‘150 Years of the Royal School of Needlework: Crown to Catwalk’. Fashion and Textile Museum, London, UK, 1 April 2022–4 September 2022

Abstract

Centred on the work of the Royal School of Needlework (RSN), this exhibition showcased the diversity and versatility of technical hand embroidery over the last 150 years (Fig. 1). The RSN is well known amongst craftspeople and needlework enthusiasts, as well as scholarly and professional audiences, but this exhibition sought to re-introduce the non-profit organisation to the wider public by displaying material culture of its history, body of work and achievements. The exhibition was spread across an introductory room on the ground floor, a wider open gallery and upper floor displays. Across these spaces, the objects and accompanying text and multimedia displays were organised clearly into sections, which roughly followed the chronological development of the RSN. The first two areas tracked the historical founding of the School and its first few decades, as well as the purpose of the School and the nature of the work. The next four spaces tracked some of the School’s work, mostly over the twentieth century, which included two royal showpieces, ecclesiastic work, the connection between embroidery and the military, and the ‘In the Boudoir’ section, which addressed the use of embroidery in intimate items. The last four sections took the exhibition to contemporary times, explaining the School’s modern educational role, as well as artistic collaborations and current offered learning opportunities. The first room firmly established that the School’s founder, Lady Victoria Welby, intended the School to ‘revive a beautiful art which had fallen into disuse and, through its revival, to provide employment for educated women who, without a suitable livelihood, would otherwise find themselves compelled to live in poverty’. Using her position within the aristocracy and her economic power, Lady Welby was able to found a School that, through effective marketing such as publishing in Victorian women’s magazines, and royal endorsement, was able to provide education and employment for women for over 150 years. Many displays included work of embroiderers who were trained and stayed in the School for all of their working life, including the original diploma of Ruby Essam, who trained in 1915 and remained in the School for over sixty years. After a brief introduction to the history of the School, the exhibition moves towards its two showpieces, the mantle or pallium for King Edward VII from 1902 and the robe of estate of Queen Elizabeth (Queen Consort of King George VI) from 1937 (Fig. 2). These two pieces exhibited extraordinary embroidery work due to the intricacy of the design, their status as the highest of court wear, and the large amounts of fabric embroidered. They were displayed in a central case with glass windows so that the garments could be viewed from 360 degrees. The positioning of the mantle was particularly striking and displayed its length to the best advantage. It also positioned the shoulder-to-floor