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UAL Research Online

The Interpretation of Surface: Boundaries, Systems and Their Transgression in Clothing and Domestic Textiles, c. 1880-1939

Kelley, Victoria (2009) The Interpretation of Surface: Boundaries, Systems and Their Transgression in Clothing and Domestic Textiles, c. 1880-1939. Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, 7 (2). pp. 216-235. ISSN 14759756

Type of Research: Article
Creators: Kelley, Victoria
Description:

This article examines the surface qualities of textile objects in the 1880 to 1939 period, analyzing representations and descriptions of both highly finished and maintained textile surfaces, and degraded and ill-maintained garments. It is argued that the finishing techniques applied in manufacture were carefully replicated in domestic processes, and that qualities of surface and finish in textiles were important both materially and symbolically in the stratified social systems of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Theoretical insights from Julia Kristeva and Mary Douglas are used to understand the meanings of textile objects in use and wear, in their relationship to the bodies that wore them, and in the processes of maintenance to which they were subjected.

Official Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/journal/textile/
Additional Information (Publicly available):

This paper has been reprinted in Catherine Harper (ed.), Textiles: critical and primary sources, Bloomsbury, London, 2012

Keywords/subjects not otherwise listed: textiles, surface, finishing processes, boundaries, social history
Publisher/Broadcaster/Company: Berg
Your affiliations with UAL: Colleges > Central Saint Martins
Research Groups > Fashion Curation
Date: July 2009
Digital Object Identifier: 10.2752/175183509X460100
Date Deposited: 27 Jan 2014 15:19
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2016 17:08
Item ID: 6290
URI: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/6290

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