London Premiere of Women Grows Jeans at Picturehouse N8, collab with Northern England Fibreshed, Selvedge Magazine & Fashion Roundtable. Intro from Catherine West MP, Q&A by Tamara Cincik
Date: Saturday 6th September, 3.30pm - 6.30pm
Location: Crouch End Picturehouse
Justine Aldersey-Williams and her own-grown jeans.
This is a unique, immersion into regenerative practice spanning film, group discussion, meditation and intuitive embroidery.
There’s the story of the U.K.’s first pair of homegrown jeans, followed by a discussion chaired by one of the country’s foremost fashion advocates. Then we turn the theory into embodied practice during a guided meditation to seek inspiration from our heritage textile plants, flax and woad. We’ll challenge grind culture by relaxing to invite a deeper connection with the more-than-human world, before stitching some of the actual indigo grown during the film, into patches or garments in need of TLC.
SCHEDULE:
3:30pm - 3:35pm: Introduction by Catherine West MP
3:35pm - 4:25pm: Women Grows Jeans Screening
4:25pm - 5pm: Q&A/Panel Discussion with Tamara Cincik of Fashion Roundtable and panel TBC
5:30pm - 5:45pm: Guided Meditation to seek inspiration from flax and woad
5:45pm - 6:30pm Intuitive Embroidery with the U.K.’s only Fibreshed verified ‘British Indigo from Organic Woad’ linen thread from Home Grown Colour
Read the behind the scenes Q&A, with Justine Aldersey-Williams of Northern England Fibreshed and creator of Women Grows Jeans.
1) Woman Grows Jeans - what is the concept, and why did you decide to grow your own jeans to begin with? How was Patrick Grant involved?
I founded the Northern England Fibreshed in March 2020 with the aim of building a regenerative textile system in my region based on local resources and skills. One of the first people I approached was my friend Patrick Grant, who is known both as a clothing manufacturer and as a judge on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee. I believed his involvement could help raise awareness of the benefits of regenerative clothing and support the growing Fibreshed movement, which promotes a bioregional approach to textiles.
We both recognised that UK manufacturers were unable to fully align with Fibreshed’s principles of ‘local fibre, local dye, and local labour’ due to systemic barriers - namely, the dominance of fossil fuel-based dyes, the widespread use of cheap synthetic fibres, and the lack of processing infrastructure for homegrown textiles and dyes. In response, we decided to attempt something ambitious to provoke industry change: to grow indigo and flax in Blackburn and produce jeans made entirely from locally sourced materials. Patrick’s social enterprise, Community Clothing, became the platform through which we would try to bring them to market.
This idea became the foundation for ‘Homegrown Homespun’, a collaboration with arts organisation Superslow Way who run the British Textile Biennial. Our original plan was to create a prototype pair of jeans for the 2021 Biennial, followed by a small production run for 2023.
When we were unable to meet the first deadline, we decided to take separate paths towards the shared goal. Patrick focused on developing the commercial upscale of the jeans, Superslow Way volunteers planned to produce a kurta from our flax, and I returned to the idea of making a prototype pair of jeans using hand-based methods. At this point, I applied for support from Arts Council England’s ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ fund, and ‘Woman Grows Jeans’ became my personal focus within the wider project.
My work was not only about making a pair of jeans though. It was a way to explore the skills and knowledge that existed before industrial textile production. For thousands of years people made clothing without destroying ecosystems. I felt we had something important to learn from those ways of working, and that by sharing the process publicly, I could help expose the physical and cultural gaps in today’s supply chains and values.
2) This is the opposite of fast fashion, how long did it take you and what were the learnings?
The jeans took around 600 hours to complete. This figure invites us to question the values that dominate our current economic system, where speed, efficiency and profit are often prioritised over care and connection. Alongside growing and processing the flax and indigo, I spent a year learning to hand spin, followed by nine weeks spinning for three to four hours each day to produce the final weft yarn. These are not actions that align with the usual time = money equation. Instead, the project encourages other questions, such as how little harm was caused in the making of these jeans, how much reverence for nature was engendered as a result and how might these considerations shape our future sense of value.
For most of human history, growing and making clothes by hand over months or years was normal. This way of working fostered a different set of values that were rooted in ecological awareness, personal agency and mutual care. Woman Grows Jeans is a reflection on that history and what it might mean in the context of today’s climate and social crises. The film does not offer quick-fix solutions. Instead, it shares my process and invites audience discussions about what a regenerative transition might require. It asks us to slow down, sit with the tension of uncertainty, and pay attention to what emerges when we move away from extractive, acquisitive thinking and behavioural habits. Learning to hold that space is an important part of the work. It allows us to challenge assumptions, listen more carefully, and begin to repair the broken relationships that fast fashion relies upon.
3) Is this proof of concept for a new way to look at how we dress ourselves?
It’s a kind of proof of concept, though not in the commercial or technical sense. Woman Grows Jeans is not about creating a model for large-scale production - that was Patrick’s remit. My work invites people to rethink how we relate to clothing. It shows that it is possible to grow and make garments in ways that are rooted in place, that respect land, people, and process, and that unfold at a slower, more considered pace. It draws attention to what industrial fashion has displaced, and asks what might return if we begin to treat clothing as part of a living system.
A key part of this project was undergoing an initiation by working with heritage plants and the skills needed to co-create with them. This was not just a practical process but a rite of passage that revealed a deeper, more reciprocal way of making. I believe this kind of educational experience is essential if we are serious about shifting wasteful consumer behaviour. It asks us to engage with plants, materials, and time differently, inviting a change in mindset that cannot be achieved through messaging or policy alone.
