The master weaver: London’s first micro mill in 100 years creates eco-friendly and unique textiles

Micro has become something of a buzzword: we’ve had micro breweries, micro roasteries, even micro flats. But when Daniel Harris established the London Cloth Company in Clapton in 2011, he opened London’s first micro mill. It was also the first mill of any size to be opened in the capital for more than a century.

Having taken a degree in sewing and worked for eight years stitching fabrics for TV, film and fashion, Harris bought his first loom, rescuing it from an old barn in Wales. “I’d never seen a loom before. I just decided to do it,” he says. He set to work restoring it, learning his new craft as he went along.

He spent the next several years acquiring and restoring more looms, visiting closing and abandoned mills across the UK to feed his loom habit, going to great lengths and considerable expense to transport them to London. On one occasion, he spent over £7,000 in one day just on removing machinery, taking the roof off an old mill in the process.

DISTINCTIVE LOOMS

Now based in Epping, his collection of vintage looms dates back as far as the 1870s, and includes one which had last been used to make medical gauze in wartime. Interest in them is such that he even does a sideline in tours of the mill through Airbnb Experiences, where visitors get to weave their own scarf.

Not only does each loom have its own story, Harris believes they also give his fabrics a distinctive signature that cannot be found elsewhere, capturing “the real essence of vintage weaving that simply can’t be achieved with modern machines”.

His client list, which includes key players in the fashion and film industries, proves his point. The special quality of his fabrics, along with his passion and expertise, made him the perfect fit to produce a new collection of textiles conceived by UK design brand Lane.

Established in 2012 by graphic designers Joff Casciani and Ollie Wood, Lane is built on a commitment to sustainability that goes far beyond lip service. Everything it produces is made in Britain, using natural materials. Products include, for example, concertina lamp shades made from Yorkshire paper, ceramics hand-thrown in Derbyshire, and cushions made from tweed woven in Bute.

As Casciani explains: “With most brands, the signature of the designer is the driving point: the blueprint is to dream up an idea and work out how to make it happen. If you want to design sustainably, you have to do it in reverse — see what’s around you and what you can do with it. When you start to look at materials and processes, you start to build a more individual aesthetic, and find interesting people who do things differently. That’s how we came across Daniel.”

TRUE BLUE

For their Lane X London Cloth textile collection, they chose the deep, dramatic blue of natural indigo, a dye not often used for interior fabrics, and Harris is believed to be the only UK weaver producing true indigo cloth.

Unlike dyeing methods that involve submersing the yarn in the dye and using pressure to force the colour through it, with the rope-dyeing process the yarn is twisted into a rope, dipped in and out of the dye and allowed to oxidise, so that the core of the yarn remains white. The result, when it is woven, is a fabric with an almost shimmery finish that acquires more character as it ages and wears.

This lustrous effect can be seen in the rich cotton used for Lane’s collection, where it has been fashioned into cushions, throws, bags and table linen in on-trend inky hues with a denim-like appearance.

KEEPING VINTAGE CRAFTS ALIVE

For Harris, who exports most of his fabrics, “it’s so much nicer to work with a small UK company”. And for Londoners, who usually buy imported textiles — over 90 per cent from overseas, usually the Far East — the collaboration offers a more eco-friendly choice in something designed and produced closer to home.

As the city’s industrial space dwindles and workshops and factories give way to tech and finance, it is also a chance to support a creative manufacturer who is helping to keep a vintage craft alive.