‘Lines have meaning in Belfast’: how old industry is giving the city a new identity

On a street in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, next to a hipster coffee shop and next to an ice-cream parlor with a non-stop queue from TikTok, the beautiful shop Kindred of Ireland trades in a surprisingly large and over-the-top aesthetic of pale pink blouses and pink buckets. tied with a bow around the neck.

Half a year after the Troubles, Belfast is getting a new look at the industry that once defined it. Linen – the fiber that built its wealth and named it Linenopolis – is being woven into the story of renewal. Nearly a century after the post-war collapse of the industry which, at its peak, employed 40% of Northern Ireland’s working population, linen is making a comeback as a symbol of identity.

“Belfast has long been viewed through a very narrow lens, associated with division, trouble and violence,” says Amy Anderson, the 32-year-old designer of Kindred of Ireland, the independent brand she runs with her husband, Joel. But the city has changed a lot in the last two decades.

Anderson’s grandmother Winnie was a “millie”, as mill workers were known, in the Moygashel cotton mills. “Linen is important in Belfast,” he says. “Many of my generation here have relatives who work in the linen industry, so the connection is still felt.” However, this is not just a nostalgia trip. Anderson’s modern aesthetic relies on Japanese-inspired haute garde and unconventional shapes, and the simple nature of linen lends itself to anchoring his design elements.

Reviving the almost extinct linen industry is a near impossible task. But Belfast – the city that turned the world’s most famous maritime disaster into a tourist industry in the Titanic Quarter – has more connection than much war, and the linen cause has brought together an unlikely group of cheerleaders, including designer Sarah Burton, the Prince and Princess of Wales and former blacksmith Charlie Mallon, who bought his 150-year-old growing farm from Magistrates. flax, the thread from which linen is made.

Mallon has bought and restored legacy machinery and hopes it will be able to take flax from field to fiber. Linen, prized for its beauty, durability and comfort, is “the first functional fabric”, he says. Traditional Mallon machines are designed to maintain the shape of a long line of linen, so that the final fabric does not shrink too much. Most modern linen is used in China with “cottonising” machines that shorten the fibers and create more creases.

Burton, who at that time was the leader of Alexander McQueen, took his creative team on a two-day trip to Northern Ireland, which became the inspiration for the collection of the year 2020. Burton was especially enchanted by visiting the humming machines of 150 years William Clark, the last factory where the linen is still “beetled”: it is beaten with wooden mallets to increase strength and shine. An ivory gown with puff sleeves in beetroot linen, with a unique sheen of pearl, made the star look the way of Paris.

Last fall, Amy and Joel Anderson met the Prince and Princess of Wales, who visited Mallon Farm on their tour of Northern Ireland. The Queen of Wales said she doesn’t want too much media attention in her clothes, but made an exception to talk fashion with Mallon and the founders of the Irish brand because of her interest in sustainable fashion and renewable agriculture. Amy Anderson told the Belfast Telegraph that the Queen was “very interesting” and “asked very good questions”.

The theme of Belfast’s fashion renewal also runs through Ashes to Fashion, an exhibition at the Ulster Museum marking 50 years since the fire that followed an IRA bomb in 1976 and destroyed almost the entire 10,000-piece fashion collection. The 1712 fabric, which escaped the fire because it was on display elsewhere, is on display alongside a curated collection from the fire, from 18th-century silk ballgowns to the latest pieces by Irish designers, including Philip Treacy, Dior designer Jonathan Anderson and Kindred of Ireland.

A temporary store for the Irish brand is planned for central London this summer. The six-week appearance in Mayfair in 2024 was “business rocket fuel” for the brand, says Joel Anderson, who notes that Northern Ireland businesses have full access to the UK market while remaining bound by certain EU single market rules under the Windsor plan. “This is a practical benefit for product businesses like ours, as well as being part of the wider story of what makes this place unique.”