ICOM COSTUME ANNUAL CONFERENCE ‘PRINTS: FROM PAINTEND CLOTH TO PRINTED TEXTILES’

DAY 1
GENEVA MAH 16 MAY 2024 (9h00-13h00)
Promenade du Pin 5, 1204 Genève Espace GamMAH, 3 eme étage

Welcome Talks Marie-Eve CELIO (ICOM SUISSE, MAH Geneve) & Corinne THEPAUT-CABASSET (ICOM FRANCE, Château de Versailles, ICOM Costume Chair)

I. Making Prints & Reading Prints (9h15-10h30)

Katarzyna WODARSKA-OGIDEL (ICOM POLAND, Theatre Museum Warsaw)
The use of printing techniques in the preparation of the theatrical costumes
In our paper, we aim to present the history of the use of printing techniques in the preparation of textiles as well as fragments of theatrical costumes and their contemporary use and opportunities for future development.
The use of simple printing techniques has begun in the 18th century. They were used in the preparation of costume details, such as imitation of feathers or metal ornaments, which were sewn onto costumes. An example of this type of decoration is the pattern book, which was presented at the exhibition “Un air d’Italie | L’Opéra de Paris de Louis XIV à la Révolution”, prepared by Bibliothèque-musée de l’Opéra, Palais Garnier in 2019. We will compare the Paris pattern book and French costume designs from that time with the detailed costume inventory of the Royal Theatre
in Warsaw from 1797.
On the other hand, we would like to present the activity of the scenography workshop at the Grand Theatre – National Opera, of which the Theatre Museum is a part. The theatre was reopened after the war destruction in 1965 with the huge craft studios that still working today. Various printing techniques are still used for the preparation of costumes and scenography. We would like to present interviews with the staff as well as historical costumes that were created there and are now in our collection. We would also ask them about how they see the future of their work.

Bernard BERTHOD (ICOM France, Musée de Fourvière Lyon)
Chasubles et parements liturgiques peints
Les décors peints sur les vêtements liturgiques et les parements sont connus depuis le XVIe siècle. Cette pratique est une alternative économique employée par les couvents pour pallier le manque de ressources tout en assurant un service religieux convenable. Ce type de parements se rencontre surtout dans les monastères où le voeu de pauvreté est particulièrement fort comme les carmels et les monastères de clarisses. Cependant, quelques exemples attestent aussi d’une possibilité narrative plus facile à exécuter qu’en broderie. C’est le cas d’une très belle chasuble offerte à Pie VI et d’une chasuble réalisée par des carmélites de la région lyonnaise, conservée au Musée de Fourvière, qui illustre l’histoire de leur implantation locale par la création de trois monastères.

Mari LIND (ICOM FINLAND, Tampere Historical Museums)
Machine painting – Ambiente fabrics by Timo Sarpaneva
Timo Sarpaneva (1926–2006) was a well-known Finnish glass artist and a designer with a stellar career, who also worked with other materials, from textiles to steel. Sarpaneva invented the Ambiente technique at a paper mill in 1965, when a broken printing machine splashed dye around in surprising patterns. The designer was delighted: ‘We will continue like this – it’s beautiful!’ The new technique was applied to fabrics at Lapinniemi factory in Tampere.
Uniquely vibrant prints inspired Sarpaneva to call the technique ‘machine painting’. The Ambiente technique was closer to dyeing than printing. No patterns or reports were used. The fabric passed between two rollers and dyes were pumped through nozzles, which were mounted on moving rails. Water, printing paste, and compressed air were used to create different effects. The technique brought many advantages: fabric didn’t have a ‘reverse side’, all the colours could be printed at the same time, there was no need to stop the machine to change the colour settings or switch templates. The pattern selection was plentiful, and almost any textile could be used. Finally, reactive dyes used withstood light and washing excellently. Some have cited the Ambiente technique as the most important innovation in printing since screen printing. Patents were granted and manufacturing licences were sold for the technique in many countries. The first Ambiente fabrics were showcased at art museums in Sweden in 1966, and after that, at numerous exhibitions around the world. When Andy Warhol saw Ambiente fabrics in 1969, he encouraged Sarpaneva to frame them and sell them as works of art, so he would become a millionaire. A result of bold experimentation, the Ambiente technique produced sophisticated and expressive luxurious fabrics for both garments and furnishing. Sarpaneva’s work often seemed to reside somewhere between the natural and manmade.
So did Ambiente: ’machine painting’ was a unique combination of technology, handicraft, and serendipity in an industrial setting.

