THE much-anticipated new film of Wuthering Heights premiered at London’s Leicester Square this week – and its star, Margot Robbie, wore a replica Brontë bracelet crafted by Haworth-based Wyedean Weaving.
Oscar-nominated actress and producer Margot Robbie walked the red carpet wearing custom Dilara Findikoglu and a replica made by Wyedean Weaving of a 175-year-old mourning bracelet, owned and worn by Charlotte Brontë. The original bracelet was made from hand woven hair, thought to be of her sisters Emily and Anne, and was the inspiration for Margot’s dress design.
Margot Robbie, wearing the bracelet, at the Wuthering Heights premiere. Image: Ian West/PA
During the Victorian era, it was common practice to make mourning jewellery incorporating the hair of a deceased relative. The bracelet, woven in Haworth with collaboration from Wyedean’s specialist ceremonial jewellery partners, McCarty London, who hand crafted the gold clasp set with garnets, was delivered by Wyedean to Margot Robbie’s team on Monday, ahead of Thursday’s premiere.
Dilara created a tulle fantôme corseted dress with a gathered silk French chiffon train. Inspired by Charlotte’s mourning bracelet, synthetic hair was hand-dyed to precisely match the hair of Anne and Emily Brontë, and hand braided to encapsulate their connection.
Fourth-generation manufacturer Wyedean Weaving, based in Haworth, where the Brontës lived and wrote their famous novels, created the replica bracelet, which combines three different shades and 280 braided threads and was sealed with a dry steam pressing process to stabilise the structure and preshrink the braid before being fitted into the clasp pieces.
Wyedean Managing Director Robin Wright said: “We got the call from the Brontë Parsonage Museum after Margot’s stylist found the bracelet on the museum’s online artefact collection when he was looking for ideas and imagery for Margot’s red carpet appearance.
“He wanted to reflect the film’s heritage and style for the premieres and asked whether a replica of the bracelet could be made. The director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Rebecca Yorke visited Wyedean as part of our 60th anniversary celebrations and knew our capability in weaving and ceremonial items manufacture so came to us straight away.”
Robin and his wife Debra were invited to the Parsonage to meet Rebecca Yorke and Principal Curator Ann Dinsdale to inspect the original bracelet and discuss the feasibility of creating a replica.
In just four weeks the Wyedean team of specialist technicians created the first ever replica of the original bracelet, ready for delivery to Margot Robbie just days before this week’s red carpet event.
Robin said: “The aim of the project was to create a museum-quality replica which honoured the original’s materials, construction and appearance, while ensuring the historic artefact itself remained protected.
“We agreed that our specialist expertise in braiding could accurately reproduce the bracelet’s intricate hair braid, while the garnets in the centre and their gold settings needed collaboration from McCarty London who crafted the components to form the broach settings. Their most talented engraver was selected for the final task of perfectly replicating the fine detail of the original bracelet.”
Detailed photography, analysis and specialist scanning by Gala Creations London, ensured data was collected from the original bracelet to create CAD files for mould creation including brooch settings, pendant and clasp, all cast in molten silver alloy. These were shaped and assembled by McCarty London to mirror the original construction.
The replica bracelet next to Wyedean’s 100-year-old maypole machine, which was used in its creation. Image: Stephen Garnett
The bracelet’s braid is not conventionally woven but uses a rare diagonal plaiting construction. Although Wyedean adopted a mechanised process using its 100-year-old flat braiding machine, the result was an exact replica of the hand-plaited technique used approximately 175 years ago.
Robin explains: “Matching colour and texture was also a real challenge. Using human hair was ruled out and instead we ran extensive trials using off-the-shelf yarns including silk, wool, cotton and synthetic fibres. A polyester-cotton blend provided the closest texture to human hair.”
He added: “It was particularly complex because the original hair bracelet has metameric properties meaning the shade appears different in changing light. We ran 12 colour trials using five different yarn shades with each one taken back to the Parsonage for comparison with the original.”
The final result was met with approval by Brontë Parsonage after 40 hours of production, 12 trials, six visits and 250,000 metres of thread had been used.
Rebecca Yorke, Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum said: “The museum holds the world’s largest collections of Brontë manuscripts, clothing and personal possessions and we take our responsibility as custodians extremely seriously.
“This event has offered an unprecedented opportunity to share an item from our collection and tell its story with a global and contemporary audience.”
She added: “When Margot’s team asked for suggestions of UK jewellers or manufacturers who might be able to recreate a faithful and high-quality replica of Charlotte’s garnet bracelet, I immediately recommended Wyedean Weaving. I knew they had the experience, tools and technical expertise to fulfil the requirements of the brief, and felt it was fitting that they were based in Haworth in a building that would have been known to the Brontës.
“We are now working with Robin and his team to create a limited edition of the piece to sell via our museum shop.”
