Stichting Textile Research Centre

The Textile Research Centre (TRC) is a knowledge centre set up in 1991 as an independent foundation. Since 2009 it is housed at Hogewoerd 164, in the centre of historic Leiden, The Netherlands. Here it has the use of an exhibition space, a large depot, offices and workrooms. The basic aim of the TRC is to give the study of textiles, dress, and accessories their proper place in the field of humanities and social sciences, but also in the context of crafts and craft education. The TRC does so by providing courses and lectures, carrying out research and by the presentation of textiles and dress from all over the world. The two main focal points of the TRC are (a) dress and identity: what people wear in order to say who they are and (b) textile crafts and technology, both pre-industrial and industrial.

In order to reach its objectives, the TRC houses various collections, of more than 50,000 items, including a Textile and Garment Collection and a Reference Collection for fibres, threads, dyes, weaves, printed and machine embroidered textiles, and so forth. Most of the objects are photographed, and are available online (open access), with detailed information, In addition, research is aided by the TRC’s library (some 6,500 books, a large collection of articles, as well as visual material such as photographs, prints and postcards). Students, designers and academics come from many countries to Leiden to use the TRC’s facilities and to attend workshops and courses.