Recycling Victorian clothes, the history of costume design, the messages conveyed in art made from textiles and the stories encoded in ancient embroidery are explored by Shahidha Bari and her guests Isabella Rosner, Rianna Norbert-David, Jade Halbert and Danielle Dove. They also look at exhibitions at the Barbican Gallery in London and the Museum of London in Docklands.

Isabella Rosner is the curator of the Royal School of Needlework and a New Generation Thinker. You can hear an Essay from her about Quaker needlework broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March Jade Halbert is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Leeds working on the project https://www.constructingcostumehistories.co.uk/ Danielle Dove is a Fellow of the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey researching second hand clothes in the Victorian period Rianna Norbert-David is an assistant curator at the Museum of London and has a MA in textile design from the Royal College of Art

Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art runs at the Barbican Art Gallery in London from Tue 13 Feb—Sun 26 May 2024 Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners shaped global style runs at the Museum of London in Docklands until 14 April 2024 Sargent and Fashion runs at Tate Britain in London from 22 Feb - 7 July 2024 Leeds Art Gallery runs monthly stitch art events using works in their collection as the inspiration for textile art. The University is home to the M&S archive https://archive.marksandspencer.com/

Producer: Robyn Read