Te Papa’s textile conservator Anne Peranteau runs through the process involved in preparing a much-loved garment for public display. In March, the exhibition When Dreams Turn to Gold: The Benson and Hedges Fashion Design Awards will open at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery (DPAG). The Benson & Hedges event was New Zealand’s premier fashionRead more

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Conservator Anne Peranteau visited Broadgreen, an historic house in the Stoke neighborhood, to give some advice on the display and storage of collection items. Anne tells us about some of her favourite items in the Broadgreen collections.  Last month I filled my suitcase with my tricks of the trade and headed to Nelson.Read more

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Intern Keira Miller in the lab, preparing materials for dyeing. Photo by A. Peranteau, copyright Te Papa.

Have you ever thought about the history of the humble pocket?  This past winter, Keira Miller, an intern from the University of Glasgow’s Center for Textile Conservation, helped us with the treatment of some detachable 18th century pockets for the exhibition European Splendour 1500-1800.   Keira writes about the importance of pocketsRead more

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The sheer Versace day dress at far right (GH013642), on display in April 2001 alongside three other Versace dresses in Te Papa's collection.

Catwalk glamour This week I’ve been working on couture garments that are destined for display at Expressions in Upper Hutt. The Catwalk to Cover exhibition will include fashions from Te Papa’s collection by international and New Zealand designers alongside photographs that capture the dynamism, creativity and glamour that epitomize theRead more

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Textile conservator Anne Peranteau, and costume mount maker Sam Gatley describe the process of preparing two 18th century dresses for display in an exhibition. Historic dress, historic problems Anne Peranteau – In 1951, Te Papa was given three 18th century dresses, all dating to approximately 1780. Our work in the textile labRead more

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Dance garment, c. 1900, Malawi (Chewa culture), Photograph by Kate Whitley. Copyright Te Papa MA_I.374711

Witchy tale In 1936, the Dominion Museum was given a gift so rare and strange that it made the news.  Described in the Auckland Star and in museum records as a “witch doctor’s outfit”, the garment was subsequently displayed for many years in the Buckle St building that opened thatRead more

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Recently I completed a two year project to conserve a unique Micronesian textile.  It was such a pleasure to get acquainted with this very rare object with distinctive features–I was amazed to see that the colour changes in the patterned end of the cloth had been created by either interlinking or knotting  warps of two colours together (photomicrograph image below),Read more

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Hopefully many of you have seen or plan to see our newest Eyelights gallery exhibition that opened on the 24th of September.  Uniformity: Cracking the Dress Code  features uniforms worn in various contexts—school, church, battlefield, rugby field, and even those worn on the street.  A previous post about Uniformity talkedRead more

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As an art conservation student, I was frequently encouraged by my tutors to think of my profession as a three-legged stool—a platform supported by the three disciplines of connoisseurship, fine arts, and science.   Understanding the science of how materials age is critical for being able to slow down deterioration.  In addition,Read more

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Many of the kākahu on display in Te Papa’s Kahu Ora exhibition are contemporary works that serve as fantastic examples of the vitality of raranga as an art form.  During preparation of the items for display, as we dressed them on mannequins and cloak forms, we had the special opportunity to workRead more

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