Building on this work, I now offer the Growing Slow Textiles course, which takes an international audience through the whole process from seed to cloth each year. This course continues to explore these principles and supports people in developing a deeper connection to textiles and their origins. I don’t think anyone should be designing, making or wearing clothing without having undergone this kind of embodied initiation to instil a deeper respect for planetary materials and human labour. How else can we relate to those resources responsibly? My aim is not to offer a slower version of fast fashion, but to make space for different questions. What would it look like to dress in ways that nurture soil health, increase biodiversity, and promote social and environmental justice? What knowledge and values must we embrace to make that possible? These projects provide starting points for exploring these questions.
4) What are your thoughts on fibre sovereignty?
Fibre sovereignty is important. It means communities having the right and ability to control the growing, processing, and use of fibres according to their own cultural, ecological, and social values. This is not just about economics or supply chains. It is about reclaiming relationships with land, plants, animals, and traditional knowledge that have been disrupted by industrial and colonial systems.
True fibre sovereignty supports local ecosystems and respects the rhythms of place. It requires rebuilding skills and infrastructure that have been lost or marginalised. It also involves challenging the dominance of global fashion systems that prioritise cheap synthetic materials and exploit people and nature.
Growing textile crops such as flax and hemp through regenerative agriculture has significant potential to help address ecological collapse and climate breakdown. Regenerative practices, which focus on building healthy soils, increasing biodiversity, and restoring ecosystem functions, can sequester carbon, reduce erosion, and improve water retention. These fibre crops, when grown in this way, not only provide sustainable materials but also contribute to landscape resilience and climate mitigation.
For me, fibre sovereignty is part of a wider regenerative practice. One that honours interdependence, care, and reciprocity between humans and more-than-human worlds. It opens space for healing and rebuilding textiles as a living, place-based practice that nourishes both communities and ecosystems.
5) Can you explain a little about Fibershed and what you do within that network?
Fibreshed is a global network founded by natural dyer, Rebecca Burgess and focused on creating regenerative textile systems rooted in local landscapes. It promotes growing, processing, and making textiles within a specific bioregion to reduce environmental harm and rebuild connections to the land.
When I founded the Northern England Fibreshed in March 2020, it was the 15th internationally and 3rd in Europe. This number has since grown to 72 as the concept has resonated deeply with so many people. If all the Fibresheds in the world, the NEF is based in a region that was once the historic heartland of the Industrial Revolution which some might say, was the engine-room of capitalist colonialism. Our work is about confronting and repairing that legacy by reviving local fibre systems based on regenerative agriculture and traditional skills. This is a decolonial practice. We collaborate with growers, makers, and educators to rebuild supply chains that support ecological health, cultural renewal, and social justice. Ultimately, we see this as more than fashion; it’s a way to heal relationships between people and place.
6) Do you agree that regenerative models seem more solution oriented than the circular model which has had more traction?
Yes. Circular fashion has become widely adopted, focusing on reducing waste through recycling, reuse, and closed-loop systems because in some ways, it helps sustain business as usual. However, it often remains part of the same extractive industrial systems that drive fast fashion. While it can help reduce harm, it does not usually address the deeper issues of waste consumerism, environmental damage, poor labour conditions, or the disconnection between people and the places their clothes come from. Regenerative models, such as Fibershed’s “soil to soil” approach, aim to restore ecosystems through methods like agroecology and bioregional fibre systems. These models support soil health, biodiversity, and local economies, and seek to rebuild the relationships between land, people, and production.
Regenerative approaches also include social and environmental justice more directly than circular ones. They focus on local production and traditional skills, which can help build more resilient communities. While circular systems can be useful in reducing resource use, they do not usually question the wider economic and cultural systems in which they operate. Regenerative models encourage a more fundamental shift in how clothing is made and used, with an emphasis on care, responsibility, and long-term ecological health.
7) How does it feel to wear jeans you grew and dyed yourself?
It feels like I did my best to fulfil what the flax and indigo plants required of me and there’s a deep sense of relief and satisfaction in that. My intention was and still is to listen as closely as possible to the wisdom of the more-than-human world and to serve that, rather than imposing my own will on the process. This will be a lifelong journey, but in a country that will purchase 70 million pairs of imported jeans this year, it feels good to know that I helped produce the U.K.’s first pair of 100% homegrown jeans. I still find it incredible that with all the investment, technology and scientific research involved in British industry, the consumer still can’t buy a pair of British-grown jeans. Every pair available in shops is reliant upon fossil fuels either for their transportation, fibre or dye. If you want a pair of jeans that hasn’t caused harm, you’ll still have to grow them yourself and the only people who can do this are artisans, like me - same as it ever was!
There’s a lot to unpack in that realisation, particularly around how harmful systems have been amplified while women’s history (which is intrinsically tied to textile history) has been demeaned, devalued and mostly erased. If our clothes were an unpaid labour of love throughout the majority of human history, and if fossil fashion produced by enslaved people replaced that system, how do we now bridge that gap without resorting to exploiting people or planet? We’ve a lot more to learn but for now, the jeans exist as a historic totem of possibility. I believe we can grow a more equitable, beautiful future together, and the film shows how anyone who wears clothes can become a part of this exciting transition.
N.B. TICKETS JUST WENT ON SALE! And *PLEASE NOTE* this is a TWO-PART experience, so you must buy your film ticket from Crouch End Picturehouse and your workshop ticket from Selvedge Magazine.
Link to tickets: Crouch End Picturehouse