Wednesday 13 June 2012

Book Thoughts - Textiles Today: A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions by Chloë Colchester


To start with I found this book really hard going. I could tell that there were wonderful pictures to browse through but thought that the text was going to be long, airy-fairy, 'artsy-speak' and irrelevant. I found it extremely difficult to properly understand the introductory section and felt like it was written in the way that students write to make up a word count!

I persevered however and soon got into the writing. In each section the language is easier to understand and gives plenty to think about for both textiles and the pieces that are shown in the imagery. I think the way different aspects of textiles are examined is a good structure but feel like the text goes from very detailed to very general in strange ways and the book ends rather abruptly!

I hugely enjoyed the parts of the book that explored future-textiles with scientific breakthroughs explored and also ways that fabrics are helping less developed parts of the world. Its nice to see that the author explored how very scientifically advanced fabrics can help the planet rather than poo-pooing anything that is not taking things back to our roots or historic farming/production methods.

At the end of the book I re-read the introductory section - I understood a bit better but still found it difficult going! Perhaps when I know textiles as a subject better I'll find it easier!

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