The Museum of Folklore and Imagination in Tournai invites you to discover its new exhibition: “Starch and Fine Lace: The Textile Skills and Daily Lives of Women in the 19th Century,” a sensitive and well-documented journey that immerses visitors in the gestures, techniques, and social realities that shaped the lives of women in Tournai and its region.
The exhibition begins with fabric and hosiery production, showcasing meticulous craftsmanship where every gesture counts. It continues with the training of young girls, who were introduced to sewing, embroidery, and crochet from an early age—essential skills in the domestic economy.
The exhibition then explores laundry care, revealing the evolution of washing and ironing techniques, combining ingenuity, effort, and gradual modernization. Finally, the last section focuses on fashion and its transformations, which have alternately corseted, disciplined, and then liberated the female body.
In the epilogue, the work of young artist Lily Pin offers a contemporary perspective: through her creations based on recycling and the hybridization of children's and women's fashion, she questions the memory of textiles, their ability to reinvent themselves and to tell other possible stories.