Textiles, Trade and Taste – Portugal and the World (TTT): a project on the global circulation of textiles and dyes

Textiles, Trade & Taste: Portugal and the World (TTT) is a project that aspires to bring new synergies to the field of textile studies by promoting different connections and interdisciplinary approaches involving art history, materials science, and conservation. The TTT research network is based at the Center for Humanities in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and organizes workshops, conferences, tours, and lectures in museums and research institutions. The network’s artistic and historical research has ranged from collating archival material to stylistic and iconographic studies, with the aim of placing textile objects in their historical, artistic, technological, and sociocultural contexts. Chemical analysis and characterization of dyes, textile fibers, and precious metal threads have provided important evidence for identifying the origins of raw materials and finished textiles, and for developing improved conservation treatments for their preservation for future generations. Recent research has examined the global circulation of dyes in the early modern period, especially reds, and also reconstructed the production and consumption of Indian, Chinese, and Portuguese embroideries and Islamic carpets.