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The Fabric of India

The Fabric of India will be the first major exhibition to explore the rich and fascinating world of handmade textiles from India. We will be gathering together some of the finest and most fascinating textiles from the V&A and collections across the world to illustrate the processes, history, and politics associated with these incredible objects. The journey from idea to exhibition is long, and often challenging, but also incredibly exciting. It requires the commitment and enthusiasm of many people: from curators, coordinators and conservators to designers and digital editors. This blog brings together stories from across the exhibition team to track the highs (and lows) of the exhibition research and making process. We will also be inviting team members and guest contributors to share their thoughts on what fascinates and inspires them about Indian textiles. The exhibition, The Fabric of India will be at the V&A from 3 October 2015 to 10 January 2016.

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Featured

A Room with a View

Back in February, after months (really years) of preparation, the V&A formally announced The Fabric of India to the press. Rosemary and Divia spoke with a number of...
null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Exhibition Designer Gitta Gschwendtner Reflects on a Job Well Done (and takes a video)

Gitta Gschwendtner was the Exhibition designer for The Fabric of India, and worked with the V&A’s team over the past two years to design the delivery of the...

null Avalon Fotheringham
Research

5…4…3…2…1… The Fabric of India enters its final week

A very Happy New Year to you! It seems like only yesterday that we were scrambling to get the last objects into their cases and put the finishing touches on the displays. Yet...

null Avalon Fotheringham
Our projects

The Fabric of India Soundtrack Now Available!

Since our opening day we’ve been fielding a wave of requests from visitors for the music of The Fabric of India, brilliantly composed by Jason Singh. Today, we are thrilled...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Textiles and architecture in India

A number of the textiles in the Fabric of India exhibition were made to be used in architectural contexts, whether as furnishings for buildings or as a type of portable...

null Rosemary Crill
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Indian Chintz – A Legacy of Luxury

This week we are very pleased to offer you a guest post from Fabric of India sponsors Good Earth India.  Simran Lal, Good Earth’s Chief Executive Officer, shares her personal...

null Simran Lal
The Fabric of India

The Moon Sari

This time last year I was about to head off to India for a research and collecting trip for The Fabric of India exhibition. My first stop was to Bhuj in Gujarat and my...

null Divia Patel
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Raising the Roof! Mounting Tipu’s Tent

Today’s post focuses on the single biggest challenge of the exhibition – both literally and logistically. Those of you who have already visited the show will have no...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: A truly unique cinematic experience

Today we welcome Charlotte Wood, Marketing Manager at the V&A, who’s responsible for making sure you hear about all the amazing things the museum’s doing both...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Eri Weaving in Meghalaya

This week we welcome Amrita Ravimohan, a representative of the of Indigenous Terra Madre 2015 event. She brings us fascinating details about eri silk weaving and kheng embroidery...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Stitch Narratives – Continuance and Evolution of Running Stitch Embroidery

Hello again! This week we welcome Gopika Nath, a textile artist and writer living and working in Gurgaon, who shares our passion for kantha embroidery in both its traditional and...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Renuka Reddy’s Adventures in Chintz

We’re open! This past weekend The Fabric of India received its first visitors, and the response has been overwhelming.  Lest you fear our opening means the end of our...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Our Favourite Things: Final Edition

  Tomorrow we finally officially open our doors. The process of developing and installing The Fabric of India has been challenging: a true feat of research, conservation,...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

And still more! Our Favourite Fabric of India Objects, Part Three

If you’ve been following the blog this week, you’ll know this is the third in our series sharing our ‘Favourite Things in The Fabric of India.’  If not,...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

A few more of our favourite things

Back again for part two of ‘Our Favourite Things’ from the exhibition’s (now complete) installation. Today we feature: Deepshikha Kalsi, Textile Conservator...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

These are a few of our favourite things…

  After years of planning, months of preparing, and weeks of installing, the last Fabric of India case has officially been closed . Two-hundred-odd objects were successfully...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Fabric of frenzy

This picture says it all: the remains of a breakfast of coffee, half a croissant and some jelly babies, and a lunch of chips and lemonade.  Installations are always somewhat...

null Rosie Wanek
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Perfect partners: Muslin and cashmere

Jenny Lister is curator of 19th century fashion and textiles at the V&A. Last year, during initial object selections for The Fabric of India, she helped the team choose a...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

The Fabric(ation) of India

I must begin with an apology for our collective silence last week.  It really is ‘all hands to the pump’ at this stage of exhibition delivery.  This is not to say...

null Rosie Wanek
News and Updates

Getting the feel of The Fabric of India

With such a strong focus on materials in the first part of the exhibition, we thought it would be a good thing for visitors to be able to feel the different textures of some...

null Rosemary Crill
The Fabric of India

‘The Disappearing Tiger’

The humble t-shirt is something you may not be expecting to see in this exhibition. However, throughout The Fabric of India, alongside the many splendid and awe-inspiring objects...

null Divia Patel
Conservation

All that glitters – part 3, manufacturing techniques

The’ bling-ometer’ in Textile Conservation reached new heights last week with the arrival of the contemporary loans from India so it seemed a fitting time to return to the...

null Elizabeth Anne Haldane
The Fabric of India

Measure twice, cut once

Our best selling exhibition of all time Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty closed this weekend, and whilst our visitor services staff may be secretly relieved to have the museum a...

null Rosie Wanek
Conservation

Slippery Sari Sagas and Delightful Draping

Here in Textile Conservation we are just over half way through mounting the garments for display in The Fabric of India. A few weeks ago, our studio was all a-flurry with the...

null Keira Miller
Conservation

Guest Post: Conservation Close-up

Annika Amundson is a student placement in the V&A Textile Conservation Studio, a part of her MPhil course at the Centre for Textile Conservation, University of Glasgow. This...

null Elizabeth Anne Haldane
The Fabric of India

Ducklings in the digital age – and Indian textiles…

You may or may not be aware that the V&A currently has a family of ducks living in the central courtyard.  Mummy duck, Victoria, and her brood of little ducklings are...

null Rosie Wanek
Research

Our Private Pinterest Board: The best of our rejected contextual images

First I’d like to thank the wonderful guest bloggers we had over the past few months who have done a fantastic job of sharing their expertise and insight with us. We hope...

null Avalon Fotheringham
Caring for our collections

Persistence rewarded: the V&A’s Mughal coat

The V&A’s Mughal embroidered coat  is well known as one of the finest surviving examples of Indian court dress, and has been frequently displayed and published since the...

null Rosemary Crill
Museum life

Guest Post: A Warrior’s Magic Shirt

Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam is an assistant curator in the Middle Eastern section at the V&A. Since she joined the Museum two years ago, she has carried out research on talismanic...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: Mounting – Drawing attention to the intentionally disguised

This week our blog post is by Sophie Richards, our Fabric of India Exhibitions Assistant, who gives us some behind-the-scenes insight into what you hopefully won’t notice...

null Avalon Fotheringham
The Fabric of India

Guest Post: A Room with a View (Part 2) – the Textile Conservator’s Story

Roisin Morris is a V&A Senior Textile Conservator, and is currently working on the massive room hanging we featured in  A Room with a View (Part 1) two weeks back. This week...

null Avalon Fotheringham

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