Hancock Shakers were well known for their skillful work in processing wool from regional farms. Shaker production practices honored cooperative workplaces and the intimate relationships between land, people, and animals. Inspired by the Shaker practice of embodying value in the care of sourcing and textile production practices, textile designer and activist Laura Sansone has developed initiatives that bring together designers and farmers in New York State to source and make products with social environmental value. Advocating a Slow Fashion approach to design, Sansone is the creator of Textile Lab and the New York State Regional Textile Initiative, a collection of locally sourced and produced yarns and textiles that is intended to link apparel, products, and designers to a regional network of farms and fiber processing mills, including spinning, weaving, and knitting.
Like the Shakers, Sansone’s initiatives represent a transitional economy that celebrates the handmade, while looking ahead at scaling production to accommodate the needs of a small to mid-scale commercial market. The Shakers produced and advertised wool for “The World,” honoring cooperative workplaces. In the same way, it is Sansone’s mission to embody this communal ethos of embracing our roles as citizens between land, animal, and human life in order to connect farms and manufacturing by producing ethically sourced products in holistic ways. Sansone’s lifelong passion for spinning, weaving and knitting has become “Climate Beneficial” in the true sense of the Shakers’ work ethic: hands to work and hearts to God.
Local and Land Made: Growing a New Textile Economy featuring 19th Century Shaker wool-working tools from the Hancock Shaker Village collection was exhibited from September 19 – November 21, 2021.