My first impression was that this is a rather confused exhibition. It is composed of a seemly eclectic range of a hundred or so textiles and costumes drawn from the Pitt Rivers Museum's collection. However, as one becomes drawn into the fabulous display of craftsmanship, needlework skills, pattern and colour, confusion clears and fascination sets in.

In putting the exhibition together, the curators have intended it to be a taster for the whole collection - a staggering treasure trove of more than 4,000 pieces. And I understand that there are plans in the longer term to create images of the pieces and thereby make more of the collection available on the Internet.

Pieces on show are grouped by technique: weaving, dye resist, printing and painting, and stitching. All are drawn from cultures divided both by centuries and by oceans. All demonstrate beautifully how across those huge divides very similar techniques have been developed to create garments and other textiles and then to embellish them.

For example, in the Weaving section, a pre-Columbian interlocked tapestry with an animal design, woven between 600 and 1000 AD, is shown alongside a tenth-century Navaho blanket, and both have been made using similar techniques. This section also includes items from the collection of Elsie McDougall, made in 1920s and 30s and now used as an encyclopaedic reference for Mexican and Guatemalan clothing. The women's blouses (huipil) on display owe their wonderful colours and patterns to brocaded woven cloth overlaid with appliqu and embroidery.

Nigeria has produced a wonderful example of Dye Resist. Its Adire cloths are created by punching an original design on to a metal sheet to create a stencil, which is laid over a piece of plain cloth to which cassava starch is applied. The cloth is then immersed in a vat of indigo. As cassava starch is not totally dye-resistant; the result is a compelling melee of light and dark blues.

A large bogolanfini cloth wall hanging from Mali exemplifies Printing and Painting. A rather supercilious cat and a fine fish form part of a frieze of proud-looking animals. The way this has been created is incredibly labour-intensive. First, the cloth is dyed yellow; then the creatures are painted on using black mud; the whole is then bleached, and the resultant chemical reaction produces the dark silhouettes on a white background. By contrast with the sophistication of the printing and painting techniques, the cloth used to make the piece is composed of nine narrow strips stitched together, suggesting that the loom used was comparatively primitive.

In the Stitching section two no-nonsense modern Slovakian women's bonnets, solidly embroidered in chunky stem stitch, sit alongside exquisitely delicate embroideries from China. One of these being an energetic and brightly coloured dragon-like creature from the Miao tribe, worked mainly in chain and satin stitch using single strands of very fine thread. Another is a Qing girl's collar made up of eight stylised bats (one of which is pictured above) worked in single strand straight stitch with each with a pair of surprising eyebrows worked in herringbone.

The exhibition is set in the delightfully intimate space that serves both as the entrance to the Pitt Rivers Museum and a gallery for temporary exhibitions. It continues until next April.