Eleanor Newton
Woven Textiles
Featured projects
The Box Bag
2/3 bags designed to showcase handwoven panels and British manufacturing. The woven panels contain sustainable fibres and are paired with high quality leathers.
Leather Jacket
This jacket contains a handwoven leno double cloth panel, combining organic cotton and tencel fibres.
Consumption Jacquard
This hand painted jacquard was woven using elastic yarn, silk, and nettle fibres to create texture in the resulting fabric.
Yarn Selections
Yarns were sourced from pioneering companies in the sustainable yarn field such as Wool And The Gang, who donated a collection of yarns for use in this project. These yarns included those developed from T-shirt scraps, recycled denim and even plastic bottle waste.
The Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world. Bordering Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea had been diverted for decades for the irrigation of cotton in the area. Through satellite imagery obtained by NASA, it was evident that the effects of this had been so drastic that the eastern basin of the freshwater body had reached a point at which it was completely dry.
Process: Spreading
After the warp has been wound, it is important to spread the ends evenly across the back beam to enable weaving at the correct tension.
Process: Drawing & Development
This collage was inspired by raw meat photography. Using hand cut squares of recycled card, this piece explores colour balance and tonal differences within mince.
Process: Colour
In order to establish colour influences for this collection, references were taken from the initial concepts, along with additional research into colour and current season trends.
Eleanor Newton
Eleanor is an experimental designer interested in utilising traditional woven textile techniques within contemporary contexts. A series of narratives focusing on human over-consumption and environmental destruction are featured throughout her graduate collection, ‘The Sustainability Story’. The resulting fabrics and products from this collection focus on process and transparent production in the fashion industry.
'The Sustainability Story: Cause, Consequence, Rectification' The ‘cause’ narrative explores human over-consumption as a contributing factor to devastating environmental concerns. Fabrics from this narrative use colour and imagery derived from the meat industry. The ‘consequence’ narrative is interested in the story of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and how this severe water scarcity and area shrinkage has been exacerbated by the use of the sea for the irrigation of cotton. The ‘rectification’ narrative explores proposed solutions to amend these effects. This story looks at the return to couture, hand craft and sustainable materials, as well as focusing on limited consumption, a more educated consumer and increased adoption of natural processes. This graduate collection includes a series of handbags developed sensitively and created in line with the project concepts. Upon graduation, Eleanor hopes to pursue a career in the creative industries.
Awards
Nominated for TexSelect (2019) 1st prize 'The Clothworkers’ Company Award' Bradford Textile Society Competition (2019) Worshipful Company of Weavers’ Scholarship Recipient (2019) Selected to attend the preview of the 'Alexander McQueen - Unlocking Stories' Exhibition (2019) Designs exhibited at Première Vision (2017 and 2019) Selected to attend the 'Making It in Textiles' Conference, Bradford (2018) Designs sold internationally during placement year (2018) Assisted backstage at JW Anderson WSS18 London Fashion Week (2017) ROMO Live Project Competition Winner (2017)
Placements
June 2017 - June 2018
JW Anderson - Fabric Intern Dash & Miller - Design Intern Margo Selby - Design Intern