Join Elena Kanagy-Loux, Collections Specialist at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as she talks about 16th- and 17th-century European portraiture in which elaborate lace bursts forth from the collars and cuffs of the nobility like otherworldly blossoms.
How did these striking accessories come into fashion, and who were the makers, merchants, and laundresses involved in their production and maintenance? Early modern Flanders was renowned not only for its masterful painters, but also for a flourishing needle and bobbin lace industry, which began in the mid-16th century. By the 17th century, Flemish lacemaking was described as the “finest and most profitable trade” in the region, building great fortunes and inspiring international espionage. Taking several portraits in the exhibition Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks as its starting point, this talk will bring to light the little-known stories of Flemish women and girls whose resplendent and skilled work adorned the throats of royalty.
Kanagy-Loux is a descendent of the Amish and grew up between the U.S. and Japan, where she was immersed in both traditional Mennonite craft and the DIY fashion scene in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood. After receiving her BFA in Textile Design from FIT, she won a grant that funded a four-month trip to study lacemaking across Europe in 2015. Upon returning to New York, she co-founded the Brooklyn Lace Guild, an organization dedicated to the preservation of lacemaking, and began teaching bobbin lace classes at the Textile Arts Center. In 2018 she completed her MA in Costume Studies at NYU, where she based her thesis on interviews with lacemakers that she conducted on her European travels. Currently, she is the Collections Specialist at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This program is part of the exhibition Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks; to view the exhibition before the talk, please purchase tickets here.
IMAGES: Photo: Rose Callahan; Portrait of a Young Woman (details), 1613. Artist unknown. Oil paint on panel; 52 x 40 in. © The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp.