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Judith Praska Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture with Denyse Montegut

"Modern Textiles: Innovations and Challenges"

Textile production methods changed little between the Late Bronze Age and the nineteenth century.  
Fiber sourcing and processing may have become more streamlined, looms more mechanically capable, but textiles were still produced using natural fibers woven into much the same technical structures until the beginning of the twentieth century.

This presentation will explore how the concept of “making” fibers, rather than shearing or harvesting them, began a swift progression of revolutionary products that have changed our relationship to textiles and clothing. Twentieth-century advances in polymer chemistry supported the invention of new generations of technically complicated fibers -- from synthetics to bicomponent, micro- and nano-fibers. These innovations, now (and soon to be) appearing in fabrics, have created challenges for the use, collecting and conservation of textiles. 

Denyse Montegut is a textile conservator and a leading authority on fiber analysis and identification. Until her retirement in 2021 she was Professor of Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she taught conservation science courses and served as department Chair for 23 years. She has been the consulting textile conservator for the Guggenheim Museum since 1998 and in 2020 she was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Textile Specialty Group of the American Institute for Conservation. Denyse holds a dual B.A. in Mathematics and Art History from Brooklyn College, an M.A. in Art History and a Certificate in Conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is A.B.D. in Art Conservation Research from the University of Delaware.

Apr 27, 2022 06:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)