Shirley mending suiting made at Fox Flannel, Wellington still from video (2020)

An investigation of the darning and mending skills required in modern manufacturing processes: contrasting the slow pains taking activity within a highly mechanized factory situation.

Since the Lumiere brothers filmed their employees in La Sortie de l’Usine Lumiere in Lyon (1895), women working in the weaving industry are still required to repair cloth by hand today. Darning requires the simplest of tools: needle, thread and scissors, the skills to use them to create invisible or visible repairs. Over time I have learnt to respect the work done by the professional women looking for knots and flaws in mills producing high quality woolen cloth used by Savile Row tailors. This heritage practice of mending is still essential and done by hand much as it was over a hundred years ago.

Filmed at Fox Brothers & Co Ltd in Wellington, Somerset and celebrates the hidden work, skills and experiences of the women featured.