Abstract
Current textile classification systems often divide fabrics into mutually exclusive categories such as weaves, knits, and nonwovens. While useful for distinguishing basic structural differences between textiles, such taxonomies frequently fail to account for hybrid structures and may inadvertently discourage research into them. This paper proposes the notion of the "thread arrangement" as a conceptual lens to nuance such rigid classifications and to manifest the creative agency of the textile designer. By synthesising insights from textile design, creativity, and classification theory with potential-focused perspectives from textile archaeology, the term is developed as a meta-category that emphasizes the duality of the textile as both a finished result and its previous deliberate act of arranging. Through the reflective analysis of terminology developed in the author's practice-based doctoral research and different types of textile hybrids, the paper demonstrates how this lens makes structural transgressions visible and describeable. The findings suggest that shifting the focus from categorical definitions to structural potentials can allow for a more inclusive understanding of textile hybrids. The thread arrangement framework provides a space for reflective discovery, acknowledges textiles as open-ended systems of arranged threads, and reinforces the textile designer’s role as their hands-on creator.
Keywords
Textile design; Thread arrangement; Agency; Hybridity
DOI
10.21606/TI-2026.172
Citation
Drews, J.(2026) Including the Hybrids: The Thread Arrangement as a Lens for Manifesting Textile Designers' Agency, in Jane Scott, Sophie Skach, and Rebecca Stewart (eds.), Textile Intersections 2026, 17-18 September 2026, London, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/TI-2026.172
Conference Track
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Included in
Including the Hybrids: The Thread Arrangement as a Lens for Manifesting Textile Designers' Agency
Current textile classification systems often divide fabrics into mutually exclusive categories such as weaves, knits, and nonwovens. While useful for distinguishing basic structural differences between textiles, such taxonomies frequently fail to account for hybrid structures and may inadvertently discourage research into them. This paper proposes the notion of the "thread arrangement" as a conceptual lens to nuance such rigid classifications and to manifest the creative agency of the textile designer. By synthesising insights from textile design, creativity, and classification theory with potential-focused perspectives from textile archaeology, the term is developed as a meta-category that emphasizes the duality of the textile as both a finished result and its previous deliberate act of arranging. Through the reflective analysis of terminology developed in the author's practice-based doctoral research and different types of textile hybrids, the paper demonstrates how this lens makes structural transgressions visible and describeable. The findings suggest that shifting the focus from categorical definitions to structural potentials can allow for a more inclusive understanding of textile hybrids. The thread arrangement framework provides a space for reflective discovery, acknowledges textiles as open-ended systems of arranged threads, and reinforces the textile designer’s role as their hands-on creator.