Corporate conservation in the city at Bloomberg

In 2018, the year after Bloomberg London opened, ZTC was asked to set up a programme of condition checking, surface cleaning and ongoing collections care advice for the contemporary textile artworks commissioned for and permanently installed in the building. Our survey work has mainly focused on two large scale works – the vast tripart industrial …

Bateman’s curtains

Two incredibly fragile early 20th Century Indian phulkari embroidered cotton curtains from Rudyard Kipling’s study at National Trust property Bateman’s were recently conserved at our studio. It is fascinating to think that Kipling wrote many of his most famous works in this study with his beautiful Sussex countryside view framed by these curtains. The curtains …

Conservation of the Manchester smoking jacket

Treatment is now complete on a decadent aubergine silk man’s smoking jacket from Manchester Art Gallery for their exhibition Dandy Style opening on 4th February 2021.  The conservation was undertaken by Jamie Robinson and was generously funded by the Costume Society’s own Elizabeth Hammond Conservation Grant to ensure the jacket’s longevity on and after display. …

Charleston: Orlando at the Present Time

Charleston’s inaugural exhibition held in the Wolfson Galleries opened in September 2018 with ‘Orlando at the Present Time’, marking the 90 years since the first publication of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography.  The exhibition included contemporary interpretations alongside rarely seen letters, photographs and objects connected to the original publication of the novel.  Also on …

Brighton Museum: a magnetic display

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery has a truly exceptional world cultures collection. Following the success of the multi-platformed Fashioning Africa project, a national programme aimed at supporting community partners to research and explore museum collections, the museum has continued to work cross-continent to display objects from the collection within in their indigenous communities. The ZTC …

Dressed For Best: conserving couture, restoring its Worth

Charles Frederick Worth was the Lincolnshire designer who dominated the Paris fashion scene in the latter part of the nineteenth century, otherwise known as the ‘father of haute couture’. [1] It is a rare treat to have such sartorial history pass through your hands and so I was delighted to have the opportunity to work on …

A Multi- Coloured Mission – Keeping the Canterbury Colours in Flight

Part one – January 2017 Shortly before Christmas we got an extra special delivery to the Brighton studio; a collection of 39 Canterbury Cathedral colours, predominantly from The East Kent Regiment Buffs Chapel and some from one of the cathedral Transepts.  The Buff’s Chapel is currently closed for cleaning and the flags’ necessary removal for …