For many years there has been a textile market along the banks of the Rijn (Rhine) here in the historic centre of Leiden. It is held twice a year and there are about forty stalls of varying sizes selling a wide range of cloth, knitting yarns, as well as haberdashery in the form of needles, pins, threads, buttons and zips.
The market did not take place during the various covid lockdowns and I did miss it! Today (Sunday 30th October) it was there again! The weather was glorious and all the cafes along the river were open so it was possible to order tea, coffee and an appelgebak (apple tart), and sit by the waterside surrounded by textiles. Bliss.
The Leiden Stoffenmarkt, 30 October 2022
Willem and I have been walking up and down the market, looking or rather feeling textiles and wondering what I could do with this, that and the other bolt of fabric. There was an enormous quantiy of cloth, some fashionable, some traditional, as well as clothing, furnishing, ‘outdoor’ textiles, and leather (both real and reconstituted forms). We also saw a wide range of woven and printed forms, as well as lace, and indeed a few (machine) embroidered examples.
There was even one stall selling West African-style wax prints, some of which were produced in China, and others were copies (albeit slightly altered) of designs produced under the more famous, Vlisco label. There were many folk and craft-style textiles, even down to a printed version of a crochet, patchwork quilt!
I was actually looking for some textiles that could be used for the TRC’s 5-day Intensive Textile Course and other courses and workshops such as those on basic weave identification and looking at velvet – we go through a lot of cloth as everyone goes home with various samples!
I found several types of material that will be used for the TRC courses and I developed various ideas for a wider range of samples for future events – I took cards from various stall holders and will look online for more cloth, now I have a better idea of what is currently available.
Author at the Stoffenmarkt in Leiden, very early in the morning, 30 October 2022.
And we were not the only ones. The market opened at 10.00 and there were many women (and a few husbands) right from the beginning. An hour later there were hundreds of visitors to the market from all age groups, all with one thing in common, their hands were out in order to touch and feel the cloth on display - the sign of a true textile person!
It is lovely to see that textiles are back in Leiden and are being promoted in many different ways, but much more can to be done to live up to the phrase ‘Leiden, City of Textiles', and yes, the TRC is playing a role in this process by attracting people from all over the world to come to Leiden.
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 30 October 2022
