Join us online or in person for a seminar with Trish FitzSimons and Madelyn Shaw.

Fleeced: Unraveling the History of Wool and War – an odyssey

Not everything about wool is warm and fuzzy …. The authors ( one Australian, one American) discuss their forthcoming book – Fleeced: Unraveling the History of Wool and War (Rowman & Littlefield/Bloomsbury 2025) – and their joint odyssey to understand the role of wool in wartime,  along the way finding that they were also writing the history of where synthetic textiles came from. The diplomatic, economic, and technological changes wrought in the textile industries by wartime scarcities of wool have contributed to our current environmental crisis of fast fashion and micro plastic pollution. Pulling at threads of family history and exploring objects to reveal nuances of the story are key methods of Fleeced.

11am, 19th March 2025.

Burwood: C2.05.01
Waurn Ponds: IC1.108
Zoom: Click here

Madelyn Shaw is a curator and author specializing in the exploration of American culture and history, and its international connections, through textiles and dress. She has held curatorial and administrative positions at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; New Bedford Whaling Museum; The Textile Museum, Washington DC; and the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City. She has curated more than 50 exhibitions and published widely on topics related to the development of the American textile and fashion industries, the China Trade, Slave Cloth, and Aviation clothing and popular culture.      

Trish FitzSimons is adjunct professor at the Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. She is a documentary filmmaker and exhibition curator with a passion for social and cultural history. Her intellectual and creative interests had not included textile history prior to this shared research project with Madelyn. Letters written by her grandfather 1904 -07 to her great grandparents in Melbourne and associated documents were one impetus to this book. Interview has been a defining component of her practice for the last 40 years, in documentary films, a book and articles,  and exhibitions.