The Bowers Museum will unveil its newest major exhibition, “Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution,” on December 13. The show highlights how India’s painted and printed cottons—celebrated for their vivid colors, intricate patterns, and innovative craftsmanship—reshaped art, fashion, and global trade across centuries.
Featuring masterpieces from the world-renowned Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) collection alongside key international loans, this original ROM-organized exhibition traces India’s long legacy of textile artistry. Visitors will explore how, for thousands of years, Indian artisans perfected the making of multicolored cotton fabrics used to adorn bodies, honor deities, and decorate homes and palaces.
Through exquisite examples and engaging storytelling, “Global Threads” considers India’s textile innovations and their major influences on fashion, trade, and industry around the world in locales such as Cairo, Japan, Sumatra, London, and Ottawa.
Coveted as luxury items and scientific marvels, these fabrics drew traders and explorers to India’s shores and sparked revolutions in design and industry worldwide.
The exhibition also connects past to present, showcasing how contemporary Indian designers and craftspeople continue to reinterpret these traditions for modern audiences. With its sweeping global perspective and vibrant artistry, “Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution” invites visitors to discover how cloth became a catalyst for cultural exchange—and changed the world.
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