Dame Zandra Rhodes visits the Silk Museum
Iconic fashion designer, Dame Zandra Rhodes, DBE, RDI visited the Silk Museum in Macclesfield to see the work that is happening to conserve the endangered craft of silk weaving and meet the graduates creating the first new designs to be woven there in decades.
Nicknamed the princess of punk, Dame Zandra Rhodes, established her eponymous fashion brand in the late 1960s and is renowned for perfecting the art of print. Her colourful designs have adorned international stars including Freddie Mercury, Diana Ross, and Barbara Streisand as well as British Royalty, most notably Princess Diana and Princess Anne.
Dame Zandra visited the grade II listed Paradise Mill, part of the Silk Museum, where one of the largest collections of silk Jacquard handlooms remain in its original setting. The atmospheric working mill was one of many, historically, that produced silks in Macclesfield for luxury retailers including Liberty of London. It now remains the only original Victorian silk mill in the town.
Two members of the team at the museum, Daniel Hearn and Trish Halloran have been restoring two of the silk handlooms – a painstaking process – which requires enormous skill. This important work has been funded by the Association of Industrial Archaeology.
Now, one of the looms is in operation and two graduates from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Manchester School of Art have been weaving a new design on the restored loom. Bea Uprichard and Ruth Farris are on a graduate placement and have been looking through the archive of pattern books and the work of past designers to inform their own designs, which have a modern sensibility.
“I am always interested to see the work of young textile designers. We need to encourage and support the work that they are doing to ensure these skilled craftspeople can continue our heritage. We have a legacy of craftspeople here in the UK and the endangered craft of silk weaving needs to be upheld. The Silk Museum is an incredible place, doing just that and I enjoyed my visit very much.”
The Silk Museum in Macclesfield will be opening a Jacquard studio in spring 2025 to display its unrivalled collection of pattern books and items relating to the Cartwright and Sheldon archive in a bespoke space with environmentally suitable conditions for the collection.
The pattern books are from many of the silk mills that existed across the region and show the detailed designs that were created here. The Cartwright and Sheldon archive materials are from the last families that ran Paradise Mill from 1912 until it closed in 1981, before it became part of the museum. The archive has been described by conservators and academics as a ‘unique social history resource’. The Jacquard Studio will provide a space for people to access these unique items.
The Silk Museum is located in the original purpose-built School of Art, which was established to train designers to meet the high demand for luxury silk products with exceptional designs for a global market. The new Jacquard Studio is grant funded by National Heritage Memorial Fund, Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Fund and The Pilgrim Trust and project managed by Creative Heritage Limited.
