Skip to Content

A New Home for Project Threadways - Donate to the Capital Campaign Today

The Archives

In the year 2000, fashion designer Natalie Chanin conducted interviews for a short documentary film, entitled Stitch, and created a collection of 200 one-of-a-kind T-shirts, hand-crafted by artisans in and around the Shoals community of northwest Alabama. This work, originally called simply “Alabama,” is today the foundation of three connected organizations:

Alabama Chanin—A brand that designs and produces textiles and fashion through commitments to sustainable design, preservation of artisanal craft, organic supply chains, and local manufacturing.

The School of Making—Workshops, conversations, and experiences that explore creativity, craft, and design through the act of making, focusing on cultural preservation and education.

Project Threadways—A 501c3 not-for-profit created to document, study, and interpret history, community, and power through the lens of fashion and textiles. Programs seek to understand the impact of textiles and their creation—from raw material to finished goods—on local communities, the American south, the nation, and the world.