Fashion at the Gallery : a Guild Visit

Sometimes my local Garment Guild has meetings that are more like outings! To close this season we had a tour of a fashion exhibit newly installed at Gallery Stratford.

  This is a pop-up exhibit by the Fashion History Museum, which doesn't currently have a permanent home -- although it will soon have a retail & workshop space open right in our downtown. 

Curator Jonathan Walford gave us a tour & it was so fun to hear the stories behind the French couture pieces in the show, from Worth to Courreges. There were some amazing pieces - Balmain, probable Balenciaga (the original), Karl Lagerfeld, a Dior, Jeanne Lanvin and much more. Even a gown by the Callot Soeurs! We all enjoyed it so much. 

If you are going to be in Stratford before it closes on October 11, try to see it. The other 2 exhibits on are also fascinating - one on jewelry inspired by Canadian women, & one on historical photography. All so beautiful! 

Inspired by Measha Brueggergosman

Toronto Textile Museum Visit

I was in Toronto recently, and found time to make a quick visit to the Textile Museum, a favourite of mine. It is a small museum, so you can see all the exhibits in an efficient manner and also visit their reuse area where they sell donated fabrics, patterns, books etc. even if you only have a short time to make a stop. 

There were some items from their archives on display, and an exhibit called From Cloth to Code, which included some digital responses to traditional fabrics, some traditional pieces made non-traditionally, and some looking at queer fashion in the Philippines, just as a few examples. There were more items as well, it was really interesting. I'll just share a few highlights below. 

I came around a dim corner and saw this -- total jump scare!  

A lovely small sorochka from the archives of the Museum, which I hadn't seen before.

Also want to share a short video of the audiovisual part of the exhibit. I thought this was really effective! 

I also picked up a small piece of fabric and some great patterns from the Reuse centre! Lots of inspiration on this visit.

Black Community Quilts at Toronto's Textile Museum

If you are in or near Toronto, make some time to get to the Textile Museum this month! There is a beautiful exhibit on until April 28, called The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts, curated by David Woods. There are some gorgeous historical pieces as well as modern quilts, all with lots of context to learn from. 

I stopped in when I was in Toronto recently and really enjoyed it. There was a variety of styles and techniques in the more than 35 quilts on display, and there is always lots more to check out in the Museum shop and textile reuse centre. 

I was drawn in by so many details - stitches, quilting, colour choices, stories - and I love that the exhibit is big enough to have breadth but not so big that you feel overwhelmed. It's a great visit. 

One of my favourites was this one, called Amelda's Prayer. So beautiful! 

But there were so many to enjoy.

This traditional quilt was really interesting to me for the details. All that black edging on the stars is blanket stitch. I don't remember seeing this kind of accent before and love it. 

This was the only real abstract of the show and I thought it was great. 

So many representational quilts as well. All fabulous. 

I really enjoyed this show and wish I could have made it to one of the special events they had in conjunction with it. Oh well -- I did get to enjoy it! Try to get there if you can. 

Costumes & Quilts to beat the heat

What do you do when you're not sewing? Well, I end up visiting places that always include sewing!

A few weeks ago there was an event at my local history museum, a Sunday picnic/craft beer tasting on their expansive grounds, which included entrance into the museum exhibits. Since it was a super hot day and I had been intending to go to the Art Quilts exhibit, we took the afternoon and headed over. So fun. Lots of tasty beer, hot weather, and the blessed air conditioning when we went inside ;)

The main exhibits were the Art Quilts, a Narnia themed one in conjunction with the Stratford Festival's showing of The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe this year, and an exhibit of some of the Festival Archives' costumes and accessories. All were a lot of fun to see.

**Edited to Add: a new 360 Tour of the museum has just been added to their content. You can see one hall of the quilts plus the costumes & Narnia! 

I forgot to take photos of the attributions for many of the quilts, so don't feel that I can post them without. But I did get a couple! One of my favourites has the clearest writeup, the rest you should be able to kind of see if you embiggen the photos.

 We also enjoyed seeing the masterful work on the stage costumes - even though they are seen from afar, the Festival wardrobe is amazing at the detailing and finishes.

 

We also liked the Narnia show - including the hilarious family photos in Mr. Tumnus' parlour:

Plus we had to play Peter & Susan in the throne room...

What do you do when you're not sewing?