Threads of Life: Greek Textiles Through the Centuries | Seminars 2021
Presenter: Kathryn Gauci
Seminar Synopsis:
From the Minoans to Modern Greece, textiles in all forms, from cloth manufacture, costume, home textiles, and embroidery, have played a vital role in Greek society. During this presentation, the major influences that have affected the changes through the centuries, from war to social changes, to the influx of the Asia Minor Greeks after the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 will be explored.
The way Greek culture, particularly Classical Greece, has impacted other European countries will also be examined. The influence of Greek sculptural ideals are well-known, and the important archeological discoveries of the mid-late 19th Century led to the revival of Classicism, which was a major influence, not only decorative style and fashion, but on health too. A few years later, 20th Century fashion designers such as Mariano Fortuny and Madame Grès, took on these Grecian aesthetic ideals with its freedom of movement with gusto.
Bio:
Kathryn Gauci was born in Leicestershire, England, and studied textile design at Loughborough College of Art and later at Kidderminster College of Art and Design, specialising in carpet design and technology. After graduating, Kathryn moved to Greece where she worked as a carpet designer in Athens for six years. She later moved to Melbourne and ran her own textile design studio for over fifteen years; work which she enjoyed tremendously as it allowed her the luxury of travelling worldwide, often taking her off the beaten track and exploring other cultures. Kathryn is now a full-time author of Historical Fiction and has written five books set in Greece. The Embroiderer is her first novel; a culmination of those wonderful years of design and travel, and especially of those glorious years in her youth living and working in Greece – a place that she is proud to call her spiritual home. It has also been translated into Greek – Η κεντήστρα της Σμύρνης
Sponsors
We thank Jenny Proimos and Geoffrey Conaghan for the kind donations that make seminars like this possible.
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