Yorkshire wool

Yet another exhibition to enjoy in Salts Mill's roof space, though it gets no mention on their (rather poor imo) website.  It is mounted by Future Fashion Factory as a celebration of Wool Month and the Campaign for Wool and features garments from AW Hainsworth and the Yorkshire Fashion Archive. I think most people overlook the fact that, though many of our textile mills have closed, there are still some specialist textile companies in Yorkshire producing high quality woollen cloth. AW Hainsworth in Pudsey have been in existence since 1783, and have long produced cloth for military uniforms and royalty, for full-dress ceremonial occasions. (They're perhaps quite busy now, with the Queen's State Funeral and next year's Coronation!) They also produce specialist fire-retardant cloth for our emergency services, specialist felts for musical instruments, snooker table cloth and a number of other specialist fabrics.  

The magnificent military outfit displayed is a Coldstream Guards dress uniform. The Coldstream Guards, one of the oldest regiments in the British Army, is part of the Household Division, one of whose main roles is to protect the monarchy. 

Garments from the Yorkshire Fashion Archive included a lovely green suit with Astrakhan fur collar, manufactured by Harella in Halifax, bought for £15 by Mrs A Hackett as a 'going away' suit after her wedding in 1961. Very smart! 

Another lovely piece was this hand-knitted wool ensemble, made by Isora Steinart in the late 1950s. Mrs Steinart was born in Russia and came to England about 1904. Between the 1950s and 1970s, she used to visit department stores in Leeds to look at the new fashions and then return home to copy them for her daughter. No patterns ever used! What a talented lady. 

It was good to see a wool, double-breasted coat worn by the late Jonathan Silver in the 1990s. He was the guy who had the vision to rescue Salts Mill in the late 1980s and started to shape it into the wonderful institution it is today. Jonathan used to own a menswear shop at one time so he was knowledgeable about clothes. 

There was also a hanging display of punched cards used on a Jacquard loom, a binary system that lifted and lowered the warp threads to allow the weft thread to pass through to produce complex patterns. Each card corresponds to one row in the fabric. The binary system is a forerunner of our modern day computer programmes.