Lewes Textile Design Museum & Workshops
The Lewes Textile Design Museum and Workshops (LtdM&W) is a body of work towards the preservation, discussion and promotion of hand made textiles and clothing to celebrate the skills involved thereof.
We plan to make accessible to view, hand made textiles including the Clothkits archive as a significant cultural asset, with its vision to place this right at the heart of Lewes in the historic building that is possibly the oldest shop in the country.
This hitherto private and unseen building, having been built from ships timber, right opposite Lewes castle at the very begining of the 14th century, is, once renovated, to become an asset to the town shedding light on its important mercantile history and lit up as a timeless beacon of the beauty of handwork with all its inclusive and sustainable facets. The jewel in the crown of Lewes town.
LtdM&W is the name of the incorporated charitable body currently in the process of aquiring this historic building. It is supported by Lewes Town Council in their 2024 grant.
The museum will open the building to the public and offer a journey through the history of Lewes market town, through the many era's of its life. The museum will house and display the Clothkits archive, along with the silk route artifacts, the clothes for shepherds that were made here, and the 100 years of Hugh Rae fancy menswear which will all come back to life as part of the museum.
Public will also visit the basements to see a large bread oven and former tunnel to the castle.
Clothkits was a unique clothing company based in Lewes from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. It's vibrant and folksy designs on robust base fabrics and in smple sew at home shapes, have come to define sustainable textiles if low waste and long life, often intergenerational within one family, are considered. They are certainly much loved, long after the company ceased to be the Lewes employer that it once was, and the brand has a strong US following which is a draw for tourists.
In the true Lewesian independent spirit, this museum will celebrate human scale and communuty based design adventures in textiles. These will be there to inspire and educate the general public on the sustainability of good design in hand made textiles and clothing from the past as they beam a bright light of relevence far into the future.
The current Trustees and Director are engaged in creating an innovative learning programme which will be inclusive to all sectors of community and will revolve around the same principles of purchasing kits for which group tuition sesssions will run daily and at low or no cost.
The work of the museum will include a budget for kits to be offered to those who would otherwise not get to experience the first hand thrill of actually making a piece of textile to take home and keep, as inclusiveness and empowerment through craft is a value inherent in the vision of the project.