Find the books you have long been looking for, and help support the TRC by buying some of them! 

We are going to have our annual book sale on Saturday 13^th June, from 10.00 until 15.00. Hundreds of second-hand textile, clothing and accessory books will be on sale, at very reduced prices! 

The TRC regularly receives donations of books. We select them en see whether we can use them and whether the titles may already be included in the extensive TRC textile library. If we cannot use the books, we very much want to pass them on to other textiles friends against a low price.

Why don't you pop in and have a look? You may find the book that you have long been looking for. You will also have the chance to see the TRC’s current exhibition about appliqué textiles called khayamiya which come from Egypt, as well as seeing the TRC’s new building and garden, and of course meeting TRC staff and others.

Our address is: Boerhaavelaan 6, 2334 EN Leiden, just behind the Leiden Central Railway Station.

The Textile Research Centre, Leiden.For three years starting mid-2026, the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, is offering a total of seven junior and four senior fellowships for up to six months each. The fellowships are being sponsored by the Gieskes-Strijbis Foundation, Amsterdam. Fellows are invited to carry out research based on the TRC’s extensive textiles and dress collection. The junior fellows will be supervised and assisted by TRC staff; senior fellows will carry out independent research.

The TRC will regularly advertise for the fellowships. Fellows are selected by a special committee of TRC staff and/or Board members after, if appropriate, the advice of external specialists.

The first fellow, appointed per 1 April, is Flora Kovacs-Wester, who on 23 May 2026 wrote an interim report.

We are now opening the second round of the fellowships that covers:

• Two junior positions
• One senior position

These will be starting in October 2026 (with a degree of flexibility), for a duration of up to 6 months. Applications for these positions should be submitted by email to the TRC by 20 June 2026 (Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.)  with the reference: ‘Fellowship programme Junior/ Senior' (depending on the position applied for).

In diverse recente blogs hebben we verwezen naar de behoefte van het TRC aan extra opslagruimte voor de TRC-collectie. We hebben meer informatie beloofd en die volgt nu!

Voorzijde van pand Boerhaavelaan 6, het nieuwe onderkomen van het TRC. De Annex wordt links van het huis geplaatst.

Zoals u wellicht weet, is het TRC Leiden een internationaal kenniscentrum voor textiel dat onlangs is verhuisd naar een nieuw pand (Boerhaavelaan 6, Leiden) dankzij de hulp van de Leidse gemeente, de semi-overheidsorganisatie Monumentenbezit en vele anonieme weldoeners.

Het gebouw (B6) is een stadsvilla uit circa 1909, die in de jaren twintig werd uitgebreid. Het was bijna honderd jaar lang de woning van één familie, de Barge-Nauta's (zie een recent TRC-blogbericht).

Het TRC beheert momenteel een collectie van meer dan 54.000 geregistreerde textiel-, kleding- en accessoirestukken. De collectie omvat objecten van over de hele wereld (cultuur en textiel kennen geen kunstmatige grenzen), daterend van de prehistorie tot heden. We hebben bijvoorbeeld enkele van de oudste textielfragmenten ter wereld, maar ook moderne objecten die actuele gebeurtenissen en trends weerspiegelen.

De collectie is een van de grootste in dit deel van Europa, en we zijn ons er terdege van bewust dat deze in de toekomst verder zal groeien. Het is een collectie die mensen kunnen bekijken, aanraken en voelen, en waar ze inspiratie uit kunnen putten.

The Spring 2026 issue (No. 227) of the international magazine HALI includes a six-page article, with some splendid photographs, explaining the creation of The Atlas of World Embroidery (Princeton University Press, Febr. 2026). The article and book were written by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, director of the TRC. A Dutch version of the book, Atlas van de Borduurkunst, came out on the same date and was published by WBooks.

The article is published on pp. 228-229, 230-231, and 232-233.

HALI Vol. 227, 2026, pp. 228-229.

The move to Boerhaavelaan 6 is nearly finished, just a few more weeks and all the rebuilding, painting, furnishing, packing and putting away of boxes will be over! A great relief to all.

I would just like to extend a big ‘Thank You’ to everyone who has made a donation to the TRC moving fund. It made such a difference to have your support, best wishes and interest in what we are doing and plan to do. Please feel free to come and see what you have helped to create - the new and improved TRC is an elegant, early 20th century town villa!

Inevitably, we continue looking for help with different projects, and any further financial assistance will be greatly appreciated.

The TRC will open again to the public on Monday 11th May, but in the meantime, workshops, study days and lectures are already being presented. And I can assure you, there is lots more to come!.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC, 4 April 2026.

Yesterday, Friday 20th March, the rental contract for Boerhaavelaan 6 was signed between the owners, the Stichting Monumentenbezit, and the TRC! This may be one small step for mankind, but it is one large step for TRC’s plans for becoming the international hub for textile and dress studies and for making Leiden into the ‘City of Textile Knowledge’ a reality! 

Photograph, from left to right: Mark van den Bos, Director Monumentenbezit, Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC and Prof. Bas ter Haar Romeny, Chair of the TRC Board.

An extensive programme of research, events, and textile outreach is being organised for this year and indeed for the years to come. And the signing of the contract is a very significant moment for us all.

The new premises of the TRC, from the back garden.Robert Spiegelman is an American friend of the TRC who has been visiting Leiden and the TRC for some years, and has been supporting our work in many ways.  Here is his personal appeal:

I am a huge, and hugely unlikely supporter of the TRC.

Let me explain. I am an American who loves Leiden and spends more than a tenth of my time there every year. A few years back, my curiosity was peaked. I had read about the TRC and while cycling by I met Gillian. It was truly inspirational. She gave me a tour, told me about their work, explained the plan/intention to go from an “academic volunteer run knowledge center” in a nondescript street front location to become everything it could be, a fully professionally run organization and an internationally recognized expert and leader. The dedicated group has done an amazing job.

I was impressed and immediately began making contributions to keep the lights on.

Why do I say “unlikely?” While I love Leiden, it is not my home. I have no interest in fashion and while I suppose textiles and textile history are important, neither was an interest of mine. What impressed me was the importance of the work that was being done, the idea that textiles, fashion, and the textile trade could be used to trace changes in civilization worldwide for several centuries. The parallels are fascinating.

Dutch national newspaper Trouw published a review by Els de Baan of the Dutch edition of the Atlas of Embroidery / Atlas van de Borduurkunst, written by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and published last week by Princeton University Press and (in Dutch) by WBooks.

You can read the review (in Dutch) by clicking here.