Wyedean Weaving has played a central role in recreating one of the Brontë family’s most intimate artefacts for today’s red carpet premiere of Wuthering Heights.
Wyedean Weaving, based in Haworth, where the Brontës lived and wrote their famous novels, was briefed to create a replica of the 175-year-old mourning bracelet, owned and worn by Charlotte Brontë and made from hand woven hair thought to be of her sisters Emily and Anne. The bracelet is typical of mourning jewellery created in 1800s worn to commemorate the deceased and often featuring woven human hair, black jet, garnet or onyx set in gold or silver.
The bracelet replica was commissioned by Margot Robbie’s stylist Andrew Mukamal for wearing on the red carpet at the London and Australia premieres.
Margot Robbie plays the central character, Cathy Earnshaw in the film which also stars Jacob Elordi and is being released in cinemas on Friday 13 February. Wyedean directors and sisters Rosie Wright and Susannah Walbank delivered the replica to Andrew Mukamal on Tuesday. He noted its accuracy to the original and said Margot is looking forward to wearing it at the premiere.
Wyedean’s Managing Director Robin Wright, who has been liaising directly with Andrew Mukamal throughout the process said: “We got the call from the Brontë Parsonage Museum after Margot’s stylist had found the bracelet on the museum’s online artefact collection, when he was looking for ideas and imagery for Margot’s appearance on the red carpet.
“Andrew wanted to reflect the film’s heritage and style for the premieres and asked whether a replica of the bracelet could be made. Luckily the director of the museum, Rebecca Yorke had 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 Brontë Parsonage Museum in December 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 pulled out all the stops to create 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 our specialist ceremonial jewellery partners, McCarty London.”
The first stage involved detailed photography, analysis and specialist scanning of the original, capturing high-resolution data from different angles, alongside professional photography to help guide the crafts process.
Using the data, CAD files were produced 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 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 time constraints prevented bespoke dye development. Instead, we carried out 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: “Replicating the rare woven structure and getting the accurate braid colour and texture took the most time. 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. The finished replica bracelet 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.
Rebecca Yorke, Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: “When Andrew 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 particularly 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.”
Robin added: “This has been an extraordinary collaboration between heritage manufacturers, jewellers and museum specialists and has resulted in a faithful replica worthy of both the Brontë legacy and the upcoming red carpet premieres of Wuthering Heights. Operating from the Brontë’s former home town here in Haworth, we are thrilled to be part of celebrating British craftsmanship, ingenuity and historical respect across the generations. It goes down in our history of one of our greatest manufacturing achievements.”
