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Back to the future for Bristol weaving mill
Bristol’s first all-female weaving mill has opened, marking the return of a cloth-weaving mill to the city after a 90-year absence.
The Bristol Weaving Mill is run by Juliet Bailey and Franki Brewer, who run the textile design studio Dash & Miller.
Over the last six years the pair have provided hand woven textile design and consultancy across the UK, Europe, USA, and Asia working with such companies as Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, and Louis Vuitton.
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The team of six will be primarily producing small runs of bespoke artisanal fabric, which will then be used for couture fashion houses and interior product designers throughout the world.
Juliet and Franki also intend the mill to provide the means to produce local and sustainable cloth in collaboration with farmers in the South West of England.
Director Juilet Bailey said this new machine-driven weaving mill was a big step: “By launching the mill we take back the creative control, so that everything from the design concept to the production of fabric is created in-house.”
The move into production on a greater scale has been four years in the making and has involved a great deal of research. The biggest challenge was to source a suitable mechanical weaving loom.
Modern weaving looms, which are computer-led, lack the creative flexibility needed, so they spent years not only sourcing a loom from the 1980s but also the parts and the working knowledge that went with it.
The team eventually found a 1985 loom in the Netherlands and imported it to their workshop in the Dings.
Co-director Franki Brewer said: “By using an older machine we will have the capabilities to push the creative boundaries that just aren’t possible with modern looms. We will also be preserving specialist knowledge and techniques that would otherwise be lost.”
The Bristol Weaving Mill marks a new era for the city, not only due to the 90-year absence of a working cloth mill, after the Great Western Cotton Works closed in 1925, but also because the mill will be entirely run by women.
“The world of textile design is a predominantly female occupied one, whereas the world of textile manufacturing is predominantly male,” Juliet said.
“As an all-female team we are very excited about gaining the knowledge and experience needed to not only create beautiful fabric, but to also earn respect from our peers within the world of manufacturing.”