THE LIVING DRESS
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Living Dress is a beautiful large-scale art installation made from naturally dyed textiles using plants and flowers, presented on a stunning 5m tall sculpture representing Mother Earth.
The dress showcases ancient dyeing methods that predate synthetic chemicals, and was made by over 150 women from different communities in Greater Manchester. It invites visitors to consider the possibilities of working with nature in the clothes we wear, and the art we create, by seeing fabrics made with climate-kind processes.
Since 2022 we have been examining how we can change and adapt our fabrication practices. We have been looking at how we and the wider sector can respond to the environmental impacts on the planet our industry is causing. We’re moving towards becoming more climate kind and researching new ways of working which will reduce our water and energy consumption, as well as researching and implementing ways of using natural dyes, materials, and fibres in our work.
Over 2024 we made 4 Living Dresses, read more about how we made them below
THE DAMASK DRESS
We worked with local community groups to create textiles which have formed part of this special indoor installation as part of the Barnsley Bright Nights light art trail in November 2024.
It was designed and created specifically for Barnsley, inspired by the town’s history of linen making, hand loom weavers, and the Damask created in the town, and known as the ‘Pride of Barnsley’.
Silk designs by our wonderful Lizzie Rigby @lizardriggers
Made and produced by Cabasa
The dress has been dyed naturally using an ancient dyestuff called Madder, which produces a whole arrange of reds. The colour red also represents the home colours of Barnsley and local community. Madder has been used around the world since around 3000BC, it’s an ancient root and takes us back to the roots of textile dying.
This was a great chance to illuminate this piece, which works beautifully inside as well as outside.
MOSSLEY BLUE & THE INDIGO DRESS
In 2024 as part of our R&D, we began upscaling our growing to see how much pigment we could produce on-site here in Mossley, Greater Manchester. We have been developing our dye garden, which included Coreopsis, Dyers Chamomile, Cosmos, Rudbekia, and the main crop…Japanese Indigo.
After a first successful experiment in 2023, we upscaled operations in 2024 and brought together a community of Indigo Growers, growing Japanese Indigo (or Persicaria Tinctoria) in their gardens and allotments.
It was an amazing success and we used the first ever Mossley Blue pigment to dye our indigo dress which went out on display in Stockport in November 2024.
Thank you to our incredible group of community growers. We’ll be posting more about this process soon.
Let’s see what’s in store for 2025…
THE SPRING DRESS
This Oldham dress explored all things Spring, with a beautiful patchwork of fabric using climate kind materials and processes, worn by our amazing 5m tall sculpture.
Featured in this dress were lots of different processes including: eco printing, embroidery using naturally dyed threads, resist painting using Henna, dyeing using kitchen scraps (did you know avocado makes pink?), over dyeing with indigo, as well as stencil printing with plants, flowers, and nori rice paste resist.
We worked with Women’s CHAI Project based in Oldham, to make fabrics to tell their stories, and explore what has been passed down generationally from different women in their culture.
We also delved into local archives at Gallery Oldham and found historic embroideries created by women in Oldham which you can see throughout the dress. Young women were taught embroidery and generally the skills were used for make-do-and-mend clothing in the household in working class Mill working communities.
These skills are generally passed down the generations from women-to-women.
See what you can discover on this beautiful patchwork of fabrics.
The Spring Living Dress:
Photos by: Andrew Aitch
Created by: Cabasa Carnival Arts
Design and Concept: Emily Wood
Sculpture realised and sculpted by: Iola Weir
Sculpture fabricator: Dave Pack
Lead artists: Alison Hamilton, Dan Jones, Kate Rothery, Lizzie Rigby, Rowan Taylor, Nina Smith
Thanks to: Chai Women’s group and Oldham Council
Sewing, weaving, natural dye team at The Vale: Ann Gilligan, Anne Marie Caudwell, Becky Taylor-Christian, Jude Webb, Jaz Warzynska, Jo Cutting, Liz Kenny, Martha Distin-Webster, Rachel Wood, Sue Vickers, Sally Hyman.
Thanks to: Rachel Hirst for feeding the troops.
THE MADDER DRESS – ROCHDALE FESTIVAL OF IDEAS
The Madder Dress was our very first installation made completely with climate kind fabrics and processes. We used a hybrid of both ancient techniques and modern processes including soy resist painting, Japanese inspired Nori resist painting, as well as modern dye practices and methods of immersion dying. The 5m sculpture has been made using steel and treated so it will last for many years to come.Rochdale has a very rich history of textiles, once being one of the biggest producers and exporter of fabrics in the world. Today Rochdale is one of the most multicultural towns in the UK. Read more about our first ever Living Dress below.
WORKING WITH ROCHDALE COMMUNITIES
Rochdale’s Living Dress installation has been made with the help of three local women’s groups – Seriously Crafty, Women’s Welfare, and Soul Sisters.
Together, they have learned about the culture and stories behind the natural dye madder, which has been used around the world since around 3000BC. Madder is an ancient root and using madder in this first dress takes us back to the roots of textile dying, going back to nature, and making textiles in a slow way as well as working towards being more climate kind.
The groups Cabasa worked with are made up of many different backgrounds and experiences which is reflected in the dress. The women Cabasa worked with have been invigorated by what they have learned and want to take their own research into these natural processes further.
SCULPTURE
Realised and sculpted by the amazing Iola Weir, this beautiful piece of art will be the base for our 4 living dresses.
Standing at 4.6m tall she is mother Earth, growing from the roots of the planet out into the world above. The ethos of this whole project is about working to connect back with nature and explore global traditions of naturally dyed textiles.
It’s fitting that this beautiful sculpture will be wearing a dress mainly dyed from one of the oldest dyestuffs discovered, madder. The colour is drawn out from the roots themselves, which are cultivated over many years to get the magical hues of reds, oranges, and pinks.
The sculpture itself is made from aluminium and steel, which we will be able to keep for many years to come.
All will be revealed on Monday 4th March at Rochdale Festival of Ideas.
Sculpture Credits:
Design realised and sculpted by: Iola Weir
Fabricator: Dave Pack
Assistant sculptors:
Rowan Taylor
Lizzie Rigby
Overall design concept by Emily Wood
GLOBAL PATTERNS
The patterns on the dress were inspired by the benches outside Rochdale Town Hall, which were created by Cheshire-based designers Broadbent Studios and specialist ceramicists Darwen Terracotta, part of Rochdale town hall redevelopment and refurbishment. The designs are based on bolts of fabric from different continents and cultures.
We’ve also incorporated the madder plant and flowers in which this dress was inspired by. The images are of us creating the fabrics using batik and overdyeing, as well as images of the beautiful ceramic benches the designs have come from
Read more about their Global Patterns project here
GALLERY
This project is supported by:
