African textiles

The former director of the Textile Museum in Krefeld, Brigitte Menzel (director until 1979), as an ethnologist and Africa researcher, has visited the black continent many times

toured. From the Ashanti (formerly an independent empire, has belonged to the

Republic of Ghana) she has wonderful textiles and equipment for their production

brought with them, which is now a focus of the museum's collections

turn off.

With the Ashanti, the men wove narrow-band fabrics a little more than 8 cm wide, which are divided into different patterns. Numerous of these strips were sewn

to large, several meters wide shawls

(For example: 16 sections for women, 20 for men).

The Ashanti had a clear dress code, material, color, and format

Precisely prescribed way of wearing the shawls.

Printing fabrics

Although a major focus of the collection policy of the German Textile Museum in the past was on the acquisition of woven textiles, the museum has been particularly beautiful since its beginnings in the late 19th century

Examples of European printed matter collected. Quite a few pieces come from

the Jakob Krauth collection, the basis of the royal family founded in 1880

Tissue collection. The inventory now includes printed fabrics from the late 18th and early 19th centuries - including blueprints and some Toiles de Jouy and pieces from other French manufacturers - as well as printed fabrics from the late 19th century from various European countries. The

The museum also has a fine collection of English printed matter

Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau.

A further complex of the collection is made up of printed materials from the 20th century, very large numbers of which are archived in the museum.

French silks

In the 18th century France was a leader in the European silk industry. The strict "Règlements" introduced by the Finance Minister Louis XIV, Colbert, around 1665, which ensured precise quality control, contributed to this.

Wonderful patterns such as the “bizarre silks” and “lace patterns” from the beginning of the century or the naturalistic designs by Jean Revel, the rococo-like wavy tendrils and scattered flowers of the middle of the century to the stricter stripes of the time of Louis XVI. were all for the fashion at the royal courts

Obligatory to Europe.

The German Textile Museum Krefeld owns a large number of French

Silk fabric - circa 700 - from the early 18th to the late 19th century,

including many top pieces from the heyday between 1720 and 1780.

Indonesian textiles

The Indonesian section of the museum includes approximately 800 textiles.

The focus of the collection is on Java and Sumatra, other islands such as

Borneo, Bali and Sumba are also represented.

In the Indonesian archipelago there is a multitude of textile techniques, and ancient textile traditions assert themselves alongside innovations that have been introduced over and over again.

Each island has characteristic motifs and colors. All textiles, clothing as well as other fabrics, play an important role in the religious and social life of the peoples there.

Italian silks

As early as the 13th century Italy had two important silk centers

developed Venice and Lucca. The orientation of the important trading ports to Byzantium on the one hand and to Spain on the other hand reflects the respective

technical influences and pattern preferences of the east or west

Mediterranean area reflected in the respective Italian silks.

The German Textile Museum has had a small but very interesting collection of early Italian silk fabrics since

13th Century. Especially the moving animal patterns of the 14th century and the

wonderful 15th century pomegranate velvets are remarkable. she

served as models for the Krefeld silk industry from the end of the 19th century.

Art Nouveau fabrics

Towards the end of the 19th century, artists across Europe began to feel uncomfortable with traditional art forms. This eventually led to a renewal of many artistic areas in the so-called Art Nouveau, and textile art was no exception.

Numerous well-known artists from all important European countries, including William Morris and Charles FA Voysey (England), Felix Aubert (France), Peter Behrens (Germany), Henry van de Velde (Belgium) or Josef Hoffmann (Austria) produced wonderful, partly naturalistic -stylized, partly completely abstract fabric designs, the

often as printed cotton velvets for furniture covers and wall coverings

Found use. The German Textile Museum has a rich collection

these beautiful fabrics.

Coptic textiles

Copts are the people of Egypt who have converted to Christianity. Coptic textiles are mixed fabrics with a linen warp and colored wool wefts for the pattern, which are integrated into the warp in the manner of slit knitting. Such substances are largely on us as grave finds

came. They have been used by Greeks living in Egypt since about

3rd century AD, later by the Copts themselves in manufactories and

manufactured in homework. The majority of the extant Coptic textiles are

Ornaments of robes and blankets in which the dead were wrapped. the

The colors of these fabrics are particularly well preserved, some of them downright bright, which is due to the extremely dry climate of the desert locations in which they are located

were found and with the fact that no harmful light, the archenemy

of all textiles that graves could fall into.

Linen damasks

The German Textile Museum has a beautiful collection of old linen damasks from the 16th to 18th centuries. Especially the early Flemish pieces are here

remarkable. One was built in Kortrijk and Mechelen almost exactly around 1500

flourishing linen damask industry, which produced large repetitive figurative patterns.

