Textiles Studies
Date of this Version
Spring 2019
Document Type
Article
Citation
Spring 2019 Newsletter of the Textile Society of America, pp. 20-22.
Abstract
Calico, chintz, damask, muslin, cashmere, seersucker, taffeta, shawl, caftan, and cummerbund-all English terms derived from Islamic textiles and dress-are the products of textile technologies that resulted from colonization and trade. Their cultural origins are long forgotten, shrouded in the fast-moving commercialized fashion industry and haute couture ofthe West that developed during the 20th century. The exhibition, Contemporary Muslim Fashions, is a game-changer.
The exhibition organizers, Jill D'Alessandro and laura Camerlengo, curators of costumes and textiles at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, worked with Reina Lewis in London as a curatorial consultant. Together, they drew upon the local advice of numerous Muslims in the Bay Area who represent a diversity of Islamic traditions from around the world. The exhibition presents a grand and lavish glimpse into the global fashion phenomenon of the moment, largely propelled by social media, with a focus on emergent Muslim women designers and the historically complex interactions of Islamic dress with European fashion houses.
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Art and Materials Conservation Commons, Art Practice Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Museum Studies Commons