How Sharp Is The History Of Scissors? with Teresa Collenette

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week’s episode is a cut above the rest, as we explore the history and cultural significance of scissors. Join Jonathan and design historian Teresa Collenette as they talk ancient spring scissors, Victorian-era chatelaines, Jonathan’s go-to hair shears, and Teresa’s incredible collection of more than 100 pairs of scissors. Teresa Collenette is a design historian, curator and collector. Teresa has curated several exhibitions with the Fashion and Textile Museum, including The Secret Life of Scissors in 2018 and Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960s Counterculture, which is up now! You can follow her on Instagram @thehouseofscissors. Want to learn more about scissors? Check out these resources: Handmade scissors in Sheffield at Ernest Wright Scissors being made at Ernest Wright Scissors maker William Whiteley & Sons, Sheffield Scissor Collecting Magazine Dial M For Murder The Secret Life of Scissors exhibition in The New York Times Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious, I'm Jonathan Van Ness, and every week I sit down for a gorgeous
0:04.6	conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious.
0:09.6	On today's episode, I'm joined by Teresa Colinet, where I ask her,
0:14.0	how sharp is the history of scissors?
0:17.8	Oh my god, I'm so excited, can't see how that welcome to Getting Curious, this is Jonathan
0:20.9	Van Ness, and today we are learning everything about scissors. Welcome to Reesa Colinet,
0:26.8	who is a design historian specializing in the history of scissors. She is a graduate of the Royal
0:32.8	College of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum History of Design, Master's Program. She has worked
0:37.7	on various fashion and textile museum exhibitions, including the 2018 show The Secret Life of
0:43.2	Scissors, Teresa welcome. Thank you, I'm so happy to be here, I'm at site exciting, and I'm talking
0:49.3	to a hairdresser, somebody who uses scissors professionally. I have been using so many scissors in my
0:54.8	professional life, which we call shears. I needed to know more about these, and also to everyone,
1:02.0	you just have to know if you haven't seen on social. Teresa is a very modern shag, I love it so
1:06.9	much, and also this art behind you in your house or your office is gorgeous, I just have to say.
1:13.3	So, this is a personal question before we even get into the history of scissors. When did you
1:19.0	realize that you're obsessed with scissors and that you wanted to become a literal scissors historian?
1:25.9	Well, it kind of snuck up on me a little bit, it's like I didn't go looking for scissors,
1:30.7	it's kind of like they came looking for me, because when I started my master's course, I was
1:36.6	really interested in doing something about textiles, because I'd worked previously, I'd been working
1:41.3	like retail, I worked for Liberty of London, you know, really famous for their textiles, I love
1:46.0	prints, I love colour, etc. fashion. And then when I started my course, we were asked to write or
1:53.3	look around the museum and find our favourite object, I'm right about it. So, off I go down to kind
	...

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