Staff Profile
Reader (Textile History)
Philip Sykas worked as a textile conservator (1983-1994) and as a museum curator (1994-1998) before embarking on a full-time career in research. His doctoral thesis, completed in 2000, examined nineteenth-century calico printers' pattern books from the perspectives of design, technology and business. His research has since broadened to encompass the full history of textile printing in England, but still focuses on the interconnectivity between pattern design, textile technology and merchanting practice. This work uses detailed analysis of visual evidence from manufacturers' pattern books alongside contemporaneous written evidence to generate a new understanding of historical design practice and its response to developments in technology, as well as the changing needs of a complex international trade.
Academic and professional qualifications
BA (Hons): State University of New York at Binghamton 1973
Dip. Cons. (Textiles Conservation): Courtauld Institute of Art, 1983
PhD: Manchester Metropolitan University, 2000
Previous Employment
Assistant Curator, Chertsey Museum: 1993-1998
Keeper of Conservation, Manchester City Art Galleries: 1988-1993
Assistant Keeper of Conservation (Textiles), Manchester City Art Galleries: 1985-1987
Languages
Reading knowledge of French
Postgraduate teaching
I welcome applications for MPhil or PhD research in any area of textiles or dress, but especially object-based and archival investigations.
Postgraduate research supervision
Wood, Sophie Ann. 'Treasured garments: Exploring value in the wardrobe', 2019.
El-Nayal, Nabil. 'Disruption as a generative principle in fashion design: The "Elizabethan Sportswear" collections of Nabil Nayal', 2018.
Oboh, Ehinomen. 'Materialising Cultures: West African diasporan engagement with African print in Britain', 2018.
Fletcher, Zoe Grace. 'Designing for breed: A design-oriented toolkit for understanding purebred British wool for knitwear', 2018.
Halliday, Richard. 'The transferware engraver: Training, practice and scope at the Spode Works', 2017.
Hopkins, Ana Rosa.'The back-story in contemporary sculptural practice: From materials to incorporation', 2016.
Atkin, Susan. 'Loose fit? The impact of the Manchester music scene on youth fashion 1986 to 1996', 2016.
Kettle, Alice. 'Creating a space of enchantment: Thread as a narrator of the feminine', 2015.
Slater, Alison. 'The dress of working-class women in Bolton and Oldham, Lancashire, 1939 to 1945', 2011
Membership of professional associations
Pasold Research Fund: Member
Research
Books
Sykas, PA., 2013. 'The Beauty of Experiment: Shadow Tissues at Turnbull & Stockdale', Turnbull & Stockdale, Isle of Man.
Sykas, PA., 2005. 'The secret life of textiles: six pattern book archives in North West England', Bolton Museums, Art Gallery and Aquarium, Bolton.
Book Chapters
Sykas, P., 2021. 'Folding Pattern Cards: Marketing Lancashire Fustians in the 1780s'. In Gray, T. (eds.) The Exeter Cloth Dispatch Book 1763-1765, Boydell and Brewer.
Sykas, PA., 2020. 'Entente cordiale: Anglo-French exchange among calico printers'. In Oberkampf et la toile imprimée XVIIIe-XIXe siècles: Production, création, consommation, pp. 70-78, Musée de la Toile de Jouy, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Sykas, P., 2020. 'Holker, technical innovation and the hot cylinder press'. In John Holker's livre d'échantillons (working title).
Sykas, P., 2019. 'The Polynesian print'. In The Tahitian Pareu: Spirit of the Islands, Prospect Park Books (unconfirmed).
Sykas, PA., 2017. 'Textiles'. In Baxter, DA., Vincent, S. (eds.) A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire, pp. 9-34, Bloomsbury Academic.
Sykas, PA., 2013. 'Investigative methodologies: understanding the fabric of fashion'. In Rocamora, A., Entwistle, J., Thomas, H., Root, R., Black, S., De La Haye, A. (eds.) The Handbook of Fashion Studies, 625, Bloomsbury Academic, London.
Sykas, PA., 2012. 'Re-Threading: Notes towards a History of Sewing Thread in Britain'. In Textiles: Critical and Primary Sources, Volume 1: History/Curation, pp. 96-118, Berg, London, England.
