For thousands of years men and women have made, worn, traded, and admired various forms of decorative needlework, from small daintily embroidered handkerchiefs to giant gold embroidered texts that bedeck the kiswah in Mecca. Decorative needlework was and remains a feature of life throughout the world. The TRC is currently being engaged in the setting up and writing of a digital encyclopaedia called TRC Needles, which covers this enormous field of human creativity, focussing in particular on appliqué, beading, darned knotting, embroidery, needle lace making, passementerie, patchwork and quilting. The encyclopaedia includes data about different forms from all over the world, from the Americas to Asia. It looks at the earliest surviving examples from ancient Egypt to present-day forms, with an emphasis on handmade examples rather than industrially produced items.

TRC Needles includes references to tools and materials, to iconography, the uses of decorative needlework, to influential people and makers, historical examples, relevant institutions, paintings or similar imagery that depicts decorative needlework. The encyclopaedia also discusses relevant references in various forms of literature, as well as relevant details relating to economic and social history.

For TRC Needles, click here 

The Textile Research Centre (TRC) now has a collection of almost nine thousand garments and accessories acquired over a 20 year period. These garments and textiles range in date from over sevend thousand years ago to yesterday. The collection includes outfits, clothing and accessories for men, women and children. It is seen as an inclusive, not exclusive, collection.

Because the TRC is primarily a research institute and not a traditional museum, we encourage the collection of modern traditional garments and not just items that are 'old.' The development of dress and identity does not stop at one particular date. To only collect and present old garments (not to use the highly debatable word 'authentic')  is to give a false image of any culture. Initially, it was decided to concentrate on Middle Eastern dress. However, as more and more students started to use the TRC's facilities it was agreed that we should expand the collection range to include the whole world, regardless of culture or chronological boundaries.
  

The TRC collects textiles and objects related to dress, such as clothing and accessories (including footwear, headgear, jewellery, bags, walking sticks, etc), for men, women and children.

It does not collect textiles or objects such as soft furnishings (curtains, bed linen, cushions, etc), carpets, rugs, flat-weave mats, farm equipment made of cloth, etc. Nor can we accept large items of textile production equipment (looms, etc), due to the lack of suitable space.

If anyone has any suitable garments, accessories or textiles, which they no longer want and would be prepared to donate to the TRC, could they please contact the TRC at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

 "Begin with yourself" can be a frightening, but at the same time challenging concept. In order to look at the dress of other cultures it is essential to look at the dress worn here in north-western Europe, and more specially, in our case, in the Netherlands. At the end of 2006 the TRC decided that it should collect Dutch dress. But what is meant by Dutch dress?