Martina Alia MASCIA (ITALY, University of Venice)
XEROXED – the garment as a publishing platform
XEROXED: wearable pages, readable garments is a publishing platform that investigates the interplay between body, garment, and publication through the reconfiguration of paper material into wearable publications. These book-like garments serve as mediums to disseminate information. The platform originates from the urgency of putting back into circulation archive material positioned in the margins, meaning outside of, or in contrast with, the dominant capitalist modes of media cultural production. Through the juxtaposition, mix, and re-configuration of the archival
material, new inputs are created on the XEROXED garments, which become tools that can stimulate reflections and debates among those who come across them in public spaces. For Edition 001 Against boredom: delirious is beautiful, XEROXED collaborated with the Primo Moroni Archive in Milan, a non-institutional archive hosting one of the largest collections of Italian leftist underground materials, spanning from the late 1970s to the present day.
Through the creation of this edition, the goal was to trigger a mechanism of spreading and mutating of the Primo Moroni’s material, which has been the generating root of new editorial contents that re-read the archive. The material selected for this edition builds upon the idea that divergent strategies of thought, such as irony, dementiality, and cheekiness, can serve as tools for destructive creation and transformative power, to evade the
boredom and alienation of modern life. The new editorial content was published through a wearable publication, which functions as a platform where to gather and juxtapose the editorial contributions. Through the conceptual and material analysis of XEROXED Edition 001, the article highlights how publishing through garments enables archival material to be re-activated, reaching a broader and more diverse audience, making it public via a form of embodied communication. In particular, the article highlights the differences, in terms of circulation, between book and garment publishing, emphasizing how, by wearing the published content, the wearer is not only consuming it but also contributing to its dissemination and interpretation. For more about XEROXED https://xeroxed.net/
https://www.instagram.com/xero.xed/ For more about the Primo Moroni Archive
https://www.inventati.org/apm/index.php

Vicky SALIAS (ICOM ARGENTINA, Museo del Traje Buenos Aires)
Prints in oeuvre of 20th and 21st century fashion designers: Textile design as a way of constructing the identity of fashion design brands in the 2000s in Argentina 
In Argentina, university fashion design courses were created since 1989, in an economic and productive context in which, paradoxically, the textile industry was in decline. This caused the first groups of university designers who graduated during the 90s to create their own ventures due to the impossibility of finding work in the industry. The decline in the industry implied that very few companies offered simple textile materials such as white cotton twills and poplins, and the importers had very small amounts of each textile material, making almost impossible to develop an interesting collection in such a complex supplier landscape.
Given this lack of diversity of textile materials, all the new ready to wear and sportswear brands developed on small, artisanal scales, textile intervention proposals of various types of printing techniques to achieve “original” textiles.
This paper explores how designers such as Jessica Trosman and Martín Churba of the Trosman Churba brand, Mariana Dappiano, Juana de Arco, Nadine Z, Brandazza de Aduriz, Pesqueira and many more, created collections with a strong identity, not only due to the pattern development, but also and above all, for the richness of its unique textile proposals. The presentation will show different approaches of some of these designers to the idea of creating textiles, from technology driven products to artisanal painting and printing from woven motifs.

Q&A (10h30-10h45)

