As highlighted by The New York Times last week, Peter Pap is presenting an exhibition and sale called “Treasured Weavings: The Mae Festa Textile Collection” at the 1stDibs gallery in New York. Read the article here, and view the collection here. Pictured above is an Ottoman silk fragment from the 16th century (shown cropped).

Several weeks ago I quietly debuted my new Dering Hall storefront; as of today I’m officially opening its (virtual) doors! The completing addition is the first batch in a collection of vintage Indo European batiks from the studio of IndoArts. These textiles are amazing works of both artistry and craftsmanship — and just like the other items represented, they combine color, texture and composition in captivating ways. So without further adieu, I’m happy to report that the Fibercopia storefront now includes products from:

Adam + Viktoria (represented by Lisa Fontanarosa)

Tony Kitz

IndoArts

Edit (represented by Studio Four NYC)

Enjoy!

Here’s a truly inspiring artifact of textile design history: an album by Englishman James Leman (1688-1745) containing “97 designs for fine silk cloth”. The Victoria & Albert Museum (who now owns the portfolio) has provided tantalizing highlights from select pages on their website, here. Looking at the pages gives fresh new color (literally) to my concept of the 18th century.

It’s always exciting to stumble upon new pockets of textile design history; today it’s Atelier Martine. Here’s a synopsis of the studio as written by FIDM:

…Paul Poiret also established the Atelier Martine in 1911. Comprised of young girls without formal artistic training, the Atelier Martine functioned both as a design laboratory and workshop. Students were sent out into the world to find inspiration for textile designs, which were critiqued by both Poiret himself and visiting artists. The hope was that these untrained students would create unique designs, unfettered by ideas about design and artistic traditions. Some of the resulting designs were turned into yardage, which was then used in Poiret-designed garments or for home decoration.

Click here for an earlier post (and more information) on Poiret.

The website for Mark Sublette’s Medicine Man Gallery offers an amazing visual overview of Native American textiles and provides a glimpse at the steep prices attached to this highly collectible market. Many of the graphically bold works, like the 19th century Navajo blanket (partially) pictured above, are ripe for contemporary inspiration and application.

An afternoon visit to The Metropolitan Museum’s recently reopened Islamic art galleries has left visions of beautiful textiles spinning inside my head. The textile fragment above (from Turkey, circa 1600-1625) is especially striking for its “modern” approach to pattern design, abstraction and scale — never mind that it’s 400 years old!

Though a bit further into the fashion world than I usually venture, I still am excited to be learning about Abraham fabrics for the first time. Last winter the company was celebrated in a comprehensive exhibition at the Swiss National Museum and in April a two-volume book on the company’s history and extensive archives was published. The site Little Augury is a great place to learn more.

A close-up of one of the company’s countless swatch books is pictured above, via Couleur Blind.

Bauhaus student Gunta Stolzl was a weaver and textile designer whose productive artistic career spanned more than five decades. Her work and life are summarized nicely here.

Via Not Keren.

Events in Japan weigh heavily, not only for the well-being of all those directly involved in the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, but for what these events say about our collective human plight. The textile above isn’t Japanese, but was made in India in the late 17th / early 18th century for the Japanese market. It’s a small reminder of the long history of our global interconnectedness. Here’s a link to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s database entry on the piece.  (It’s referred to as a “length of Sarasa”, a term I’m not familiar with.)

This carpet (shown in cropped form above) could easily pass as the creation of some hip new carpet company;  in truth it’s performed the amazing trick of being over 80 years old.

For sale at Rahmanan Antique & Decorative Rugs. Read more about its Chinese Art Deco history here.