Coat with tooled leather and buckle 1996, Hungary, 2002.06.001
With winter storms and sub-zero temperatures in Wisconsin, we’re featuring a warm woolen coat for this week’s Textile Tuesday. This beautiful piece is on display until April 14 as part of the Design Gallery show Appliqué to Zardozi: A Celebration Sampler. Warm up with a visit to the gallery to see more treasures from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.
“The beauty of the textile collection is that it is not just pieces of cloth; it is textiles in action as clothing, accessories, and applications within a culture,” describes Mark Nelson, Professor, MArch Department of Design Studies, UW-Madison. “I love the set of closures that include buckles and buttons, which remind us that textiles are part of a larger system.”
This large, dense black felted wool and rayon blend coat is long and boxy with wide straight sleeves, a center back vent, and a large square collar. It is lined in black cotton and closes with a decorative black leather strap and gold metal buckle at chest.
It is decorated with light brown roundels and ogee shapes on the forearms, collar and underarms.
Bands of light brown felt are found above the hem, finishing off the cuffs, and among other motifs.
Discover more about this piece.
#TextileTuesday is a yearlong series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.
In 2019, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Human Ecology launched a yearlong anniversary celebration of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. Over the past half century, the collection has grown from an original 4,000-piece gift to more than 13,000 objects that have inspired and informed thousands of students, researchers, historians, and textile aficionados. The 50-year celebration began on January 27, 2019, with the opening of new Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, a space dedicated to year-round displays of the collections. Activities continue into 2019 with a calendar of public exhibitions, symposia, lectures, and public workshops.