II. Stories of European Prints (10h45-11h30)

Lisa LAURENTI (SWITZERLAND, University of Lausanne)
From Exotism to Folklorism: Indiennes and Swiss traditional dress
This paper investigates how indiennes were processed from an exotic luxury textile into a folkloric accessory for various Swiss costumes between the 17th and 20th centuries. In the 17th century, Indian printed cottons became a much sought-after fashion artefact in Europe. Western manufacturers, including several Swiss companies, began to produce imitations of these fabrics that were marketed worldwide. During the 18th century, they were rapidly processed from luxury objects purchased by the privileged spheres of the population into semi-precious products.
The creation of categories of different qualities, complexities and prices made it possible to meet the demand of a wide range of customers from different geographical and socio-economical areas. At the beginning of the 19th century, indiennes gradually expanded to the working classes, rural and mountain areas in the form of women’s clothes, handkerchiefs, or scarves. They often had a ceremonial character during feast days or rituals linked to engagements or weddings (LAURENTI Lisa, 2024, forthcoming). In the early 20th century, although industrially produced, they were considered an integral part of traditional regional dress. By means of historical research, the goal was to reconstitute and preserve their specificities (HEIERLI Julie, 1922 – 1931). At the same time, a strongly stereotyped folkloric movement emerged in Switzerland, as throughout Europe, forged at the time of the emergence of national identities which portrayed through the ‘traditional costume’ the symbol of an authentic rural life or to
meet the expectations of tourists. The present research portrays the ‘material culture of indiennes fashion’. The aim is to understand the conditions and dynamics through which objects acquired significance in people’s lives at a given period by intersecting theory, historical research and the study of artefacts preserved in Swiss institutions (RIELLO Giorgio, 2011).

Csilla KOLLÁR (ICOM HUNGARY, National Museum Budapest)
Blue-dye fabric in Hungary. A living tradition and its history from the 18th century
From the second half of the 18th century imported blue-dyed cotton fabrics were used by wide sections of Hungarian society. The name „kékfestő” refers to the technique of printing a dye-resistant white paste onto a cloth before dyeing it over with indigo dye. The paste preserved the white colour of the textile, while other parts obtained a mostly dark blue hue. It was a popular product throughout Eastern and Central Europe used mostly by peasants and country town citizens. In the middle of the 19th century bleu-dyed calico acquired a specific ideological meaning and importance. In these years supporting local industry and products was crucial for Hungarian politicians and patriots. For this purpose, the Protective Association was formed under the lead of Lajos Kossuth in 1844. The press reported regularly about the activity of the association as well as about how high society ladies helped the organisation and bought Hungarian textiles. It was a real sacrifice on their side because of the low quality and limited variation of available products. The ball season of 1844-1845 was a really important period in the history of “kékfestő”, as at this a ball, organised by the Protective Association, it was appropriate to wear Hungarian-made fabric. Many patriot ladies wore this year bleu-dyed cotton used originally by peasant women, since this was the only domestically manufactured cloth. After this short-lived enthusiasm of the upper classes, the bleu-dyed calico
remained part of lower-class clothing and lived on as a folk costume, especially in regions with a population of German origin. As part of high fashion movements, it was worn more widely between the two world wars and in the second half of the 1970s. There are still some family-owned workshops, run by the second to seventh generation of printers. The appreciated traditional knowledge was inscribed in 2018 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO.

Maria LLINCEVA (CZECHIA)
Still got the Blues: Blueprint’s Journey from Old-Fashioned Utility to Political Statement in Czech Republic
This paper aims to describe the history of indigo resistance block printing on the territory of today’s Czech Republic.
It then proceeds to focus on the blueprint renaissance that seems to be taking place in this country today, noting the social and political importance blueprint appears to have gained recently. Blueprint is a well-known resistance block print technology using indigo dyes originating in Asia. On the territory of today’s Czech Republic, its popularity peaked in the XVIII century. Fabrics were dyed locally in small workshops, each serving a limited amount of client. Industrialization all but destroyed these workshops, as they could not compete with direct block printing technologies in larger factories. Nonetheless, a few diehard craftsmen kept the tradition going, and at the moment Czech Republic has two families making blueprint fabrics using original algorithms, often for folk costumes. Practically forgotten, blueprint fabrics and prints enjoyed their revival in 2010s. From local
fashion shows to UNESCO intangible heritage status and Czech Olympic team uniforms, blueprint became a wellknown symbol, even though it appears that few people on the street actually understand the special technology behind it. Today a number of mass- and hand-produced goods are sold presenting blueprint pattern, while technically not being blueprint and not even using fabric as medium. Owning such items makes one feel uniquely Czech/Moravian, and declare that publicly – starting conversations and discussions on the topic. Thus a particular print became a political statement of strong and proud national affiliation, Data collection for this research includes secondary source analysis, interviews, case studies and observation. Data analysis methods include content, discourse and visual analysis. Limited amount of illustrations will be used.

