York Museums Trust Blog

Victorian handkerchief, Castle Museum Collection

The Victorian football handkerchief

The print has faded now but when new it would have been bright red and purple.
Handkerchiefs like this one were popular cheap gifts and there are over 250 in the Costume and Textile collection. Some are commemoratives celebrating royal events, others have printed maps, songs, poems and even political slogans.
A football kit in 1890 looked very different! Here you can see players wearing a flannelette shirt buttoned or laced up the front, flannel knickerbockers, thick socks and study lace up boots. Goalkeepers wore thicker wool jerseys. In this game, players from one team sport small school like caps, sometimes these were made out of velvet.

Seven months after our stunning exhibition Japanese Sashiko Textiles closed here at York Art Gallery, it has just opened at the final venue on its tour at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery.

I made the long train journey down to Devon last week to help with the installation. Opening each crate and lifting out the incredible garments – from work coats to Japanese slippers called tabi – it was like being reacquainted with old friends. I’ve done condition checks of these clothes 5 times now and every loose stitch, patch and mouse-eaten hole is familiar to me. It’s a thrill to see the faces of those people who are seeing these objects in the flesh for the first time after looking at digital images for months.

I’m sure people in the south west will be as bowled over by the exhibition as everyone was in Yorkshire and Glasgow. Organising this exhibition has been filled with highs and lows and I will have very mixed feelings when the loans finally return to Japan in October.

The exhibition at Plymouth runs until 25^th September and you can download the free publication at www.sashiko.org.uk