Workshop no. 29: Common Thread: Immersive Japanese Textiles with Andrea Aranow

On a rainy and cool Sunday afternoon in October, an undeterred group of Philadelphia’s finest textile aficionados gathered in our store for a special lecture and demonstration on the history of Japanese kimono presented by textile expert Andrea Aranow.

Andrea visited us from her native New York with a presentation and a wide selection of fabric swatches in tow. Using images from the digital archive of her collection (Textile Hive), she showed detailed examples of the patterns and designs that characterized kimono garments throughout the 20th century. The focus of the lecture centered around practical and popular kimono of this period and looked at how Western influences began to change the style of forward-thinking women living in metropolitan areas throughout Japan. It was an eye-opening lecture that truly came to life during a hands-on examination and discussion of Andrea’s vintage swatches.

Thank you to Andrea, and all of our students for attending! See photos from the event below.

About Andrea Aranow

Andrea Aranow is a designer, ethnographer, and entrepreneur with an encyclopedic knowledge of textiles arts. She started her career outfitting the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis in New York City before setting out to travel the world, studying and collecting handmade textiles from the farthest corners of the Earth. Her massive collection (Textile Hive) is comprised of over 40,000 pieces that are both for sale, and available as an invaluable resource for fashion houses like Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Kenzo, and Uniqlo.