Q&A (11h30-11h45)

III. Prints and Fashion (11h45-12h45)

Karin THOENISSEN (ICOM GERMANY)
A must have for fashionistas: the Hermes scarf
Made in France, all the products of Hermes are home-made pieces, also the scarfs. The silk for the famous scarfes is woven in Lyon, where the pieces are also screen-printed. The lecture briefly touches on the history of the scarf, gives an insight into the design process and goes into details about the screen-printing process. With lots of photos taken at Düsseldorf during a presentation of all Hermes crafts, the screen-printing process in particular was shown in detail. Famous headscarf wearers are introduced and the different ways of wearing the scarf (and what it means) are explained.

Constanza MARTINEZ (ARGENTINA)
Serigrafia a contramano
El trabajo en consideración consiste en un recorrido por diferentes producciones de estampados que van desde la década del 60 hasta la actualidad. Se hará foco en la particular implementación del uso de la técnica serigráfica y sus particularidades en la producción de diseño textil en argentina, y sus vínculos con el arte, el pop y la arquitectura.
Durante este periodo la serigrafía textil experimental se desarrolló en pequeños espacios, muchas veces, en las mismas casas o departamentos de artistas y arquitectos. Estas estamperías boutique crearon piezas textiles únicas vinculadas con la escena del arte y la arquitectura, de un modo independiente y sin ninguna organicidad, junto con íconos del diseño como el grupo Arte Concreto-Invención, el Departamento de Diseño del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella. De todos modos, el perfil textil de estos movimientos del diseño no ha sido estudiado en profundidad debido a
diferentes causas, y lógicamente no se ha dimensionado su trascendencia y transferencia a otras disciplinas. A partir de diferentes casos se analizara como el pop se reubica en la práctica de estampado por metro. En el sentido que Warhol confiere a la práctica serigráfica, la de poder individualizar la imagen a partir del error. Así es como el fuera de registro, los rapports discontinuos, las diferentes intensidades de golpes de schablon fueron gestos acuñados por la serigrafía textil donde la reproducción mecánica y el valor en la cantidad se abandona en pos de una imagen única y múltiple. Se presentarán ejemplos de archivos del Museo Nacional de la Historia del Traje, Museo Textil Terrassa, Fundación IDA, y archivos privados. Se analizará las producciones históricas de Margarita y Vicente Marotta junto a Luis Benedit, de Vicente Gallego y Simonetta Borghini, Rosa Skific, junto a contemporáneos como Guillermina Lynch, Verónica Ryan, y Nicolás de Caro.

Nicolas LOR (ICOM BELGIUM, Musée de la Mode et de la Dentelle Bruxelles)
Diane von Furstenberg, un imprimé pour la liberté
Le Musée Mode & Dentelle a organisé en 2023 la première exposition jamais dédiée en Europe à l’oeuvre de Diane von Furstenberg à l’occasion de l’anniversaire des 50 ans de la robe portefeuille en jersey imprimé. Si la forme portefeuille de cette robe ainsi que le matériau employé (jersey) constituent un trait caractéristique et distinctif de Diane von Furstenberg, l’imprimé demeure un élément crucial d’identification de cette designer dont le grand public a peu connaissance. Bien qu’elle ne se destine pas initialement à la mode, Diane von Furstenberg se forme à la fin des années 1960 à la coupe et surtout au travail des imprimés auprès de l’industriel italien Angelo Ferretti. Il se met à produire des jerseys dont les fils sont montés sur des machines à réaliser des bas en soie, avec un tissage serré, tout en inventant un panel extrêmement large d’imprimés assez caractéristiques des années 1960 et 1970. Son fils, Mimmo Ferretti y crée exclusivement des imprimés pour Diane von Furstenberg en plus de ceux que cette dernière pioche dans l’immense répertoire existant. Le vocabulaire des imprimés est devenu central pour la designer au fur et à mesure des années. Lorsqu’elle relance sa marque dans les années 1990, elle imagine de nouveaux imprimés tout en réinterprétant ceux existants. Loin d’être accessoires ou uniquement décoratifs, les imprimés détiennent un rôle clef dans le travail de Diane von Furstenberg. Ceux-ci doivent incarner le mouvement vital si cher à la designer, en lien avec son histoire de femme indépendante et ses engagements féministes. Ainsi, très peu d’imprimés peuvent être qualifiés de « statiques » ou « inertes ». Au surplus, Diane von Furstenberg met au point un système de création au sein duquel les imprimés sont centraux. Selon elle : « les couleurs sont les lettres, les imprimés sont les mots, la robe constitue la phrase, la collection fait lieu d’histoire qui prend place à chaque saison. » dans plusieurs types d’inspiration dont notamment la nature et la liberté. Notre intervention se propose de remettre au premier plan l’importance de l’imprimé dans le travail de Diane von Furstenberg, dont la représentation est très souvent
uniquement illustrée par le système portefeuille. Elle insistera également sur le message tant personnel que politique véhiculé par les imprimés de la designer.