Sykas, PA., 2011. 'Caring or Wearing'. In Brooks, MM., Eastop, D. (eds.) Changing Views of Textile Conservation, pp. 311-318, Getty Publications.
Sykas, P., 2010. 'Refashioning Indian chintz in the European manner'. In Cloth That Changed the Word: India’s Painted and Printed Cottons, Royal Ontario Museum.
Sykas, PA., 2007. 'Abundant images and scant text: Reading textile pattern books'. In Hayward, M. (eds.) Textiles and Text: Re-establishing the Links Between Archival and Object-based Research, pp. 23-28, Archetype.
Sykas, PA., 2006. 'Hot press printing of worsted cloth: A precursor of roller printing'. In Corcy, M-S. (eds.) Les archives de l'invention écrits, objets et images de l'activité inventive : actes du colloque international organisé au Conservatoire national des arts et métiers et au Centre historique des Archives nationales, les 26 et 27 mai 2003, pp. 101-112, CNRS/Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail.
Sykas, PA., 2003. 'Corduroy: panning for gold; and, Life-saving fabrics'. In De la Haye, A., Dickson, E. (eds.) Textile Tales, 4.
Sykas, PA., 2001. 'Pattern book research in Manchester'. In Calvera, A., Mallol, M. (eds.) Design history seen from abroad: History and histories of design, University of Barcelona.
Journal Articles
Sykas, PA., 2019. 'Fabric-covered cars: motor engineering and fashion', Aspects of Motoring History, 15, pp. 3-15.
Sykas, P., 2019. 'Design', Textile History, 50 (1), pp. 73-81.
Sykas, PA., 2015. 'Wearable Prints, 1760-1860: History, Materials, and Mechanics', COSTUME-THE JOURNAL OF THE COSTUME SOCIETY, 49 (2), pp. 246-248.
Sykas, PA., 2010. 'THE MANCHESTER INDIAN: THOMAS WARDLE AND INDIA', TEXTILE HISTORY, 41 (2), pp. 247-249.
Sykas, PA., 2009. 'Fustians in englishmen's dress: From cloth to emblem', Costume, 43 (1), pp. 1-18.
Sykas, PA., 2004. 'Morris Martin, a paper stainer of Fulham active in the 1820s', Wallpaper History Review, pp. 94-95.
Sykas, PA., 2001. 'A medieval textile forgery', Textile History, 32 (1), pp. 119-121.
Sykas, PA., 2001. 'The north west pattern book survey', Textile History, 32 (2), pp. 156-174.
Sykas, P., 1999. 'Calico Catalogues: Nineteenth-Century Printed Dress Fabrics from Pattern Books', Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society, 33 (1), pp. 57-67.
Sykas, PA., 1998. 'The public require spots: Modernism and the nineteenth century calico designer', Journal of the Textile Institute, 89 (3), pp. 3-15.
Non-Peer Reviewed Articles
Sykas, PA., 2019. 'Nenadic and Tuckett, Colouring the Nation: The Turkey Red Printed Cotton Industry in Scotland c. 1840–1940', The Scottish Historical Review, 98 (1), pp. 152-153.
Sykas, PA., 2018. 'Karen Finch, OBE 1921–2018', Textile History, 49 (2), pp. 224-227.
Conference Papers
Sykas, P., 2018. 'Design: Reflections and Directions', Pasold Research Fund Conference 2018: Fifty years of Textile History: Cloth, Dress, Fashion, Museum of London, UK, 16/11/2018 - 16/11/2018.
Sykas, P., 2018. 'Travels in the archive: From conventions of production to cultural meaning', Facing the objects: Methods for object-based textile research, Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, 25/10/2018 - 25/10/2018.
Sykas, PA., 2015. 'Entente cordiale: Anglo-French exchange among calico printers', Oberkampf and printed cotton, 18th to 19th centuries Production, design and consumption, Jouy-en-Josas, France, 8/10/2015 - 10/10/2015, in Proceedings of the international symposium Oberkampf and printed cotton, 18th to 19th centuries.
Sykas, PA., 2010. 'Industrial Manchester's confrontation with copying', Power of Copying 2010: International Contemporary Design Selected from Art Academies, Xuzhou Museum of Art, China, 14/5/2010 - 14/7/2010, pp. 117-121.
Office Location
Room R1.01
Righton Building
Manchester Fashion Institute
Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish Street
Manchester M15 6BG