About textile traders
The story of Textile Traders began over forty years ago, when Jim and Diane Gaffney met whilst teaching English as a foreign language in Singapore. In December 1984, having returned to England with several suitcases full of Asian textiles, they held their first market stall at Leeds Queens Hall Antique Fair with their one month old baby Seamus in tow.
For the next decade they built a business that fitted in with their lifestyle, spending the summers trading at markets and festivals such as Womad, and most winters travelling to warmer climes in search of unique textiles. They built upon the relationships they had forged with batik artists in Indonesia and began to offer workshops across the UK for those who wanted to learn batik.
In 1997 the family moved from Lancashire to Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, where they opened their first (and only) bricks and mortar shop. The business grew and developed organically, and they collaborated with other textiles businesses to create World Textile Day, a series of events and markets celebrating textiles from around the world which is still going strong today.
In 2022, Jim and Diane began to edge into retirement and handed over the business to their son Sean and sort-of-daughter Olli (a family friend who has been helping in the shop since the late 90s). Sean has taken on the running of the shows and events, whilst Olli is running all things online.
Fair trade textiles
It has been a privilege to grow our family business alongside many of the family businesses we buy from in South East Asia. Over the years, many of our suppliers have become good friends, and this enabled Textile Traders to continue and even thrive during the pandemic, in spite of the travel restrictions.
Though we still travel to Indonesia and Thailand and buy almost all of our stock from the places where it's made (and whenever possible from the people who make it), for environmental reasons we have been slowly moving towards less air travel and therefore using our local connections and trusted buyers more.
Trading fairly and ethically has always been an important part of our business, and this is one of the reasons we prefer to buy directly from the makers. This means we know that everyone is happy with the deal, and the money is going straight to the people who continue to make high quality textiles in the face of considerable pressure from the global economy!
UK Batik Experts
With over forty years of experience sourcing and trading Asian textiles, Jim and Diane Gaffney have built a reputation as experts in their field, and in spite of their "retirement" they continue to have oversight over Textile Traders for the time being.
Jim continues to give talks across the country, and trades in more antique and one-off pieces at the odd show, and Diane still plans to offer her popular batik tours in Indonesia occasionally.
Diane has been involved in the Batik Guild for many years, helping to support and promote contemporary batik artists. You can find her book, Batik Transitions, written with the support of the Batik Guild here.
You can read the back catalogue of travel blogs on Diane's personal blog Asian Textile Journey, and hear more about how the business started in this interview for Stitchery Stories.