It started with mysterious messages from the TextielMuseum in Tilburg about a ‘special project’. The Arnhemmers of the Queer Needlework Circle now know exactly what it is all about. They are allowed to embroider flowers for Queen Máxima’s new curtains.
The Queer Needlework Circle, a craft club for and by people from the LGBTQ+-plus community, has only been around since January. And yet the Arnhem (fashion) designers have already been selected for the embroidery on the queen’s new curtains.
The order came in via the Tilburg Textile Museum, says Theodoor Adriaans. He is a fashion designer and initiator of the Arnhem craft club. “We received a number of mysterious messages about a ‘special project’. I thought: probably… It only became clear during an online meeting. Máxima had selected us to make new curtains for the Chinese Hall of Huis ten Bosch. “
It concerns six ecru colored curtains of 4 meters high. The copies that hang there now are “completely at their end”, says Adriaans. Not so crazy. They date from 1790.
The new window coverings have hundreds of embroidered flowers and leaves, just like the old ones: 1350 even. Hence the request to fifteen craft groups, including Vrouwen van Nu from Amsterdam and a day center for refugees from Middelburg, to help. A total of 150 people embroider, including the queen.
Also from Arnhem: the John Frost Bridge
Those flowers are then attached to the curtains in Tilburg, where the meters of fabric are woven and embroidered with icons from the Netherlands. From Arnhem the John Frost Bridge.
The deadline for the 45 Arnhem flowers is approaching. And so Adriaans, together with fashion designer Hans Hutting and three other colleagues, embroiders away. Not very complicated, says Hutting. “If you can handle a needle and thread a bit.” Although they did receive a master class beforehand. The thread followed by mail. Pure silk.
The Arnhemmers are happy with this assignment from the fashion-conscious Máxima. Hutting: “She never wears anything horrible. And she doesn’t hesitate to wear the same thing twice. She appreciates what she has.”