Joanna Regina KOWALSKA (ICOM POLAND, National Museum Krakow)
Prints in oeuvre of Gosia Baczyńska, fashion designer of transformation era in Poland
Gosia Baczyńska (born 1965) started her career in 1997, and since then she is the most recognizable personality in Polish fashion world. She became the first Polish designer who had the opportunity to present her collections on the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week. Gosia Baczyńska’s versatility, openness to impulses coming from the world around her, fascination with the past and creativity make her one of the most interesting Polish fashion designers. She was the first one in Poland who used custom-made prints in high fashion collections. Her first inspiration for prints was a
medieval painting of Madonna she saw in Granada (2008). Gosia Baczyńska transformed a fragment of drapery taken from it into a printed pattern for fabric. The whole collection was inspired by elegance of Gothic costumes and stiffness of armor (2008). Very interesting prints can also be found in “The Big Wash” collection. They were created for Gosia Baczyńska by the graphic designer Rober Kuta and refer to the murals in Praga – Warsaw district to which Gosia Baczyńska has just moved her atelier (2012). One of her most successful collections was “Frankenstein dream”(presented during Paris Fashion Week in 2015) – the first inspiration for its creation was self-portrait of a man taken in a photo booth (1909), which was printed in several versions on the fabrics used in this collection. Another collection with interesting prints was “Black Spring”, inspired by Henry Miller’s 11 Writing Commandments – this time Gosia Baczyńska used her creativity to invent different ways of printing texts on her garments. Prints also
played a very important role in her last collection, “Per Aspera ad Astra” (2019), in which we can see printed images of Rafael’s Madonna and Latin sentences. Gosia Baczyńska always said that prints are very important to her.

Q&A (12h45-13h)

Lunch Break served at the Museum (13h00-14h00)

GENEVA MAH 16 MAY 2024 (14h00-18h30)
Promenade du Pin 5, 1204 Genève Espace GamMAH, 3 eme étage

Board Meeting followed by General Assembly (14h00-15h00)

Afternoon Museum Talks and Curatorial presentations by Marie-Eve Celio, Head of the Collection of Prints and Drawings; Printing material, Collections of Printed Textiles and Papers, Fashion albums and Costume Books, Collection of Fans, in rotation with a local Tour of private printing workshop ‘Ge Grave’: Textile and paper printing demonstration by Emmanuel Mottu. Different groups in rotation (15h00-18h00)

Evening Reception at the Museum (18h30-21h00)

DAY 2
CHATEAU DE PRANGINS 17 MAY 2024 SWISS NATIONAL MUSEUM (9h00-12h30)
Welcome talks by Helen BIERI-THOMSON (Musée National Suisse-Château de Prangins) & Corinne THEPAUT-CABASSET
(Château de Versailles).

Moderation by Barbara KARL (ICOM SWITZERLAND, ICOM Costume Secretary)/Joanna Kowalska (ICOM POLAND,
ICOM Costume Vice-Chair)/Corinne THEPAUT-CABASSET, ICOM FRANCE, Costume chair)

I. Between Asia and Europe: inspirations

Gabriela LAMY (Château de Versailles)
‘Une coopération économique franco-indienne après la visite des ambassadeurs de Tipou Sultan à Versailles en 1788’

Xavier PETITCOL (Private collector, France)
‘Le chef de pièce une marque indispensable à la connaissance des indiennes françaises’

Hélène DELALEX (Château de Versailles)
‘La réimpression d’une toile historique’

Marie-Eve CELIO-SHEURER (ICOM SWITZERLAND, MAH Geneva)
‘The Story of an Indian Robe in Neuchâtel: the Robe de Meuron’

Q&A (10h15-10h30)

