Rough Hands, Delicate Silk – Silk-Ribbon Weaving around Basel is the name of our new permanent exhibit at the Therwil farmhouse. There is no better way to learn about silk-ribbon weaving from the 16th century, through industrialization, to its decline.

Fashion without silk ribbons was unthinkable right up to the 1950s. They adorned hats, coats, dresses, even hair slides. To begin with, most were woven on looms in the living rooms of farming families in Basel-Land, and later in factories. Farmers at the time had to find an alternative source of income because their soil was so poor. After the depression and the World War, fashions became simpler and farmers’ rough hands eventually ceased to produce these fine ribbons.