Global Textile Encounters

Global Textile Encounters is a fascinating journey into the textiles and clothing cultures of China, India and Europe. The common thread is how fashions and traditions have travelled through space and time. In this richly illustrated anthology, with its 242 images, written both by textile researchers and practitioners as well as scholars from other fields across the globe, we hear of various types of encounters that bring to life a world of interactions and consequences as colourful as the textiles themselves. Among the 33 contributions, we learn of a historian of ancient Roman textiles who has an intellectual epiphany in the streets of modern Iran; how Chinese textile technology changed as a result of encountering textile patterns along the Silk Road; how Maharajahs inspired global pop culture; and the value we ascribe to old clothing. Recurrent themes include how religious praxis is informed by textile encounters; how travelling textiles enable patterns and symbols to be copied onto stone and metals; and textile motifs that acquire other symbolic meanings in their travels and encounters with different societies.