Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine opens at V&A Dundee
A free exhibition on the history of Palestinian dress and tatreez – the elaborate hand-embroidery which tells stories of women’s identities, grief and changing lives – opens at V&A Dundee on Thursday 26 June.
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine explores tatreez as an ancient practice which is characterised by remarkable beauty, regional diversity and complexity of design. The cut, colour, textiles, stitches and motifs on Palestinian women’s dress are both a highly skilled craft and a language which reveals who the wearer is and where they are from.
Drawing on the collections of the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the West Bank and the V&A, the exhibition brings together more than 30 historical dresses from Palestine, alongside veils and headdresses, jewellery and accessories, and archival photography, to immerse visitors in this living tradition, focusing on the late 19th century to the present day.
Traditional Palestinian embroidery is recognised by the United Nations on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Thread Memory explores how this embroidery has shaped and expressed Palestinian national identity over the course of the twentieth century and has evolved into a form of resistance and solidarity.
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine also celebrates 45 years of Dundee’s twin city relationship with Nablus, Palestine. In 1980 this was considered by many to be a radical act as Dundee was the first UK city to be twinned with a city in Palestine. Since then, the Palestinian flag has been displayed at the City Chambers in Dundee, even during periods when the flag was outlawed within Palestine.
The exhibition takes the opportunity to spotlight Nabulsi dress and tell the story of this historic connection between Scotland and Palestine through material from Dundee collections and Palestinian archives. The exhibition also shines a spotlight on Gaza, showcasing spectacular historical dresses from villages across the region, including a dress damaged in the bombing of the Rafah Museum in 2023, recognising the creativity and resilience of the Palestinian people at a time of cultural devastation and immeasurable grief.
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine has been developed in partnership with the Palestinian Museum in the West Bank, drawing on local expertise and objects from Palestine, as well as with Art Jameel, V&A South Kensington and V&A Dundee.
Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee, said: “Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is an exhibition that through research, collections and partnership explores the traditions and material culture of Palestinian dress and the vast range of regional styles that tell important stories about the lives of the women who made, adapted and wore these dresses, jewellery, headdresses and accessories.
“The exhibition also explores the 45-year-old connection between Dundee and Nablus, a twinning relationship that has brought these two cities together, and it celebrates contemporary Palestinian design and creativity from Dundee, Scotland and across the UK.”
Rachel Dedman, Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at V&A South Kensington, said: “I’m proud that Thread Memory will exhibit the V&A’s important collection of historic Palestinian dress, which we have been actively growing over the last few years. It is particularly special to be partnering with the Palestinian Museum, with whom the V&A has a long-standing relationship in the field of textile conservation.
“In these difficult times, it’s vital to tell Palestinian stories, celebrate Palestinian heritage and support the next generation of Palestinian artists and fashion designers. The exhibition in Dundee is also accompanied in London by displays of tatreez in the Islamic Middle East Gallery at V&A South Kensington and at V&A Storehouse.”
Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel, said: “Thread Memory builds on more than a decade of research and exhibitions curated by Rachel Dedman across Palestine, Lebanon, the UK and Saudi Arabia, which reflect on the rich traditions of tatreez and textiles. Working with the Palestinian Museum, we are honoured to see this expanded iteration of the exhibition open at V&A Dundee, marking 45 years of Dundee’s twinning with Nablus and the enduring ties of culture and solidarity between Scotland and Palestine. Art Jameel has a longstanding focus on producing exhibitions and programmes that foreground cultural continuity and discursive exchange. In this time of immense violence, injustice and grief, it feels more urgent than ever to centre everyday, human stories of intergenerational creativity, resilience and resistance.”
The exhibition also includes an embroidered dress worn by Dundee City Councillor Nadia El-Nakla at the Scottish Parliament in 2023 for the swearing-in ceremony of her husband, Humza Yousaf MSP, as the then First Minister of Scotland. Symbolic of her Palestinian heritage, the wearing of the dress signified solidarity and pride in her homeland and received international recognition.
Councillor Nadia El-Nakla said: “I am delighted to welcome Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine to V&A Dundee. Design and culture are peaceful and powerful forms of resistance and solidarity. Palestinian fashion and dress express ideas about who we have been, who we are and the lives we want to live in peace and with dignity.
“This exhibition is opening at a time of extreme pain and suffering. It’s bringing design from Palestine to life and tells the stories of women’s lives in Palestine. I am proud that my dress, or thobe, that I wore at the Scottish Parliament is there as an expression of my Scottish-Palestinian identity, and as a symbol of solidarity, hope and peace.”
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine explores the wide variety of regional differences in dress-making and embroidery, from Galilee in the north where lighter embroidery on long coats reflected women’s heavy agricultural workload, to elaborate tatreez with gold and silver metallic threads in the relatively wealthy Bethlehem and Jerusalem areas.
Colour is also highly important in Palestinian dress. Blue is seen as a colour of grief, particularly in Bedouin culture. Bereaved women would use blue thread for their tatreez, while others dyed their bright embroidery with indigo, with the mourning period considered over once the dye faded and the colourful thread reappeared.
The exhibition culminates in an exploration of embroidered dress today, including looks from contemporary Palestinian fashion designers building upon inherited cultural traditions. Work by contemporary artists engaging with tatreez will sit in conversation with the traditional dress on display, alongside interviews with Palestinian embroiderers working today.
Contemporary artists and designers featured in Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine at V&A Dundee include Leena Nammari, a graduate of the University of Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, who has created 626 clay tablets that each represent a destroyed Palestinian town or village; Aya Haidar, who embroiders plastic bags to represent what families have taken with them when fleeing as refugees; and fashion by Zeid Hijazi that blends tartan and tatreez to create a punk-like outfit connecting Palestine and Scotland.
Debuting at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, and traveling to V&A Dundee, Thread Memory draws from the Palestinian Museum’s vast archive documenting Palestinian life and history. Over 500,000 photographs and documents have been digitised from 414 personal collections and family albums.
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is free and on show at V&A Dundee from 26 June 2025 to spring 2026. It expands upon an exhibition with the same title that was shown at Hayy Jameel, 23 January to 17 April 2025, curated by Rachel Dedman.
