Hainsworth brings Bespoke Tailoring Students’ designs to life

British fabric manufacturer and woollen mill Hainsworth has teamed up with final-year BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring students at London College of Fashion, UAL on a project to create a unique jacquard cloth design.

Hainsworth tasked students from London College of Fashion’s BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring course with creating a custom cloth, with the winning designers invited to weave and finish their fabric at the West Yorkshire heritage textile mill.

Daniel Poulson, Course Leader, comments, “The London College of Fashion, UAL, is delighted to continue our collaboration with AW Hainsworth. Providing our BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring students with the opportunity to design and execute a fully bespoke jacquard weave in partnership with the Hainsworth team is a unique and valuable experience. Seeing their ideas come to life at the mill, from fibre to finished product, has been rewarding for all involved. As course leader, I am grateful for the investment and exchange of knowledge and expertise throughout this creative process.” 

The winning students, Anna Zhou, Anastasia Inozemtseva, and Matilda Jonathan, were selected for demonstrating originality, quality craftsmanship, and sustainability. The three students visited the Hainsworth Mill in Yorkshire to see their designs woven on Jacquard looms, ready to transform into expertly tailored garments. These garments formed part of their graduate showcase presentation at Protein Studios in Shoreditch.

Andrea Noble, Design and Product Development Manager at Hainsworth, explains, “The 2024 London College of Fashion Bespoke Jacquard Project was another huge success. The students were once again very engaged, professional, and clearly ambitious for a career in tailoring. I enjoyed discussing their creative concepts for their final collections, enabling them to find ways to develop artwork appropriate for jacquard patterning, which expressed and embodied their final collections.

“All the students did an excellent job, but in the end, we chose our winners because they did a remarkable job of demonstrating originality, quality and craftsmanship while embracing a sustainability-focused approach. In addition to this, the students also considered how they would reduce fabric waste whilst crafting an expertly-tailored design suitable for their commercial clients.”

The 2024 Bespoke Jacquard Project was also shortlisted for the University of the Arts London’s Knowledge Exchange Award. The Knowledge Exchange Awards recognise collaborations with external partners to create positive change through real-life challenges designed to co-create value for society, the economy and the environment.

Hainsworth is a truly vertical woollen mill for over 240 years and one of the last remaining in Britain that can process a product from raw fibre to finished cloth entirely from their site in West Yorkshire.

Designers, tailors and garment manufacturers choose Hainsworth’s premium woollen textiles from diverse industries, united in their desire for the best craftsmanship and true British provenance.