Sun-Warmed Threads & Museum Shelves … A Visit to the V&A East Storehouse
V&A East Storehouse
There’s something unmistakably nostalgic about summer light in Greece and something just as quietly powerful about standing among century-old fabrics behind the scenes at a museum.
Last week, we visited the newly opened V&A East Storehouse in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a cathedral to preservation and provenance. Among its vast open archives, we discovered a library of antique textiles—faded silks, ceremonial weaves, folkloric motifs—each with its own story delicately stitched into time.
It was like stepping into a more tangible version of our own archive.
V&A East Storehouse
V&A East Storehouse
At Anthologist, our Spring/Summer 2025 drop, The Sun-Warmed Thread – is our love letter to this very kind of material history. The collection, shaped by decades of sourcing trips, inherited pieces, and personal finds, features vintage and heirloom textiles from across Greece: airy linens from Crete, geometric motifs from Metsovo, and delicate florals from Epirus and the Cyclades.
Anthologist's The Sun-Warmed Thread Collection
Each piece we offer has lived a life before. Now, like the storied fragments stored lovingly at the V&A, they await a new chapter, this time, in sunlit homes and layered terraces.
Anthologist's The Sun-Warmed Thread Collection
“I source these pieces the way others might collect art — slowly, carefully, and with a deep sense of reverence for their origins,” says Andria Mitsakos, Anthologist founder and creative director. “Most of what I find stays in my personal collection for a while, to be honest. They’re too special to let go of right away. Only after some time do I consider them for Anthologist’s inventory.”
Anthologist's The Sun-Warmed Thread Collection
At the V&A Storehouse, we were reminded that textiles are more than decoration. They’re cultural memory, soft power, and the stories of women’s hands across centuries. The experience reaffirmed what The Sun-Warmed Thread has always been about: slow decoration, emotional provenance, and finding beauty in the intimate and the inherited.
To browse the collection, visit: The Sun-Warmed Thread
And if you find yourself in London, the V&A East Storehouse is well worth the detour, a working archive where the past patiently waits to inspire the present.