Textile Biennial 2019
On 3rd October last year we made our way to Blackburn Cathedral for the opening of the Textile Biennial. We were very kindly invited by the wonderful Ann Jordan who we have known for a number of years. Ann runs a PR company and is the Executive Director of TiE UK North, which is a brilliant network offering mentorship and events.
The theme was the ‘T-Shirt’ in the 20th Century through an inspirational exhibition charting the history, culture and subversion of the most affordable and popular item of clothing on the planet and was held across two sites in Blackburn: The Blackburn Cathedral Crypt and Prism Contemporary and co-curated by The Civic, Barnsley and Fashion and Textile Museum, London.
The exhibition showcased a huge array of T-Shirts all with completely different meanings and symbolism - ‘From men’s underclothes to symbol of rock and roll rebellion, through punk and politics to luxury fashion item’ and it was really interesting to see how clothing has such a massive impact on lives and throughout history. This photo was taken by Ann, who has been so supportive of us from the very beginning- it was so lovely to celebrate this event with her in her hometown.
Alongside the T-Shirt exhibition there was an amazing programme of different talks, exhibitions and workshops throughout October and November. Talks such as ‘THE FABRIC OF OUR TIMES: PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE FOR UK FASHION AND TEXTILES’, to workshops such as ‘MR X STITCH CROSS STITCH WORKSHOP’ through to exhibitions such as ‘ALICE KETTLE THREAD BEARING WITNESS’.
Clothing is extremely powerful and it is such a huge part of our lives and as we wear it every day we don’t realise how integral it is. It can make us feel a certain way, we can remember events by what we were wearing, it can symbolise and mean a lot to us. This is one of the main reasons why Careaux began. We wanted to create a dress that was there for you every moment in your life.
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