The founder of a social enterprise in Paisley says the textiles industry “needs to change," launching a 12-month programme of free events and workshops.
Gillian Steel helped set up Remode Youth in 2015, a community interest company that seeks to preserve Paisley’s textile heritage whilst also exploring how clothes can be produced in a more sustainable way.
Getting underway on August 1 is ‘Through The Mill - Stories of Resilience and Renewal,’ a year-long programme of free talks and creative workshops.
The talks are open to all and will focus on Paisley’s historic textiles industry, while the workshops are aimed at 11-25-year-olds, and will mix traditional crafts with contemporary skills such as filmmaking, stop motion animation and podcasting.
“The idea is to draw on our past - that heritage of textiles in Paisley - and use those stories to build up a picture of how the future might look,” said Gillian.
She says the project involves maintaining Paisley’s history by connecting young people with older generations.
“I’m hoping that we can draw out some of the stories and experiences of people who worked in the mills, or have memories of some of the textile industries in Paisley in the past,” she said.
“Then through workshops, we’ll be teaching younger people how to film and record interviews, and to properly record the town’s history - in collaboration with the Paisley People’s Archive.”
Gillian highlighted the importance of taking an active role in preserving history.
“It’s very easy to become a bit inured to people who’ve been around a long time - ie old people - and think they’ll always be there. But, of course, we won’t! And when we go, we take with us a load of stories.
“And it’s only after people pass on that we realise ‘oh, I should have asked them that'.
“This project is a lot about asking those questions now. Not just textile questions, but ‘how did you get through things? What kind of attitude did you have?’”
Gillian says that the ‘resilience and renewal’ aspect of the project was inspired by the experience of going through Covid.
“A lot of young people really suffered,” she said. “They missed out on two years of growing up. As an older person, you might think ‘two years isn’t much,’ but it’s actually massive, and it’s been hugely impactful for that age group.
“A lot of them found it very difficult to come back into the world. They’d become so accustomed to communicating with each other and with the world online.
“That’s a whole attitude and way of thinking that has been imprinted on a generation. And I think we’ll see the outcome of that for a long time.”
As well as recalling and recording the past, the project will also look forwards, thinking about how clothes can be produced more sustainably.
“Textiles as an industry has to change,” said Gillian. “It’s reliant on systems that were built up in colonial times. For example, cotton is very cheap for us, but it’s incredibly expensive to produce in other countries, and incredibly destructive to local ecology.
“We’ll have spinning workshops where we go out and gather locally accessible fibres like thistledown and nettle, and spin them into experimental yarns. And there are loads of other alternatives we’ll be discussing, like hemp, rose bushes, banana fibre, and even pineapple.
“As a town, Paisley has a huge history of resilience, and of people innovating and starting something new. And that’s something we should remember, and be inspired by.”
Through The Mill will commence with a launch event at Mile End Mill on August 1.
Funding has been secured from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Young Start and Engage Renfrewshire’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund to deliver the programme in conjunction with Paisley People’s Archive, The Paisley Thread Mill Museum and community group Pachedu.
More information available at: https://remodeyouth.org/tc-events/through-the-mill-launch-event/
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