The rich history of Swiss embroidery

There is more to Switzerland than chocolates and watches. It also has a rich legacy of embroidery and lace

- Chaitali Patel

What were you wearing in the first photograph of you that still exists?" reads a plaque in the exhibition titled 100 Shades Of White, capturing the timelessness of the colour white. In a museum wholly dedicated to textiles and the fine art of embroidery and lace, the question doesn't seem out of place.

The evolution of the textile industry, the technical innovations that have shaped it, the human stories involved in producing fabric and embroidery, and the emotions associated with clothing, are all captured and presented in fascinating exhibits that span the multi-storeyed Textile Museum of St. Gallen, a city in the north-eastern corner of Switzerland.

Housed in the Palazzo Rosso, which gets its name from the red brick façade and has a white, perforated metallic strip resembling lace above the entrance, the museum is an ode to St. Gallen's glorious past. With a collection of over 56,000 objects, it's a valuable repository of Swiss textile history, including lace patterns, textiles and embroideries from the Middle Ages to the present day, Egyptian textiles from late antiquity, fashion photographs and illustrations, sample books and garments worn by notable people.