featuring Natalie Chanin, Olivia Ware Terenzio, and Victor Lytvinenko

In a moment when the textile industry is fueled by exploited overseas labor, toxic chemicals, and artificial intelligence over craft, we ask: what is the future of textiles? Guest edited by Natalie Chanin, this special issue of Southern Cultures asks how we might imagine a progressive way forward for textiles in the United States, with attention to sustainability, craft preservation, cultural heritage, justice and equity, entrepreneurship, and global economics.

Drinks & Conversation
Thursday, March 20
5:30–7:30 PM
*please RSVP

Garden Spot at Lantern
423 W. Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC

*This event is located outdoors in the Garden Spot behind Lantern, rain or shine! RSVP includes one drink ticket and hors d’oeuvres. Copies of the journal will be available for purchase.

Natalie Chanin is a designer, artist, writer, and founder of Alabama Chanin, Project Threadways, and The School of Making. She has a Bauhaus-inspired degree in Environmental Design with an emphasis in industrial and craft-based textiles from North Carolina State University. In 2000, she left a career in Europe and New York City to return to her hometown in The Shoals community of northwest Alabama, to begin the work of sustainable design, craft preservation, organic supply chains, local manufacturing, and the social equity work which culminates in the three organizations today.

Victor Lytvinenko is co-founder (with his wife, Sarah) and designer at Raleigh Denim, a small jeans manufacturer located in North Carolina. Founded in 2008, the company has gotten considerable attention in both the fashion and crafts press for its historically inspired production methods.

Olivia Ware Terenzio is a writer, editor, and arts and culture administrator who works in the American South. She is the associate director of programs and scholarship for Project Threadways, a nonprofit that records, studies, and interprets history, community, and power through the lens of fashion and textiles; and the editorial and marketing manager at the Southern Foodways Alliance, which explores the diverse food cultures of the changing region. 

Cover image: Now and Then, by Trish Andersen, 2023. Mixed yarns, 12 7/8 in x 12 7/8 in x 2 in (measurement includes frame).