In this week's blog post, we meet the two recipients of the Heritage Crafts and The Costume Society's partnership bursaries, funding training for craftspeople to preserve and promote textile and costume skills.
Heritage Crafts, a UK charity dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the breadth of traditional crafts, many of which are or are at risk of being endangered, is a long-standing partner of The Costume Society. The partnership represents a shared ambition to protect and promote the skills that are so integral to our material and cultural heritage, and to platform the wonderful craftspeople that work within it. The organisations have previously collaborated on projects such as the creation of the Fashion Textile Maker of the Year Award in 2024, which is continuing for 2025.
As part of its work, Heritage Crafts allocates a range of bursaries to support heritage craftspeople in furthering their training, including two bursaries funded by The Costume Society. Vice Chair of The Costume Society, Professor Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas, said of the partnership: ‘These bursaries extend the Costume Society’s mission to support the study and promotion of historic and contemporary dress by providing opportunities to enhance and protect the craft skills of makers that are so central to fashion textiles. These opportunities are made possible by a legacy from founder member Anne Thomas, who worked tirelessly to celebrate excellence in makers and making.’ Today, we meet the two recipients of this year’s bursaries.
Megan Graham is a designer and design historian from Belfast. Her bursary will go towards her training in advanced pattern cutting and product development, guided by pattern cutter and dressmaker Manuel Vadillo. About the bursary award, Megan said: ‘This funding from Heritage Crafts is invaluable. It gives me the space to explore and extract stories from historical archives and overlooked objects, breathing new life into what’s often seen as intangible history. It allows me to deeply engage with the processes of pattern cutting and draping, using modern tailoring techniques to reinterpret and deconstruct historical dress into pieces the celebrate craftsmanship of the past and present.’
Designer Ryan Rix, from Swansea, will train in bespoke tailoring at the Tailoring Academy in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Beyond this, he will secure a job in high-end fashion, theatre, or film, before taking on his long-term ambition of working as a self -employed tailor. Ryan also plans to continue the work of Heritage Crafts in his personal practice, looking to share his expertise to teach future tailors. Ryan explained how ‘securing funding to use for my craft practice and training is really exciting and a step in a great direction!’.
To learn about last year’s Heritage Crafts bursary recipients, visit our previous blog post.
