Our Commitment & Values
The pattern preacher is committed to the value of sewing skills and arts and crafts. Taking its cue from the Arts and Crafts Movement, The Pattern Preacher holds in high regard the technical craft involved in making beautiful garments. Wherever one is sewing, anywhere in the world, the skill requirement is the same. The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international movement that started in Britain in the late 19th Century as a reaction against the Industrialisation and uniformity that was being imposed by the Industrial Revolution.It pushed for Economic and Social reform and had a major impact on the Arts. It has a very important role to play in the 21st Century, where allied to the ecological and sustainability issues facing us, the need to produce more locally, to value the craft involved in the making of our everyday items needs to be re- assessed.
Our relationship and desires for disposable clothing are sometimes poorly informed choices, and we feel the Arts and Crafts Movement needs to be updated for our needs in a new century. The emphasis all over the world on the low social and economic value of mainly women sewing our clothes for pitiful wages is not a positive engagement with our fellow workers or planet..
International sourcing from distant nations by our designers needs to be re-evaluated so that they pay the full cost of the garment including the ecological and social costs, not just the cheaper production costs in remote corners of the planet. The requirement for runway shows and the desire to needlessly sell garments that may only be worn once in many cases needs to be re-appraised. Being a part of a society that creates its own looks that can be re-worn, and possibly handed down, exchanged or rented is the way forward.
With the growth in garment -rental, re-cycling, and the pleasure to be taken in making clothes for oneself, we hope to balance out and encourage the technical skills that are disappearing fast in Britain. There is immense satisfaction to be gained from making your own outfits, they are unique, and made by you. Whatever one’s skill level, the knowledge gained is invaluable, these skills can be passed down our generations and we can collectively be a part of growing, educating and re-introducing this way of working. It is a reaction against the de-humanising impact of often badly organised manufacturing operations in under- developed areas of our world.
The Arts and Crafts Movement believed design and manufacture were part of the same process, and communities were important in the integration of this ethos. We now live in a world where the design is in the major metropolitan cities and the manufacture bounces around from country to country, driven by meagre savings to the detriment of those nations, their people and our planet. The full ecological cost is never paid, the water resources for cotton, the freight costs, the pollutant cost of that freight…….these are not costed into the garment. They are when you make it! Let’s work together to remind and educate the future generations that being a seamstress has huge skill and of course, creativity and individuality.
Leicester's Heritage
Leicester is a traditional textile town in the Midlands. It has a long and distinguished history in textiles, which grew exponentially in the city from the mid 19th Century. Famous names such as Wolsey, Corahs, Ladies Pride, Pex and many others in textiles, knitwear and shoes made Leicester a prosperous city.
Since then, successive waves of immigration have re-invigorated and energised the economy of the City, making it a vibrant and eclectic mix of clothing, colour, and enterprise.
Unfortunately, the industry petered out from the 1980s onwards due to retailers moving production overseas for cheaper manufacturing, often in poor conditions, which did not account for the full ecological cost to the planet and its inhabitants.
Now Leicester is re-inventing itself for the textile industry of the 21st Century, and we hope to help re-frame the innovative approach it has inspired with in the past. Along with other specialised creative fabric and sportswear manufacturers based in the City we hope to make it relevant once more. Since the 80’s the downsized fashion industry remains in Leicester and is now more recognised for producing jersey wear and sportswear garments.
The City has two fantastic Universities, De Montfort and Leicester. De Montfort University in particular for fashion has an extensive range of design and technical courses in textiles, design, lingerie and corsetry that serve the City well. There is still a small but very effective fashion infrastructure in the city of raw material, machine and fabric suppliers that keep the industry moving in the 21st Century.
Textiles is one of the 5 core industries for Leicester in the LLEP (Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership) plan for the city. To celebrate the clothing heritage of the city a statue of “The Leicester Seamstress” by James Butler R.A. was unveiled in 1990.
The Pattern Preacher would like to think of itself as the 21st century reincarnation of that famous seamstress, valuing her contribution to this great city by honouring her skills and contribution to what we are doing today.
