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Keyword

Fashionably Wrapped: The Influence of Kashmir Shawls

Start Date 18 November 2009
End Date 04 July 2010
Venue Textile Museum of Canada
Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Curator Natalia Nekrassova
Exhibition with blue wall with textiles hanging from the wall, a red plinths holding two mannequins displaying garments and a wooden display cabinet.
Exhibition with blue walls with a textile hanging from the wall and a red plinth holding three mannequins displaying garments.
Exhibition with a red and white wall with textiles hanging from the wall and a semicircle red plinth holding two mannequins displaying garments.
Exhibition with white walls with textiles hangings,

This exhibition traces the origins of the shawl from the noble courts of India, where finely woven pieces were made and worn for several centuries, to the high-fashion market in Europe, where shawls were desired for their unusual beauty and exquisite weaving. With 33 beautiful examples from the Textile Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition will examine how in Europe the shawl became a symbol of femininity, integrating the romantic exoticism of the 18th century with the Victorian values of innocence and decency of the mid 19th century. With their warm colours and luxurious softness, the Kashmir shawl and its European imitations embody a cross cultural phenomenon with roots in India but identified with France and Great Britain.

Images courtesy of the Textile Museum of Canada, Ontario, Canada.