The rustle of taffeta: the value of hapticity in research and reconstruction of an eighteenth-century sack-back dress

Roberts, Debra (2018) The rustle of taffeta: the value of hapticity in research and reconstruction of an eighteenth-century sack-back dress. In: The erotic cloth: seduction and fetishism in textiles. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 61-72. ISBN 9781474281737

Abstract

As a collector of historical fabrics, which I use to inspire my own textile designs, I am seduced both by the material, the look, the touch, and the hidden narrative and histories of these fabrics. The physical experience of making and re-making conjures these indelible histories from the fabric confines. Fragments of old cloth connect us to the past, while the haptic, corporeal exploration enables us to discover not only how things were made, but to appreciate their lived embodied histories. This chapter is material-focused research that communicates the “secrets” of cloth, which reveal its stories by using the sensations of touch and emotion.

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