II. Sources of researching the history of prints (10h30-11h00)

Adelheid RASCHE (ICOM GERMANY, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg)
150 Years of Swiss printed Textiles – unique source material in the collection of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
My contribution will focus on a precious series of 15 sample books in the collection of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. The set was assembled by the chemist Dr. Adolph Jenny-Trümpy (1844-1941), coowner of a famous Swiss producer of printed cotton textiles, based in the region of Glarus. This unique set shows ca 2.100 samples of Swiss and other European printed textiles from the late 18th to the beginning of the 20th century,
with hand-written indications on the origin and period, on used colours and technical specifications. It provides a great research potential for dress and textile historians. The museum will start a digitization project for all 15 sample books in order to make the material available online for international access.

Michaela BREIL (ICOM GERMANY, TIM Augsburg)
The archive of the Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik (NAK) 1781-1996
The sample archive of the NAK forms the founding collection of the State Textile an Industrialmuseum Augsburg (tim). The company grew out of a calico printing workshop that was founded in Augsburg as early as 1702. Johann Schöppler and Gottfried Hartmann took over the workshop in 1782 and expanded it into a calico printing works. The first acquisition was a printing press for printing textiles with copper plates. It was not until 200 years later that this calico printing works, which had been trading under the name Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik (NAK) since 1885, closed down. The NAK archive, unique in its unity. It consists of 550 pattern books with an estimated 1.5 million patterns, which, as a national cultural asset, are among the most valuable museum collections in the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition to this collection, there are engraving and roller books, colour recipe books, sample drawings, production documents, mollets, printing rollers, design samples, a tab archive, photo documentation and archival sources. Letter copy books from the years 1782-1792 are outstanding sources that show in detail the international trade in raw materials and products as well as the struggle for the quality of the printed calicoes. A hand-written journal which documents the entire accounting records of this calico printing shop provides instructive insights into the quantities and qualities of calicoes produced. The presentation sheds light on the variance of the
sources and looks at the different levels of information that can be gleaned from them. One focus is on the written sources and the possible questions that can be answered from them. A second focus is on the source of the “production run cards”, which document detailed instructions on fabric qualities, colours and the production process from the 1950s onwards.

Q&A (11h00-11h15)

III. The Trade and the circulation of Printed Cloths (11h15-12h15)

Gieneke ARNOLLI (ICOM NETHERLANDS, Fries Museum Leeuwarden)
Chintz and European printed cotton at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden NL
The collections of the Fries (Frisian) Museum represent the art and history of Friesland, one of the former Seven United Netherlands (Provinces) of the ‘Dutch Republic’ (1581-1795). Amongst these are than 700 items of Indian chintzes and European printed cottons. Friesland was a prosperous coastal region with a link with overseas trade. Frisian women used to wear the international west-European fashion but the traditional dress in the tiny town of Hindeloopen was different. The local men there were focussed on the Baltic trade to Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltic states. The main flourishing period of the town lay between 1650 and 1790, when Hindeloopen owned a large fleet of over eighty ships, with Amsterdam as its home port. The money earned was spent in Amsterdam, the homeport of the VOC, the Dutch United East Indian Company, founded in 1602.
Amsterdam provided the exotic luxuries, like Chinese porcelain, Indian Chintzes and ginghams. During the 18th century little by little Hindeloopen women started to include the Indian cotton fabrics in their traditional costumes instead of wool and linen, to begin with the ginghams for the head kerchief, breast cloth and apron. The chintz and different ginghams made a great change in the attractiveness of their costumes. Hindeloopen gowns or ‘wentkes’ are an essential part of the large and important collection of Indian chintz clothes and textiles.

Jackie YOONG (ICOM SINGAPORE, ACM & Peranakan museum)
Batik and Indian Trade Cloths: Collecting and Exhibiting at the Asian Civilisations Museum and Peranakan Museum Singapore
Museum collections are sources of researching the history of print and patterns. At the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) and Peranakan Museum (TPM), batik and Indian printed or painted textiles for export are two collection strengths. Batik refers to a technique of wax-resist dyeing of designs painted or block-printed, and the resultant fabric. Indian trade cloths refer to brightly coloured, printed cottons and woven silks exported to the world for centuries. This paper explores the collection and its interpretation through six displays since the museum opened in 1997. The displays featured key patterns and regional styles of both types of cloths made in Indonesia and India. A common theme threading through the displays are how the works reflect dynamic influences crossing cultures for centuries within Asia and with the West. Since 2019 through the concept of “Asia in Fashion”, ACM and TPM also strive to present more examples of garments and dress textiles including contemporary fashion, in these two major
collection areas.

