Stitching is back in the spotlight
The art of embroidery has been given a new lease of life, says EMILY PAYNE
MEGHAN Markle’s wedding train — meticulously embroidered by Clare Waight Keller’s needlework team at Givenchy and adorned with flora from all 53 countries of the Commonwealth — showed our new duchess means business.
But, then, embroidery, has always made a statement. ‘Embroidery has been used to send messages for centuries,’ says Dr Susan Kay-Williams, chief executive of the Royal School of Needlework, who, as it happens, embroidered Kate Middleton’s wedding dress in 2011.
‘During her incarceration in England, Mary Queen of Scots stitched wall hangings with Bess of Hardwick, her jailer’s wife.’
Inspired by Latin doublemeaning mottoes, many of Mary’s works hid personal and political messages. And what could be a greater emblem of women’s rights than the Suffragette movement, which a century ago communicated pro-equality rhetoric via embroidered and appliqued banners?
Fittingly, on June 10 the streets of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London will be filled with hundreds of women and girls carrying handmade banners for a mass artwork called Procession.
And there’s a chance to check out the current crop of the UK’s finest young embroiderers at the Royal School of Needlework degree show, at Hampton Court Palace from June 8 to 16.
So it’s no surprise that embroidered homeware is popping up left, right and centre on the High Street.
Anthropologie’s glorious Imagined World Accent Chair (£478.40); Zara Home’s pretty embroidered organza tablecloths (£79.99); and John Lewis’s vibrant Kanha Embroidery Cushion (£28) are all doing the genre proud.
THE trend aligns with the interiors obsession for texture and botanics as seen in Sainsbury’s sumptuous cushions and embroidered bed linens.
Contemporary embroiderer Lou Gardiner, whose fabulously intricate work was at the Chelsea Flower Show, says: ‘In this age of fast shopping and digitalisation; embroidery allows people to use their creativity, imagination and, quite simply, their hands.
‘Having pushed the boundaries for 23 years and faced endless, old- fashioned preconceptions about this beautiful art form, I am delighted that people are beginning to appreciate the craft as contemporary and exciting.’
Gardiner is not the only artist to use stitching as a medium for change. The charity, Fine Cell Work, teaches UK prisoners how to make high-quality needlework. It aims to boost inmates’ self-worth as well as instilling selfdiscipline. And the by-product is some truly inspiring embroidered homeware. You’ll find everything from hand-stitched dog portraits to quilts. The pheasant cushion, pictured, is £195 and made to order, finecellwork.co.uk.
‘There has been a shift towards handmade products. People like to know where things come from,’ says Katie Steingold, from Fine Cell Work. ‘In the case of our customers, the knowledge that it is helping people to turn their lives around is an added bonus.’
One stand- out figure of embroidery’s new wave is Jamie Chalmers — otherwise known as Mr X Stitch. A man with an ‘unapologetic love of needlework’, Chalmers set up a website in 2008 after taking it up on a whim. Since then, mrxstitch.com has been visited by 1.2 million fans.
‘ Some people still think embroidery is only done by old ladies,’ he says. ‘Now thanks to Instagram, it’s easy to be inspired by other artists’ work and to promote your own.’
A cursory search on Instagram or Pinterest reveals how widely embroidery has cast its net. There’s the work of Fiancé Knowles, aka Danielle Clough, who creates images on tennis rackets and trainers. Meanwhile, Cayce Zavaglia embroiders portraits using up to 200 flesh tones in each face, and Severija Inčirauskaite Kriaunevičiene, from Lithuania, stitches onto metal and car bonnets including one piece involving eggs sewn into a frying pan.
The London-based Stitch-School runs workshops which aim to promote stitching for well-being. Co-founded by Melanie Bowles and Aimee Betts, sessions take place around an embroidery table called The Supper Cloth. ‘ Working together around a shared cloth brings a sense of togetherness,’ says Bowles.