Kira Eng-Wilmot is a textile conservator at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, where she cares for tapestries in the church’s collection and private commissions. In her off-time, she makes delicious ice cream. Kira told us what it’s like to give a 400-year-old tapestry a bath and why the basic tools of her trade are still a needle and thread.

Textile conservationist is pretty specific. What got you into this line of work?

“Textile conservator” was not my childhood dream job. However, clothes have been the one thing that I have been consistently interested in since childhood. I think for a long time my parents thought I was going to be a fashion designer. I was definitely the kid who played dress-up, and my mother taught me how to sew when I was in elementary school. I cultivated my adolescent mysterious weirdo persona by making/altering/wearing vintage clothes and reading lots of old fashion magazines.

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