their
changing world and transform their daily lives with things of
beauty.
The museum holds one of the best collections of Palestinian
dress, including jewelry, in the world. Other significant
holdings include the largest sampler collection west of the
Mississippi, closets of Mexican and Guatemalan dress and textiles,
weaving and embroidery of Northern New Mexico, Swedish hand-woven
textiles, Czech village dress, and a wealth of embellished
textiles and clothing from South Asia. All this and more are
on display and held in the museum’s textile storage.
More about textiles on-line :
Currently
on Display | Textile
Web Resources|
Men's hats
Bamenda Peoples, Cameroon
20th century
Gift of Lloyd Cotsen
and Neutrogena Corp. |
Headcloth
Tausug People, Philippines
c. 1920
Gift of Mrs. Ward Gregg |
Sampler
Mexico
1862
Gift of Florence Dibell Bartlett |
Altar cloth
Colcha Peñasco, New Mexico
1850-1860
Gift of Mrs. Laura Martinez Mullins |
Rio Grande blanket
Trampas, New Mexico
c. 1870
International Folk Art Foundation |
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