Amélie Crépy is launching her own interior upholstery fabric collection in collaboration with internationally renowned Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company and the natural dye specialists AO Textiles. Woven in 70% linen and 30% silk, this fabric has been exclusively developed with a natural dye derived from oak galls formed by wasp larvae, and will be unveiled for the first time at Amelie’s solo exhibition during London Craft Week.
Venue:
67 York Street Gallery, London W1H 1QB
Dates: 12-18 May 2025
To fulfil her long held vision to create a fabric using dye from natural dyes, she partnered with AO Textiles and Gainsborough Silks where natural dyes extracted from plants such as madder, weld, and chestnut are used to colour yarn. These yarns are now effectively used for jacquard weaving for the ultimate sustainable luxury. Creating black using natural dyes though had been notoriously challenging for AO Textiles. At Amelie’s request, and after extensive experimentation, they perfected a recipe using Oak Galls and introduced this new biodegradable black dye designed specifically for linen.
Amelie is so proud to be showing this exquisite and unique textile at London Craft Week. It has been an amazing journey and the support from AO Textiles and Gainsborough Silks has been invaluable. Together they have demonstrated that fabrics dyed using naturally derived colour from sustainable sources is not only possible but scalable, repeatable, and of the high-quality required by today’s textile industry. This has also been Amelie’s continued quest: to challenge mindsets and inspire others to consider how art and textiles can contribute to a healthier, more sustainable environment.
About Amélie Crépy
Amélie is a textile artist and designer working between the South of France and London.
Her work has evolved from an obsession with colour, texture and pattern. The physicality of woven fabric, combined with her history as a textile print designer, has inspired the development of her current practice and the layered patterns she produces. Her work is a socially and environmentally aware exploration into organic materials and physical processes. She endeavours to use only the purest of materials and as little as possible, often using just one colour. Amélie seeks to replicate synthetic processes and digital techniques with hand-made pigments, inks, dyes and other mediums.
Internationally acclaimed, Amélie’s work is available for sale through art and design galleries across the USA, UK and Europe. Amelie has held numerous exhibitions in the UK including, and more notably: Collect Open Art Fair 2022, and London Craft Week 2023, as well as having exhibited in Europe and Hong Kong.
Awards: The Alchemy of Blue – National Lottery Grant issued by the Arts Council, UK 2021
Instagram: @ameliecrepy
About Gainsborough Silk Weaving Co.
Founded in 1903, Gainsborough embodies over 100 years of British craftsmanship and creativity. Recognised internationally for exquisite fabrics, fine damasks, brocades and brocatelle’s, and awarded the Royal Warrant in 1980, their fabrics grace the interiors of the most discerning clients worldwide. Gainsborough is rare in the British textile industry for its ability to manage the entire production of fabric manufacture in-house: from processing and hand-dyeing the yarn, to weaving the finished fabric.
About AO Textiles
AO textiles is a project-based research & design consultancy founded by Karen Spurgin, Penny Walsh and Emma D’Arcey. With over 50 years combined experience as colourists and surface designers, AO textiles specialises in developing natural dyes for textiles in commercial production.
Thank you to Amelie Crepy for the text and images
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