Silk Culture at “Fashion World“ in the Mennonite Church
At the „Fashion World“ in the Mennonite Church on the Königstrasse the theme was “From silkworm to silk thread“. “Whilst models paraded in sumptuous fabrics on the catwalks in the town, we demonstrated how silk is made“, says museum educationalist, Dr. Ulrike Denter, who was responsible for the Haus der Seidenkultur (HdS) project in the church.
There it was also possible to watch an embroiderer practising the lost art of pattern embroidery. Splendid liturgical vestments which were once produced at the Hubert Gotzes ecclesiastical weaving workshop were also on display.
The Krefeld-based ecclesiastical textile and silk weaving workshop F.X. Dutzenberg provided a contemporary chasuble, stole and smaller framed brocade items for the exhibition.
Workshops for children in which they could colour their own tie or make their own creation with silkworm cocoons rounded off the HdS contribution to “Fashion World”. “This was all presented at a historic location in the Silk and Velvet Town,” says Dr. Ulrike Denter, recalling the fact that the Mennonites, as it were, set the foundations for the economic development of the textile town more than 400 years ago.
From silkworm to silk thread: Visitors to the Mennonite church could experience this journey as the silk thread was unwound from the cocoon.