Roderick Taylor: A Life Woven in Thread, The Textile Collection

Roderick Taylor’s lifelong passion for textiles was born from heritage. He inherited an extraordinary collection from his Italian–Greek–Russian grandmother, whose pieces sparked a curiosity that would become both a vocation and an art form. Over the years, he added to her legacy, travelling across Greece and the wider Mediterranean to uncover the stories stitched into each fabric.

Living for many years in Greece, Taylor immersed himself in village traditions, meeting the families who still guarded the remnants of historic embroidery once destined for museums. His research was not confined to aesthetics—it was an act of preservation, capturing the fading social history behind every pattern, every thread, and every loom.

After reading Oriental Languages at Cambridge and enjoying a distinguished international career in management consultancy, Taylor turned his full attention to the world of textiles. His groundbreaking book Ottoman Embroidery (1993) remains a cornerstone in the field. He contributed essays on Greek Island textiles to the British Museum’s 5000 Years of Textiles, wrote for Macmillan’s Dictionary of Art, and became a regular voice in the specialist journal Hali.

Respected for both his scholarship and warmth, Taylor lectured widely for NADFAS and branches of the Embroiderers’ Guild, inspiring a generation of collectors and historians, continuing a life devoted to the art, culture, and humanity woven into cloth.