Fragment of a dress

In February this year the Bronte Parsonage Museum opened a new exhibition Defying Expectations which displays textile items that belonged to Charlotte Brontë. The collection includes a beautiful evening dress which challenges our preconceptions of a woman who lived most of her life in a northern parsonage. There are also fragments of cloth, which may have been given as souvenirs to Brontë’s many admirers.

To accompany this exhibition, Hannah Lamb, textile artist, has been commissioned to create an interactive textile artwork, which she has titled Fragment of a Dress. The interactive element of the project was an invitation to visitors to the Defying Expectations exhibition to write briefly about clothes that had significance for them. This took place in early summer, with more than 50 people responding to the request. Hannah collected these responses with the intention of transferring the handwritten words on to a dress.

Silk dress created by Hannah Lamb.

I was privileged to take part in the second stage of the project, working with other students from the Foundation Textiles Practice course at Bradford School of Art, where Hannah is the Course Leader. Over five days in early July we stitched peoples’ stories onto pieces of silk organza which would then be appliquéd on to the dress Hannah has made.

We took each piece of text and carefully traced the words onto the organza, this process of tracing helped us understand how the writer had formed the letters; this would important when it came to stitching as we wanted to be faithful to the original style of writing.

As we were stitching on to a semi transparent fabric we had to accept that the threads on the back would also be visible - a good discipline for keeping the work as neat as possible.

One of the shorter statements - but an important memory for someone.

Yorkstitcher slow stitching a fragment of text
Photograph: Anna Kornatovska, Bradford School of Art

We sometimes worked in companionable silence, but often the words someone was stitching triggered a memory and a conversation began. These conversations included memories of being a bridesmaid (or not!), how children learn to read, and how to broach the subject of ‘the facts of life’ with our own children (we were fortunate to have a former biology teacher to help with that).

We also listened to the beginning of Jane Eyre, the best known of Charlotte Brontë’s novels. I had forgotten quite how difficult Jane’s life was in those early chapters. We didn’t pursue it, however I have now listened to the end, beautifully read by Juliet Stevenson for Audible. I remember reading the book at school, and the outline of the story was in my memory but I did not remember Brontë’s passionate assertion of the rights of women.

As the project progressed Hannah began to pin the fragments of text on to the skirt. It will be wonderful to see the final piece completed.

The work in progress

A benefit of working on this project with Hannah was the opportunity to gain an insight into how such a project comes about, from the initial invitation, to writing a proposal and agreeing the format of the project in a way which works for the artist, for the organisation that will host the artwork, and the space it has to fit into.

To find out more about the project, take a look at Hannah’s website Fragment of a Dress, and follow her on Instagram @hannahlambtextileartist.

Fragment of a Dress can be seen at the Brontë Parsonage Museum from 27th July to the end of December.

Press report about the project

Keighley News Students' textile artwork on show at Bronte Parsonage Museum