| ANNE WANNER'S Textiles in History / symposiums |
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| The
Abegg Colloquium on "FASHION AND CLOTHING IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE" reported by Rosalia Bonito Fanelli An International Colloquium "FASHION AND CLOTHING IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE" The papers were primarily in English, but also in German and French. The speakers coming from Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Belgium were all knowledgeable specialists in their fields - university professors and doctoral candidates, museum curators and independent scholars. We were all very graciously treated courtesy of the Abegg Foundation. Each day was dedicated to a different theme: I- Individual Pieces of Clothing II- Clothing and Fashion from Different Social Levels III- Symbolic Aspects of Clothing and Fashion. On the first afternoon we were able to see the current Abegg exhibition "Woven Gold - Metal threads in textile art": The precious objects covering from antiquity to the nineteenth century were not only elegantly displayed but also accompanied by macrophotos of the metal threads and precise scientific descriptions We then also visited the Abegg restoration laboratory where currently there were sixteenth and seventeenth-century costumes from Darmstadt and several Chinese and Mongolian articles of clothing. Each object required a different restoration approach. On the second afternoon at the Bern Historical Museum we viewed and discussed problems in restoration and reconstruction of Late Medieval garments. A beautiful fifteenth-century gold-embroidered orphrey could be inspected close up. The last day ended with a final discussion which left everyone in general agreement about the need for an exchange of ideas and information from various points of view in order to corroborate findings and reconstructions. Cultural, economic, theological and art historians,archeologists, restorers and technical specialists - weavers, embroiderers and tailors - all contribute vital information, My considerations concerning the discussion are mainly communicative. The basic vocabulary of terms must be clearly defined before giving form to any expression. Furthermore the documents cited, the images proposed and the actual objects need to be mutually verified. |
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