Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys

Fashion (MA)

Linking each part of the Fashion Farming and Seasons calendar to each garment panel using a numbering system to show when each piece was crafted in the year using associate wool and dyes.

Mapping out my own journey from sourcing dyes in Nottingham to shearing and spinning wool in Bristol and back to the RCA to track my own journey, from Soil to Sheep to Ewe.

Romney x Shetland and Bluefaced Leicester hand spun jumper and natural dyes with numbering attached, linking it back to the calendar.

Final table display with all of the materials and components used in the yearly process, from carding brushes, raw fleece and a bobbin from her Ashford spinning wheel.

About

Re-attaching the Label: From Soil to Sheep to Ewe – one jumper in one year – reflecting and linking back to each section of the Farming Fashion Calendar yearly cycle – showing the wearer how long it actually takes to make a British wool, naturally dyed garment following ‘Regenerative Practices/Principles and Frameworks’.

Shearing, carding, spinning and washing = 768 hours

Harvesting and dyeing = 160 hours

Hand knitting = 384 hours.

1,312 hour jumper, all of that time…..just for one jumper.

Harriet is a knitwear designer born and raised in Shropshire working with British wool, natural dyes and regenerative systems. Inspired by the Fibershed organisation and time spent working with affiliates from a fibre farm in Bristol to a natural dye specialist, she focuses her skills on trying to bridge the gap between farming and fashion. Growing up in a farming environment, triggered her drive to understand more about local wool and why it is not utilised more within the knitwear industry and challenging current misconceptions that ‘British wool is scratchy and only suitable for carpets’.

She was also a core member of the across RCA team who launched and established the dye garden at the RCA to support students with further engagement and development within the regenerative space, alongside work she has done for Nottingham Trent University and Fashion Roundtable.

Sponsored by: Logitech Scholarship in Art and Design

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