Jewellery Meets Textiles: A Historic Relationship
- Date
- 10 Mar 2025 · 6:00PM - 7:00PM
- Price
- Pay what you can (£5 or £10)
- Venue
- Online (via Zoom), UK time
- Programme type
- Talks
Undoubtedly the fashion of jewellery is governed by the fashion of dress. Or would it be more correct to say that the two march together? - The Goldsmiths’ Journal, 1927.
Join art historian and author, Rachel Church, in this online talk exploring the historic relationship between jewellery and textiles. Discover how dress and jewellery go hand in hand as part of the human desire for self-adornment.
Jewellers have reimagined dress accessories such as bows, tassels, and ribbons in gems, metals, and enamels from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. The exploration of materials like platinum, diamonds, and pearls created delicate jewelled laces and collars, fashionable in the late Victorian period. Learn how modern and contemporary makers have continued to take inspiration from textile techniques, incorporating braiding, weaving and texturing to push the boundaries of form, function and materiality.
This talk coincides with the exhibition Interwoven: Jewellery Meets Textiles on view at the Goldsmiths’ Centre from 9 January until 3 April 2025. This show explores the relationship between contemporary jewellery and textiles, through the work of over thirty jewellers, made in the last forty years. To purchase the catalogue, please click here.
Image Credit: Portrait of a Woman, attributed to Jacob-Ferdinand Voet , c. 1659 -1700. Paris Musées - Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.
FAQs:
We run our events in person at the Goldsmiths’ Centre and online, so that as many of our community as possible can exchange ideas, learn from industry experts, and form valuable connections across the UK. We do not record these events, or broadcast them, to encourage the open sharing of ideas and experiences and preserve confidentiality. Popular topics will be repeated over time.
Who is the speaker?
Rachel Church has written and lectured widely on jewellery history and design. She is the author of 'Rings' (V&A/ Thames and Hudson 2011 and 2017) and 'Brooches and Badges' (V&A/ Thames and Hudson 2019). She has worked as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum and was part of the team which redeveloped the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery.