Christopher Kane mines Gainsborough’s archive for Mulberry

A visit to the Gainsborough mill and archive proved transformative for Christopher Kane, whose design vision has recently shifted to helm Mulberry. Surrounded by the accumulated textile wisdom of over a century of British weaving, Kane and his collaborator Tammy engaged with one of the country’s most storied design collections, ultimately reimagining Gainsborough’s celebrated Chatsworth pattern.

The Chatsworth design carries particular significance within Gainsborough’s pantheon. Founded in 1903 by Reginald Warner, who spent the formative years of the twentieth century accumulating historic textiles across Europe, the company has built its reputation on a design archive spanning five centuries. This extraordinary resource, housed within the Sudbury mill established in 1924, draws inspiration not only from the documented past but from the looms themselves: some of Gainsborough’s Hattersley machines are nearly a century old, yet they continue to produce cloth of a quality that defines contemporary luxury weaving. Every fabric the house has ever made exists within this living library, creating an almost boundless well of reference for designers seeking to marry tradition with innovation.

That Kane chose to draw from this particular archive speaks to his understanding of craft legacy. His work at Mulberry, unveiled for London Fashion Week 2026, signals a designer engaged with the tangible histories embedded in exceptional textiles. The Chatsworth reworking demonstrates how a historic weave pattern can be interpreted anew, its geometric rhythms and sumptuous hand recast through a contemporary sensibility. In the hands of a designer of Kane’s calibre, Gainsborough’s archive becomes not a museum piece but a living conversation between past excellence and present ambition.

Imagery courtesy of Gainsborough Weaving (@gainsboroughweaving).