iTechnisches Museum Wien (Vienna Technical Museum)Penzing
Tec/xtil
Fibre, function, fashion: a special exhibition taking clothing textiles apart into fibres, yarns and fabrics, from 19th-century objects to today's overproduction and textile waste.
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Act one opens on red Austro-Hungarian cavalry breeches, with every step that made them laid out around them, from harvesting fibre to dyeing and sewing. At one station you can hear a hand spindle, a treadle spinning wheel and an industrial spinning machine.
The show is staged as a play in three acts: about 400 objects on nearly 900 m², with a fabric curtain between acts. Act two is 15 cabinets set out like wardrobes, where a woman's fez meets a Sulmtal straw hat. Two short intermissions on dressing and undressing run from the Fall to a Nirvana album cover. Act three, on fast fashion, ends on an unworn evening dress, price tag attached, that TU Wien researchers found in Chile's Atacama Desert. The museum is at 212 Mariahilfer Straße, so walking back into town afterwards means a lot of price tags.
News.at notes that the dense text is broken up by many hands-on stations. It's included in the €18 museum ticket, and under-19s get in free.
Editor's pick
Clothing textiles taken apart into fibres, yarns and fabrics, from 19th-century objects to today's overproduction and textile waste: the long version of the care label in your jumper.
Look for
The red cavalry breeches
Act one follows a pair of Austro-Hungarian cavalry breeches back through every production step, from raw fibre and yarn to dyeing and the final seams.
The spinning sound station
Listen to a hand spindle, a treadle spinning wheel, a cotton ring spindle and an industrial spinning machine, one after another.
The exploded bra
A bra taken apart into its more than 30 separate pieces, shown next to Jacquard punch-card weaving systems from the 19th century.
The wardrobe cabinets
Fifteen wardrobe-like cabinets packed with objects, where an 1837 Sulmtal straw hat with silk ribbons shares space with a woman's fez, a top hat and a balaclava.
The Atacama dress
An evening dress that was never worn, price tag still on, found by TU Wien researchers sampling textile waste in Chile's Atacama Desert.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
- Teenagers
With kids
Under-19s get in free. On set dates a 60-minute family tour for ages 7 to 12 has kids prepare wool, spin it into yarn and try weaving.
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Image credits
5
- Tec/xtilCourtesy of Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna Technical Museum)
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- Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna Technical Museum)C.Stadler/Bwag, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0