Future Fashion Factory’s Wool Month Exhibition & Textile Heritage and Innovation Student Competition

This October marks Campaign For Wool’s Wool Month 2022, offering an opportunity to celebrate Yorkshire’s rich heritage in the textile industry alongside its status as a haven for innovative textile and fashion design talent. This month, Future Fashion Factory is paying homage to Yorkshire fashion, textiles and garment production by holding an exhibition at Salts Mill.

Future Fashion Factory is a five-year project that the University of Leeds’ School of Design is pioneering along with the University of Huddersfield and the Royal College of Art. The co-director of Future Fashion Factory, Professor Stephen Russell, explains that the project:

supports creativity and innovation at every stage of the [textile] supply chain” and is “working to ensure sustainable development and growth of the UK’s fashion and textile industry”

The three-week exhibition at Salts Mill, which runs from the 5^th – 25^th October, includes loaned pieces from the Yorkshire Fashion Archive (based in the School of Design at Leeds), as well as garments from AW Hainsworth – a true textile institution that has been manufacturing premium woollen cloth here in God’s own country for 235 years.

Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see examples of luxury fashion sitting alongside important historical pieces, with the personal stories of prior wearers woven (quite literally) through the cloth of the garments on display. From Commes Des Garcons and Thierry Mugler pieces to a Royal Guard’s coat crafted from iconic scarlet AW Hainsworth cloth, the exhibition is a carefully curated journey through Yorkshire textile heritage and garment manufacturing.

In addition to providing a good excuse for a day trip (Salts Mill in Saltaire can be reached by 15-minute train from Leeds Station), Future Fashion Factory is holding a competition for Fashion students across the region. To participate, students are asked to submit images that reinterpret and capture the exhibition in a visual form. In doing so, participants will be contributing to this rich cultural heritage and continuing the legacy of excellence in textiles and manufacturing across Yorkshire. At the end of the exhibition, a prizegiving will be held at Salts Mill to celebrate the competition entrants and textile innovators of the future.

Whether you’re in search of knitwear inspo for your autumn wardrobe, planning on entering the competition yourself, or just looking for a reason to go and see some nice clothes (never not a good idea), the Future Fashion Factory’s Wool Month Exhibition is definitely one to have on your radar this October.