Public awareness of one of the most remarkable, yet least known, of England’s traditional manufacturing hubs is set to be transformed through a collaboration with one of the UK’s leading luxury department stores.

An extensive in-store display involving some of Yorkshire’s leading fabric mills, presented under the collective brand Yorkshire Textiles, is to be launched at the Harvey Nichols store in Leeds in March, and will run for several months.

Established during the Industrial Revolution, Yorkshire’s weaving industry has long set the benchmark for high-quality Made in England cloth, and the region’s mills continue to produce the majority of England’s worsted and woollen fabric, used by many of the world’s great fashion brands, high-end retailers and tailors, such as Gucci, Dolce&Gabbana, Prada, Burberry, Paul Smith, Etro, Hugo Boss, and on London’s Savile Row.

Utilising a unique supply of soft water from the Yorkshire Pennines, and a cool, humid climate ideal for textile manufacturing, Yorkshire’s mills combine a proud and rich heritage with extraordinary craftsmanship, innovation and design skill.

Yorkshire’s fabric mills have raised their game to even greater heights over recent years, and a core of mills continue not only to produce some of the finest cloths in the world, but also to stretch the boundaries of luxury fabric. Examples include:

 
The extraordinary cashmere/mohair fabric used for the dinner suit worn by Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace - woven in Huddersfield

The super luxury cloth from the iconic fabric label Dormeuil, used to create the world’s most expensive suit, launched last year by Alexander Amosu, and costing £70,000 - woven in Keighley

 A special cloth used to create a one-off suit presented to New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson following the Saints’ recent Super Bowl victory, with the words ‘New Orleans Saints’ and ‘Super Bowl Champions’ in the pinstripe - woven in Bradford

Two luxury interior fabrics recently installed inside the Oval Office, the official office of the US President, at the White House - woven in Guiseley

Yorkshire’s textile industry also continues to produce some of the most classic of English fabrics, such as the scarlet cloth used for the Royal Guards uniform worn outside Buckingham Palace - woven in Stanningley, near Leeds.

During the Harvey Nichols promotion, the theme of Yorkshire fabric will run across all four floors of the store, with large bolts of cloth draping either side of the elevators that take customers up and down each floor, special fitting room curtains created using Yorkshire fabric, and many other innovative uses of Yorkshire cloth. The display is designed to allow visitors to experience not only the exceptional appearance of Yorkshire fabric, but also its luxurious handle and finish.

Harvey Nichols is renowned across all its stores for its imaginative and eye-catching in-store displays. The Leeds store attracts an average of 25,000 visitors each week.

The mills involved in the project are listed below. Each of these mills produce luxury cloth for suits and jackets. In addition, Hainsworth offers a diverse range of apparel fabrics, technical and industrial textiles, and interior fabrics; and Abraham Moon supplies furnishings fabrics and accessories.

Alfred Brown

Arthur Harrison

Hainsworth

Bower Roebuck

Edwin Woodhouse

John Cavendish

John Foster

Joseph H Clissold

Abraham Moon

Savile Clifford

Taylor&Lodge

The Sunny Bank Mills Textile Archive, as presented by Susan Gaunt, an independent textile designer, is also featuring in the display. The archive dates back 150 years.

The aims of the project are to:

Lift awareness among consumers within the Yorkshire region and elsewhere of the exceptional quality, heritage and innovation of Yorkshire’s fabric mills.

Enhance the status of Yorkshire Textiles through brand association with Harvey Nichols.

Create an engaging and enlightening customer experience for visitors to the Harvey Nichols Leeds store.

Local schools and colleges are closely involved with the project, with sixth form students from Leeds’ David Young Community Academy helping the Harvey Nichols display team, and undergraduates at Leeds Metropolitan University producing an art/photography project to be included in the Yorkshire Textiles display.  

The project has been inspired by a collaboration between Leeds Fashion Works – an initiative formed in 2009 aimed at linking textiles, retail, fashion, design, education and training opportunities in the Leeds City Region, as well as fostering partnerships for Yorkshire textile companies across the UK and overseas – and Brian Handley, general manager at Harvey Nichols Leeds, and himself one of the numerous high-profile supporters of Leeds Fashion Works.

Comments from Brian Handley, general manager of Harvey Nichols Leeds

Brian Handley, general manager at Harvey Nichols Leeds, explains that the display project originally came about by chance: “In our top-floor restaurant, one lunchtime last year, I overheard Suzy Shepherd [one of the co-founders of Leeds Fashion Works] talking about how they wanted to promote Yorkshire’s textile mills, and I told her that we could help with that, and that’s really where the idea for the display started.”

Harvey Nichols Leeds was keen to support the mills as much as possible through the in-store display, as Handley explains: “The quality and heritage of the mills is something that we should be aware of in the region, and be extremely proud of. It’s a very important message to get across. The perception in Yorkshire today is that all textiles come from elsewhere.”

Handley drew great inspiration from visiting the mills involved. “I got a lot out of this personally - I gained a much greater understanding of what goes into producing the fabric,” he says. “Looking round the mills, you can see why they’ve survived - they’re very specialised, and have become the top in their industry. They are extremely passionate about what they do, and the list of brands that the mills supply is like a shopping list of brands that any store would be proud of - we stock most of these brands. The diversity of Yorkshire fabric is outstanding, ranging from fine suiting fabrics to snooker table cloths. I was also struck by the modern technology, particularly the sheer speed of the looms.”

Members of the Harvey Nichols Leeds display team involved in the project also visited the mills - and were equally inspired - and Handley says that he also plans to ensure staff in the Harvey Nichols mens tailoring and womens fashion departments visit some of the fabric companies involved in the project. “This education leads to more understanding among the staff in store, which they can then pass on to the consumer,” explains Handley. “This is particularly important with customers becoming more and more questioning about luxury products, and showing greater interest in authentic quality, provenance and craftsmanship.”

Comments from Suzy Shepherd, one of the co-founders of Leeds Fashion Works

“We think that Harvey Nichols customers will be amazed at what is happening on their doorstep in the Yorkshire mills. Too many people really believe that the Yorkshire area, where the industrial revolution and the high-profile production of textiles had its birth, no longer has much to offer. The Harvey Nichols display and the excitement it will generate will dispel this myth once and for all.”

Shepherd added: “This is all part of what the Leeds Fashion Works initiative is about – bringing together the diverse fashion story which already exists in the Leeds City Region and shouting about it to the wider world. Harvey Nichols has been key to bringing Leeds so far up the league table of places to visit and cities in which to invest. Brian Handley is an astute commercial operator with an instinctive and positively radical feel for fashion’s place in the arts and in the wider community.”

Jonathan Dyson, President of Bradford Textile Society, and Editor of Twist magazine, has been responsible for co-ordinating the mills during the project.

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