The Fabric of The First Refugees
The first group of people in the world to be called refugees were deeply tied up with the production of luxury cloth. In the 17 th and 18 th...
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Haptic & Hue
Textiles have an incredible power to talk to us, if we can hear them. They comfort and console us, create memories, define who we are and what we might believe in. They are a detective story...
Episodes
20 of 77 episodesThe Bayeux Tapestry Comes Home After 1000 Years
In a few day's time the Bayeux Tapestry goes on show at the British Museum in London. The famous embroidery that depicts the Norman conquest...
The Return of Canada's Forgotten Wartime Quilts
A number of very special quilts have been arriving in North America over the past few weeks. A collection of more than 40 are being returned...
The Mysterious Origins of Knitting
This month's episode is a little different: as many of you know we run a second podcast for Friends of Haptic & Hue called Travels with Text...
Community Makes a Nation: America's Folly Cove Designers
This summer marks the 250 th anniversary of America's founding as nation, born in a successful rebellion from the British crown. Events and...
Fashion and Pandora Dolls: How Style Travelled The World Before Printing and Cameras.
There is a little mannequin which has played a hidden role in history. We admire the portraits of the great men and women of the past dresse...
Finding A Foundling - Textiles of Identity
In a small corner of London lies one of the most evocative collection of textiles anywhere in the world. The fabrics – which are quite ordin...
The Glorious Quilts of Gees Bend
An extraordinary new exhibition has just opened in the small Alabama township of Gees Bend, and it gives us some clues as to why this commun...
Althea McNish - Queen of Colour
It's nearly five years since the Anglo Trinidadian textile designer, Althea McNish, died in near obscurity in London. In that time her reput...
The Dog Hair Blankets of the Coast Salish People
Textiles have a tremendous power to hold our culture and identity, more so than most understand. For thousands of years the Coast Salish peo...
Hooky Mats and Rag Rugs: How the Art of Necessity Helped Define a Nation
Hooked rugs are humble things made of recycled cloth and worn out textiles, originally born of need and lack: and yet they have come to mean...
The Intelligence of The Hands & The Creative Brain
If you were asked to stitch a picture of your brain what would it look like? A project that looks at the connection between our hands and ou...
The Mysteries of the Marshes: The Ancient Textile Secrets of Europe's Bog Bodies
If we need proof that textiles can rewrite human history, then it lies with the bog bodies of northern Europe. Textile archaeologists are re...
Reviving Rocking Stitch and Saving Wholecloth Quilting
Here's a surprise! An extra episode of Haptic & Hue. We said we were taking a break for July and August and yes, we are. But we thought we w...
The Witches of Scotland: How a New Tartan Became a Living Memorial
A very special tartan has just started to roll off the weaving looms of the Prickly Thistle Mill in the north of Scotland. This brand-new de...
Textile Waste and the Catastrophe at Kantamanto
Early this year there was a catastrophic fire at the world's biggest market for selling and upcycling second-hand clothes. Kantamanto market...
Coupons For Clothes: A Wartime Idea Made New?
Creativity and invention aren't words often associated with hardship and suffering, but in the Second World War women in America and Britain...
Pleats Please: the Story of the World's Oldest Fashion Technique
There's a fashion technique that's been in continuous use for over five thousand years – proof, if proof is needed, that there is nothing ne...
The Quilts That Hold The Heart of Hawaii
What happens when one of the most traditional museums in the world revolutionises the way it presents the story of the past? The answer is n...
Tapestries For Troubled Times
Tapestries for Troubled Times The stitches of the Bayeux Tapestry fix the story of the Norman Conquest of England in our imaginations in an...