The long-awaited book by Margaret Spufford (1935–2014) has been completed by Susan Mee, a continuation of Spufford’s work on inventories that textile and dress historians know best from The Great R...

Textile classification systems differentiate between the looped structures that characterise the present-day crafts of knitting and crochet. Printed sources prior to the early nineteenth century do not make this distinction, labelling fabric of either structure as knitting, thereby obscuring references to what would now be termed crochet. These can be identified in published instructions, nonetheless, with the prescribed use of a single hook being a ready indicator. Although looping does not inherently require tools and some structures can be made with alternative techniques, certain forms of crochet-type looping depend on the design of the hooks used to produce them. The typology of such implements provides a framework for tracing the convergence of the precursors of modern crochet into that craft.

This article focuses on the headdress with which Queen Eleanor Plantagenet was buried in Las Huelgas Abbey in 1214. Headdresses have not received much attention from scholars, perhaps because few remains survive. Fortunately, new research has made it possible to re-attribute to Queen Eleanor some of the textiles that once composed her headdress. Originally from Las Huelgas mausoleum and now housed in the Royal Palace in Madrid, all the grave goods were first studied when the mausoleum was opened in the 1940s. This paper also deals with issues arising from the preservation and interpretation of the headdress and problems related to the loss of data from the studies conducted in the 1940s. Studying the textiles, including technical analyses on their weaves and comparisons with visual sources and unpublished materials from the 1940s, has allowed for a new understanding of the appearance of the Queen’s headdress, an aspect never previously described in detail.

The fashion designer Rei Kawakubo is often described as nonconformist, avant-garde and eccentric. Her creations for Comme des Garcons, the label she founded in 1969, elicit the same descriptions, b...

‘Our garden of delights’ is how Pope Innocent IV described England and its inexhaustible supply of embroideries in 1246, but how should one convey this superb art form, for which England gained som...

In a sense, the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition ‘Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern’ is a new way of telling an old story. Most are aware of the beloved artist’s longtime marriage to and collaborations w...

In 2011, under the aegis of the Labelsoie festival, the history museum in Lyon (musees Gadagne) coordinated the first of its annual study days. Their aim was to reveal the impact of the silk indust...