Texere Yarns plays part in new Hollywood blockbuster

Article Added: 06/11/2008

A former Victorian chapel in the heart of Bradford’s old merchants’ quarter has developed close links with the glitter of the movies and the West End stage.

Texere Yarns Ltd. of College Mill, Barkerend Road, is the UK’s leadingmail order supplier of yarns for textile crafts. In recent years, this familyrun business has been the unlikely source of film and stage props and materialfor costumes for a number of blockbuster films and stage productions.

The company’s latest foray into the world of showbiz has been supplying balls of wool for the set of a new film by Hollywood actor Tom Hanks – star of Saving Private Ryan and the Da Vinci Code.

The movie – City of Ember – was released on 10 October 2008 and was shot in Belfast. The futuristic plot includes an oldfashioned wool shop and researchers from the film company, Pipeworks, contacted Texere, which has supplied hundreds of balls of wool along with knitting needles and patterns for the make-believe shop.

The premises of Texere Yarns is an Aladdin’s cave of yarns and accessories for textile crafts and has proved a useful source of items fora range of productions including silk yarn for the film Elizabeth and the West End musical Mamma Mia, where one of the cast wears a costume featuring yarn from Texere.

Texere’s managing director, Robin Smith, said: “In recent years we have had a number of requests for props and materials from film and stage producers.

“The major proportion of our regular business is now online, direct to the public all over the world and our website www.texereyarns.co.uk is the biggest of its kind on the internet, so researchers probably find us that way.”