Early Career and Discovering Passions
Matilda McQuaid completed her master’s degree at the University of Virginia where she studied architectural history and preservation. During one summer in graduate school, Matilda traveled to Washington D.C. and interned in the Women in Architecture archive at the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This internship led to Matilda’s first full time job which lasted for two years.
Following her time at the AIA, Matilda was hired to be a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). At MoMA, Matilda discovered a fascination for high-performance textiles. She traces this interest to a 1956 MoMA exhibition called “Textiles USA.” This exhibition revolved around the manufacturing of textiles in the United States, with a special focus on industrial fabrics, and included a range of textiles such as automobile tire cords, sludge filters, and insulating cloth. After working at MoMA for fifteen years, and curating more than thirty exhibitions, Matilda moved to the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Journey at Cooper Hewitt
In her current role as Deputy Curatorial Director and Head of the Textiles Department at Cooper Hewitt, Matilda is responsible for coordinating both national and international exhibitions. Additionally, she oversees one of the most esteemed textile collections in the world, comprising over 27,000 pieces which have been produced over 2,000 years, dating back to China’s Han Dynasty.
For her first major exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Matilda showcased technical textiles and their applications. The exhibition “Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance” examined innovative uses of contemporary design through the lens of textile fibers and structures. Matilda integrated a wide array of pieces including the cardiac constrict sock, the Mars Pathfinder landing airbags, and the carbon-fiber composite bicycle frame. Matilda viewed her exhibition “from a very functional standpoint - exploring why textiles matter and why they are used in certain applications rather than other types of materials.” This successful exhibition revealed the highly engineered performance textiles that surround us and benefit our daily lives.
Sustainability at Cooper Hewitt
At Cooper Hewitt, Matilda not only works to incorporate examples of sustainable fashion into her textile exhibitions, but also integrates them with other aspects of design. Matilda worked with one of her co-curators, Susan Brown, on “SCRAPS: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse.” This exhibition showcased the creations of three apparel designers who put sustainability at the center of their design process: Christina Kim, Reiko Sudo, and Luisa Cevese. Their works focus on the preservation of local craft traditions with efficient textile materials, while integrating new technologies into the recycling process.
Twenty years ago, Cooper Hewitt launched APOC (A Piece of Cloth), a collaboration between Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara. Matilda explains that APOC “has a sustainable side to it since the garment is all made from one piece of cloth. You are able to cut out your own design and customize it to become your own unique garment.” This revolutionary collection by Miyake works with one thread in a continuous line of zero-waste to create sustainable 3D apparel designs.
Another exhibition featured a women’s cooperative group from Formosa, Argentina, which showcased a woven dress that illustrates weaving practices of the indigenous people of South America. For centuries, agricultural communities have relied on the chaguar fibers to craft essential items such as fishing nets. Matilda points out that “this is an example of how you can work with what is around you.”
Additionally, Matilda has collected individual sustainable fashion pieces; Cooper Hewitt showcases a 3D printed Kinematics dress. Matilda explained: “There are lots of different types of sustainable fabrics. We have pineapple cloth and barkcloth for instance.”
Matilda explained that on a personal level, the growth of fast fashion has certainly made her more aware and cognizant of her purchases. She recalls: “Sustainable fashion is going to sustain. Designers are gradually coming around. There are enough fashion designers that want it and consumers want it too.” Matilda often attends student-run fashion shows and explained that sustainable fashion “does seem to be a focus of a lot of students. Fashion that can grow like Kombucha; Looking at different ways of approaching fashion that is sustainable.”
Advice and Inspirations
Matilda explained the importance of taking advantage of internships while still in school. “You will realize fast if you are interested in that area or not. Or maybe you discover something entirely new you are interested in.” Matilda reflects on her own journey: “going into the curatorial world was not something I had ever thought about or planned, and it happened through my internship and has led to other things.” She emphasizes the importance of staying patient and taking advantage of potential opportunities.
“One of the people that has done the most for the fashion industry is Eileen Fisher, and it hasn’t been easy for her.” Fisher’s sustainable-focused company offers a buyback initiative that allows customers to receive credit for returning any of their products. These items are then either refurbished or repurpose into beautiful needle-felt textiles, some of which are showcased at Cooper Hewitt.
