“Threading the Needle: Sewing in the Machine Age traces the development of the domestic sewing machine from the 1850s to the 1970s and celebrates over one hundred years of sewing. Pattern illustrations featured in the exhibition highlight ladies homemade fashions throughout the decades.”

-SFO Museum curators

As a cultural observer one of the things I like to do every time I cross security at the San Francisco Airport (SFO) is take some time and look at the exhibit on the long corridor that leads to the gates. Currently on view is an interesting exhibit showcasing a turning point in the history of fashion — the mass production of sewing machines, product of the Industrial Revolution. As a form of photo essay I am posting images of the displays at this very interesting exhibition venue.

What draws me most about the idea of a museum in an airport is that the exhibition space must certainly obey both functions — as a worthy space for displaying information and artifacts and a space which enables transit. The SFO Museum offers a great variety of exhibits on a great range of subjects. Prior to Threading the Needle there was an exhibit on the development of television. These compelling displays may help to ease the tension of those about to get on a plane, but they also take advantage of that state of mind, and that function, to educate the public about things that we may take for granted in our daily lives (like the importance of television technology, and such seemingly innocuous yet revolutionary machines like the sewing machine).

Hope you enjoy these images and if you take a trip on a plane from here to August (the show ends then) make sure to stop by and take a look at these very interesting exhibit.

For more information about this exhibit click here.

Ralph Vázquez-Concepción

Web Manager, Red Poppy Art House/Independent Curator