GROWING COLOUR
A brand new community of growers and makers is set to transform Kirklees into a giant colour garden this summer
Over the last 70 years the fashion industry has become a global, economic success story. Yet, hidden within its layers of luxury and window dressing are some uncomfortable truths, such as the fact that we buy twice as many clothes as we did in 1980, but now only wear them for half as long.
Thankfully, Yorkshire’s Kirklees Council, home of the eponymous ‘Made in Huddersfield, England’ selvage, is making trailblazing steps to put fashion and textiles back into the heart of its communities, but this time in a naturally, sustainable way.
‘Growing Colour Together is one of the biggest projects of WOVEN 2023,’ says Elnaz Yazdani, a community artist and educator and a programme manager for the biennial festival, which started in 2019. ‘Our aim is to not only turn Kirklees into the UK’s largest dye garden, but in doing so celebrate the district’s diverse cultural heritage through community-based art, nature and textile projects. It’s also about creating a sustainable legacy for the people of Kirklees.’
With preparations for this year’s festival − running June 3 to July 9 − starting months ago, Elnaz has been busy recruiting teams of artists to lead the project across the district’s three areas of Kirkburton, Birkby and Fartown, and Dewsbury. Nationally acclaimed artists have been teamed up with local artists, with each group going on to curate its own distinct programme of horticultural and artistic events.
‘In Dewsbury Jane Howroyd, Waheeda Kothdiwala and Natalie Linney have been working with several women’s and girls’ groups,’ says Elnaz. ‘Over the last few months they’ve been teaching the groups how to dye silk using natural dyes made from plants and flowers grown in the community gardens that have been sown and established across the area.
‘Working mainly outside in nature they have helped individuals to create these wonderful head and neck scarves that will ultimately be shown as an outdoor installation at one of the festival’s garden parties in Dewsbury’s Crow Nest Park on June 17. There will be more than 130 scarves on display, which we will then be gifted back to each maker to keep.’
In Kirkburton with Nicola Perrin and Seiko Kinoshita, the focus has been more on learning about regenerative and sustainable practices such as re-dying, mending and recycling – something West Yorkshire more or less invented in the 19th century as pioneers of the then revolutionary recycl
