INSIDE DASH + MILLER

Shortly after its inception in 2009, Bristol-based woven textile design studio Dash + Miller attracted the attention of couture fashion houses, which saw them become one of the world’s leading woven concept specialists. Following their recent collaboration with Bristol-born photographer Garry Fabian Miller for his latest exhibition at Arnolfini, we caught up with co-founder Juliet Bailey...

In 2009, woven textile designers Juliet Bailey and Franki Brewer founded Dash + Miller, initially opening their portfolio of experimental and innovative hand-weaving techniques to select manufacturers in the Italian textiles industry. The outstanding translation of their designs from hand-woven concept to industrial production caused a ripple effect, which soon saw the studio reaching out to clients in the USA and Europe, attaining global recognition as one of the best fabric design studios for woven fabric and textile trends.

The duo, through hand-weaving, struck upon a unique recipe for design, which provides usable and exciting ideas relevant for designers in couture fashion houses, sportswear brands and high-street fashion and homeware brands, to name just a few. The studio also regularly works with some of the most well-respected mills and fabric producers around the world; informs and inspires the creation of fabrics; and attends the Première Vision Paris –a biannual gathering place for creative fashion professionals.

The team’s experimental creativity combined with their deep level of technical understanding and access to the right technology allows them to realise their ideas in a way that makes them unrivalled as the world’s leading woven concept specialists. In the studio, the team of highly skilled weavers have assembled a remarkable range of equipment, including the latest Computer-Aided Design (CAD) weaving software, 8-24 shaft dobby hand-looms and a Norwegian Jacquard hand-loom. Outside of the studio, Dash + Miller employ a network of multi-disciplinary textile specialists with creative knowledge and expertise in embroidery, screen and digital print, lasercut, mixed media, and dyeing, all of which allow them to offer an exceptional design service relevant to an evolving and responsive creative industry.

What’s more, in 2015, Juliet and Franki founded the Bristol Weaving Mill – a micro-mill based in the heart of Bristol offering a noboundaries approach to the design, sampling, and manufacture of woven fabrics and soft accessories. Built by designers for designers, both creativity and craftsmanship lies at the heart of everything it does and the team marries traditional weaving methods with innovative and trend-led design. Juliet and Franki believe that good design and high-quality manufacture works together to maximise the lifespan and longevity of any possession.

The founders are dedicated to exploring local, sustainable, innovative, and traceable materials and processes, aiming to limit the impacts of textile manufacture on our planet wherever possible. Each client receives a tailor-made design and development service whether the outcome is hand-woven lengths for couture garments, creative solutions in transforming surplus/waste materials into luxury textile items or woven soft accessories made from the fleece of small herds of alpaca and rare breed sheep.

Three years ago, Dash + Miller and the Bristol Weaving Mill undertook a collaborative process with Bristol-born photographer Garry Fabian Miller, experimenting with colour, yarn, structure and the boundaries of the dobby loom to create a hybrid tapestry woven dobby-cloth. Hanging in the first floor of Fabian Miller’s ADORE exhibition at Arnolfini is three of four of the tapestry pieces that Dash + Miller have created with Fabian Miller. This month, we caught up with Juliet to find out more…

Tell us about your collaboration with Garry Fabian Miller and where the project began...

Collaborating with Garry has been a huge pleasure and privilege. We were thrilled when he approached us to work together, and as our relationship has progressed we have been astounded by his level of trust in our designs and our process. Due to the pandemic we didn’t have the opportunity to meet face to face until well into the design and production process. The projects have originated from Garry’s desire to translate and interpret his processes into different textile mediums, and he’s allowed and encouraged us to push the boundaries of what is possible within dobby handloom weaving. The wide mixture of processes and materials we have explored during the creation of these tapestries has been incredible, and has really pushed the capabilities of our design team.

Can you describe the creative process for projects at Dash + Miller and how everything from the design concept to the production of fabric is created in-house?

Working on handlooms and drawing from an extensive catalogue of raw materials, our designers utilise their creative expertise and unique take on brand identity to develop innovative and showstopping fabrics. Our close links with mills in the UK and Italy allow us to see a fabric development through to production when required.

After founding Dash + Miller, what was your vision for the Bristol Weaving Mill?

Franki and I as Dash + Miller were awarded the first joint scholarship by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) in Spring 2013. This allowed us to embark upon an extended research and networking tour within the UK textiles manufacturing industry, visiting some of the most historic and prestigious facilities for fibre processing, spinning, weaving, finishing and dyeing and learning about the processes and scope on offer. Encouraged by our new understanding and connections, this research planted the seed for a new design-focused sampling and smallproduction facility and, in 2015, after a successful bid to the ERDF West of England Growth Fund, Dash + Miller’s sister company The Bristol Weaving Mill was born. In 2016, we were proudly awarded the QEST Fattorini Medal of Excellence for outstanding contribution to our craft and the sector, while demonstrating our commitment to training and passing on skills to the next generation. The two companies are completely autonomous, however, we do sometimes have shared clients and partner together to deliver an outcome for a client.

Tell us about your local and global suppliers and the materials you use...

Our unique placement as a small-scale and local manufacturing facility allows us at the Bristol Weaving Mill to explore and enable a great variety of sustainable projects and processes. We recognise the importance of limiting the environmental impact of our activities and are continually reviewing and improving our processes and resources.

Over the past five years, we have built strong relationships with pioneering regenerative fibre producers and sustainable closed-loop textile projects. We are a proud member of the South West England Fibreshed, and our clients have looked to us to propose creative solutions for their surplus materials and textile waste, often with beautiful, luxury outcomes.

Tell us about your sustainable practices and why they are so important to Dash + Miller and the Bristol Weaving Mill...

Core to the Dash + Miller and The Bristol Weaving Mill’s ethos is the concept of sustainable, responsible design. It’s our belief that it’s our responsibility to influence our clients and the wider textile industry through sustainable choices that are made at design level. The studio’s networks within UK sourcing and manufacture have allowed the team to unlock localised and traceable channels to textile production, facilitating circular development processes from raw materials through to the finished product. Both cutting-edge technology and traditional low-tech processes play a role in advancing this emerging area of the textile industry and we are working to connect the dots and create more futureproof outcomes. We believe that our positioning within the product development process bestows on us a responsibility to design sustainable outcomes. Our R&D in circular sourcing and localised, traceable textile solutions feeds our curiosity about how to deliver a more sustainable future for the industry. Our knowledge and networks support us in delivering research and consultation for sustainable textile solutions. n

• dashandmiller.com; bristolweavingmill.co.uk. Dash + Miller studio images by Alice Hendy Photography