Shawl Exhibition - Past Glories, Present Inspirations

In October, I was able to go to Norwich to see an exhibition of shawls. Norwich was a centre of shawl weaving, and the Norwich Museum has an excellent collection. However, the shawls in this exhibition were all loaned by members of the Norwich Costume and Textiles Association. All were from private collections and not often seen in public.

Norwich Cathedral has a lovely precinct...there was a wedding taking place in a nearby chapel...

The lovely spire...no bells for bellringing, however..

The exhibition was taking place in the Hostry. While I looked at the exhibition, Mike paid £5 to enter the Cathedral to take photos.

Photos not allowed......but I did sneak these two photos.....mannequins with shawls draped, to get a idea how they would have been worn. The earliest shawls were very expensive fashion items, and only affordable to the well-off. As weaving technology improved, patterns and styles evolved. Eventually, in the 1870's, shawls fell out of favour...they did not drape well over bustles and cheap printed cotton shawls made shawls commonplace, hence loosing their former exclusivity.

A paisley shawl.....once, over 50 manufacturers of shawls were to be found in Norwich.

I was able to buy a catalogue....and also a little book on Norwich shawls.

Here are two other books on shawls, one published by the Norwich museum service, the other documenting an American collection of shawls.

I shall have to find out more about shawls....