BLOCK PARTY

How Jules Haines is repurposing unused block-printed fashion fabrics for soft furnishings

By EVE HERBERT

Since 2020, Jules Haines has been on a mission to help counter the 400,000 tonnes of homeware textile waste that ends up in UK landfi ll each year. Her business, Haines, is a pioneering online salvage platform for the resale of unwanted textiles and home furnishings and to date, 20,229 metres of fabric have been repurposed, rehomed and saved through Haines’ platform. “Think of us as The Vestiaire Collective for the interiors industry,” she says – and the brand’s latest collaboration project aims to highlight the importance of repurposing textiles rather than creating new ones.

In a new partnership that marks Haines’ fi rst foray into fashion, she has teamed up with Gabby Deeming, founder of block-print fashion studio Daydress, to curate a new limited edition collection of fabrics, soft furnishings and lampshades made from surplus textiles.

“I started speaking to Gabby from Daydress last year about a surplus of last season's fashion fabrics that she thought could potentially be repurposed into soft furnishings,’ says Haines. “We work with a number of luxury fabric brands selling fabrics and o cuts that include defective prints and end of line designs, rehoming these with customers and interior designers who are conscious about their environmental footprint and prefer to re-use rather than buy new. Working with Gabby, we’ve been able to take this beautifully made, hand block-printed fabric and repurposed it for an interiors audience selling a variety of prints by the metre. It’s a wonderful fabric to use for small soft furnishing projects – and we’ve also created our own ready-made capsule collection of cushions and lampshades so that you can now bring Daydress textiles straight into your home.”

It’s a win-win situation for Deeming too. “It’s been a real joy to see our fabrics re-imagined for interiors,” she says. “I’ve always admired Haines’ approach at turning one person's surplus into another person's treasure for the home. Leftover or misprinted fabric can be a bit of a head-scratcher and when I was left with various lengths from my SS22 collection,

I could see that there was huge potential for it to be more than dresses, and I knew immediately who I should talk to. My fabrics are all hand block-printed by a small workshop in Jaipur. Each print is unique and producing them requires immense skill and patience. The colour palettes that I’ve developed from season to season layer together beautifully, which also makes them perfect for use in interiors too.”

The limited-quantity collection includes 17 original block-print patterned fabrics from the Daydress archive. Each expertly printed by hand using traditional methods, signature floral motifs run throughout with artworks designed both by Gabby Deeming and Daydress print collaborator, Ellen Merchant. Inspiration has been taken from a range of sources – from 18th century Indian and French prints to Ottoman artworks and London’s Fashion & Textile Museum – with ideas re-imagined and translated using modern colour palettes, scale and placement to create a series of unique fabrics that combine past and present. “As soon as I discovered block printing I knew it was the medium for me,” says Gabby. “It’s a centuries-old craft and - despite the advances in technology - still continues in many workshops and studios across India. It might be the simplest and the slowest of all textile- printing methods, but for me it yields some of the most beautiful results and I know the combination of patterns and painterly printing will be beautiful within an interior setting.”

“With this collaboration we’ve managed to repurpose over 1,000 metres of fashion fabric to be re-used and re-homed via a different industry,” says Jules. “One of the motivations behind this project was to reach new audiences and raise more awareness about the throwaway culture of the interiors world. Unlike the fashion industry, which is reported on and called to account regularly for its sustainability footprint, there is little awareness around the textile waste that is generated by the UK interiors industry, a market that is valued at over £13.8 billion. We all need to make changes to how we decorate and reduce the impact we’re having on the environment. With collaborations like these, we’ll be able to discuss and develop new ways of tackling the world's interiors waste problem, working collectively towards more responsible and sustainable ways of decorating and living.”

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