Tatjana MIKULIC (ICOM SERBIA, Ethnographic Museum Belgrade)
Folded prints: Common Orthodox-Islamic Heritage in the Ethnographic Museum Costume Collections
Collection of traditional folk costumes from the Balkan holds both Muslim and Orthodox garments since members of these two religions lived in the common territory for centuries. Serbian population lived in rural areas, in extended families where the textile production in households was women’s duty. Women were producing garments for the whole family and everything was made out of natural materials and decorated with embroidery. Since parts of the Balkan region were under the Ottoman rule till the end of the First World War, Muslim population lived in towns.
Common thing for both populations was that one of the basics of women’s costume was the scarf. In the traditional society all women, young or elder, could never be seen publicly without a scarf or some other headgear. It was the marker of their age, marital, economical and religious status. Till the last decades of the nineteenth century their scarves were ornamented exclusively with the handmade embroidered ornaments and dyed with natural colours. But at the end of 19th Century women started covering their heads with printed scarves bought in stores. This was influenced with fast growing industrialisation: textile factories, the growth of the chemical industry as well as fashion trends through the influence of the urban costume. It is important to accent that the main purpose of the scarf stayed intact and women continued to wear this headgear in accordance with the traditional unwritten society’s rules. But it underwent some important changes. It was no more strictly a household product. Also, it changed the usual way of wearing it. Practise of enveloping it around the head in different ways was being replaced by folding the scarf in triangle shape „na pero“. Finally, printed fabric scarves were bought in the town stores with materials imported from Turkey as the global market centre in that period.

Pauline DEVRIESE (ICOM BELGIUM, Modemuseum Hasselt)
Flavourful Fashion. Exploring Multisensorial History via Food prints on Fashionable garments from 1750-2018.
This presentation delves into the intriguing world of textiles and garments printed with food motifs, within the context of multisensorial historical dress research. The interplay between flavour and textiles presents a fascinating challenge, as food and fashion have historically maintained a complex relationship. From the desire to physically fit into garments by adhering to certain body ideals to the connection with the allegories of the five senses in painting and tapestry art, underscoring food as a gateway to gluttony, one of the seven sins. Delving into the social context of these prints, this research traces their evolution from medieval times, where studies on the senses stemmed from an interest in cognitive mechanisms, to the 18th century, where fruits epitomized a pastoral, idyllic trend. Additionally, it explores the use of vegetable-based dyes to print textiles pre-1856, marking an era of natural and sustainable practices. With the advent of mass production in the 19th century, food prints became more commonplace, often
easily rendered through synthetic dyes. The 20th century witnessed a surge in experimentation with food prints, notably within the realm of pop art, where daily life was transformed into an art form. Today, in the 21st century, the focus has shifted towards recognition, where popular knowledge holds sway. Iconic examples include the Moschino candy dresses and Comme des Garçons’ utilization of Arcimboldo’s vegetable men portraits as prints. This presentation provides a concise overview of the rich history of food prints in fashionable garments, spanning from the quaint idylls of the 18th century to the avant-garde expressions of the 21st century, offering insights into the multifaceted relationship between food, fashion, and societal perceptions.

Q&A (12h15-12h30)

Lunch Break at the Museum Café (12h30-14h00)

Afternoon Museum Tours and guided visits: Permanent exhibition of Indiennes by museum Director Helen BieriThomson; 18th century refurbished Apartments; Kitchen Garden; Dyeing workshop. Different groups in rotation. (14h00-17h00)

Evening reception at the Museum (17h30-19h00)

ICOM COSTUME Annual gathering continues at Yverdon-les-Bains, Neuchâtel on Saturday 18 May and at Lausanne on Sunday 19 May 2024.

More information available on icom costume mini site on the meeting menu.

Please download the paper sessions schedule of the PRINTS Annual Conference HERE.

You can also download the schedule with abstracts of the PRINTS Annual Conference HERE.