Compared to a simple linen weaving practiced for centuries at home

Areas that produced simple geometric patterns on shaft looms, these new damasks testify to a tremendous technical progress, which can only be explained by the fact that silk weavers from Italy made theirs over centuries

developed draw looms to Flanders.

The patterns of the Dutch damasks, on the other hand, are not inspired by Italy. Here, as later in Saxony and Silesia, biblical themes and secular hunting scenes, as well as political subjects, were popular.

Fashion and costumes

The German Textile Museum has only been collecting fashion specifically for about twenty years. That means contemporary fashion, because beautiful pieces from the past, even from the 18th century, are practically impossible to get at. Even skin

20th century couture is traded at the highest prices in the market today. The museum has only a few exquisite 18th and early costumes

19th century, while from the second half of the 19th and from throughout

20th century meanwhile a large number of women's and children's clothing

especially in the last ten years. Hats, shoes and accessories complete the picture, while men's clothing is rather sparsely represented.

The collection of the German Textile Museum also includes one

Variety of European costumes as well as rural clothing from western, southern and

Southeast Europe. This includes not only clothes, but also rich

decorated headgear

- like precious gold bonnets from different European regions - and

customary jewelry.

East Asian textiles

In its 100-year history, the Textile Museum has brought together more than 1,900 textile objects from East Asia, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and even Tibetan objects. Below are

also about 50 robes. Lots of fragments from different materials - besides

Precious, patterned silk fabrics are made from simpler materials such as wool, raffia, rami (Chinese grass) and cotton - testify to the unprecedented diversity of East Asian textile manufacturing processes and design methods. Except for some wonderful 19th century Chinese dragon robes this is

Museum particularly proud of Japanese No-vestments from the 17th and 18th centuries

18th century.

Peruvian textiles

Already since the establishment of the "Royal Tissue Collection Crefeld" in the late

19th century Peruvian textiles belonged to the collection area of the house. at

the majority of the approximately 400 objects are finds from burial grounds scattered across the country.

As with the Coptic textiles (see under "Coptic textiles"), this preserved
dry and hot climate of the almost rainless coastal zone of Peru the textiles in front of the

Destruction. Also the Peruvian fabrics, some of which are over a thousand years old

surprise today's viewer with their wonderful colors. the

The most beautiful of these are woolen fabrics in slit knitting with patterns

with motifs like the typical birds or cat-like creatures. Next to it are

Natural colored mesh head veil of great interest.

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The Textile Museum has a sizeable top collection of around 800 pieces.

All techniques and epochs of top art are represented here. To the collection

include early lace-like breakthrough work, fine fillet and ribbon lace from Italy (17th century), needle and bobbin lace from France and Flanders (17th and 18th centuries), and black Chantilly lace, to name just a few examples. In addition to the so-called "real", that is, handmade lace, there are also interesting objects made of machine lace from the 19th and 20th centuries

represent. In addition to fragments, the museum owns entire clothes and accessories

made of lace such as collars, cuffs, capes, umbrellas and much more.

Embroidery

Textiles are one of the most important complexes in the collection

Embroidery decor. The numerous examples come from all over the world and range

from late antiquity to the 20th century.

Large stocks concern European embroidery, but also Asian,

especially Chinese embroidery and costumes.

They show examples of all eras and techniques, including top-of-the-line pieces

like the Florentine picture embroidery in glaze technique of the 15th century, splendid

Gold embroidery and needle paintings of rococo and courtly clothing

Classicism, gossamer whiteworks on the medieval linen cloths

the nunneries or the chemise dresses of the Empire.

An opulent catalog was presented in 2006 on European embroidery from the Baroque to Biedermeier periods (1650-1850).

The stocks of European embroidery of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

(1250-1650) were also scientifically developed.

For this purpose, a complete inventory catalog was published in 2010, which is already

is out of print.

Turkish and Persian silks

The German Textile Museum has some extraordinarily splendid Ottoman ones

Silk fabrics and velvets.

These are usually red-ground with pattern shots made of gold or silver threads, which are in

large repeats of pointed oval patterns, crescents, carnations, tulips or other flowers

in staggered rows. Late 16th and early 17th centuries

There are a number of fantastic Persian silks in the museum, which, although unfortunately mostly only preserved in fragments, give an idea of the immense textile luxury of the Persians at the time of the Safavids. In addition to beautiful bouquets of flowers on a ground covered with gold threads, fabrics with figurative decorations are particularly important here

which illustrate some of the well-known narratives of Persian literature.