Sarah Colborne, curator of the Manuscripts and Special Collections exhibition at Lakeside Arts Fully Fashioned: Archival Remnants of the Textile Trade, explains that the title relates to the type of hosiery known as 'fully-fashioned'.

Using photographs, marketing materials and business records from the University of Nottingham’s lace and hosiery archive collections, the exhibition explores surviving evidence of the textile trade which was once a major feature of the East Midlands. Other collections reveal the struggle for workers’ rights, from the targeted campaign of machine breaking by the Luddites of the East Midlands (in protest at unfair pay and the introduction of ‘cut ups’ in favour of the superior fully-fashioned stockings), to the development of unions such as the Nottingham-based Amalgamated Society of Operative Lace Makers and Auxiliary Workers. The exhibition illustrates the rise and eventual decline of the trade, as it struggled to survive the ravages of war, the vagaries of fashion, and the battle to compete with cheap imports. The exhibition also reflects upon the way that Nottingham’s lace heritage and the spirit of the Luddites continue to inspire tourists, artists, and activists.