In awe of their bravery, Mia Anderon's collection is dedicated to the ordinary women who protested for peace at RAF Greenham Common

Protesters at Greenham Common, standing by their handmade banners

Image: Women for Peace: Banners from Greenham Common by Charlotte Eden. Photograph by Homer Sykes

“At school, we had absolutely no feminist education. All I knew was that Frida Kahlo was the epitome of a feminist,” Anderson explains, trying to recall when her interest in feminism began. The 22-year-old womenswear designer, in her final year at Sheffield Hallam University, is using her newly acquired skill of knitting to interpret her interest in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.

This camp was established in 1981 by a small group of Welsh women, called the Women for Life on Earth, in protest of the deployment of cruise missiles at the RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire. Anderson’s fascination with these women began when she stumbled across an archive photograph of the protesters holding hands and dancing, and she wondered why she had no knowledge of this historical event. “It was crazy to me! How come this had never been mentioned in school?” The peace camp has been described by Alice Cook and Gwyn Kirk in their book Greenham Women Everywhere as “a women’s space in which to try to live out our ideals of feminism and non-violence, a focus for information and ideas, a meeting place, and a vital context for women to express their beliefs and feelings”.

Last year, Briar March directed a documentary about the 19-year-long protest called Mothers of the Revolution, featuring archive footage of the Greenham Common camps and interviews with the women who dedicated themselves to the cause. The documentary charts the brave acts of protesters, fuelled by terror. "The risk of doing nothing was greater than the risk of doing something," one woman remarked.

Activists dancing on top of the missile silos at Greenham Common, January 1983

Photograph: Sarah Booker

Anderson recently spent three months in Copenhagen, working for knitwear designer and Central Saint Martins alumni Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard. “I don’t know why she took me on because I didn’t know how to knit,” the young designer says. Anderson worked on Bjerregaard’s latest Fall/Winter 22 collection of intricate and delicate knit work, comprised of sensual silhouettes and sultry spider web techniques. Anderson’s genuine concern for sustainability aligns with that of Bjerregaard’s, who used upcycled materials for 90% of her Spring/Summer 22 collection. “I can’t ignore sustainability," says Anderson, “I’m always stressing out about making my designs as sustainable yet luxurious as possible.”

Look 08 of Bjerregaard's Fall/Winter 22 collection, made with delicate lace and earthy khaki shades

Image: @louiselynghbjerregaard

It was a happy accident that Anderson learnt to knit, since she would soon discover that the women of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp would knit each other’s jumpers and tie themselves to the barbed wire using yarn. “I saw a picture of the women holding hands and dancing around the nuclear silo. I originally thought it was some sort of witch ritual,” Anderson says. She was overwhelmed by the imagery and fascinated by the women’s “creative response to something very scary”. The designer has been looking into the symbolism used by the protesters, including the Venus and CND symbols that decorated banners and placards. Anderson also describes the more complex imagery, including the double-sided axe and the use of snakes. “The axe was thought to have been a weapon of choice by Amazonian warrior women and is associated with female divinity. The significance of the snake is focused on its transformation after it has shed its skin.”

This isn’t the first time feminism has been communicated through fashion. Dior’s lacklustre slogan t-shirts and Chanel’s performative catwalk protests were less successful in portraying a message of substance.

Taking direct influence from the protests, Anderson is highlighting the bravery and persistence of the women involved. “I like to think that sometimes they were being a bit cheeky,” she admits. “They tied themselves to the fence with yarn and wool so that the police couldn’t get to them. I find both the psychical and metaphorical difference between the barbed wire and wool an interesting aspect.”

Women causing chaos at Greenhan Common, tying themselves to yarn to avoid being moved by policemen, October 1982

Image: Women for Peace: Banners from Greenham Common by Charlotte Eden. Photograph by Edward Barber

Anderson has fashioned two of the six looks in her final collection from an old khaki tent, including a long coat with cut out panels stitched back together with crocheted spider webs. Her use of spider webs within this design derives from the connection to the Women’s Peace Movement. “A single strand of wool is so easy to break. But once the strands are knitted together, they become strong.” The designer uses this analogy to relate to the way in which the women of the camps have built a strong and widespread network.

When not using recycled materials, Anderson carefully chooses natural fabrics that “feel comfortable on the body”. She has sourced organic sheep wool from a farm shop to use in a felted piece and exclaims it “smells really strongly of sheep”. Another natural material used in the collection is a vivid, orange Japanese cotton that “almost looks like silk”. She says that she isn’t precious over her choice of colours for the collection, since she wants it to seem “mismatched” to reflect the spectacle of the colourful banners and tents at the camps.

Anderson's work-in-progress designs

Left: A knitted panel featuring the CND logo

Right: Jacket made from a repurposed tent

Images: Mia Anderson

Sourcing the ideal materials for the collection is proving difficult for the designer. “You can’t just pop out and get new fabric, there aren’t really any fabric shops in the Sheffield city centre. I have to get most of my supplies online,” Anderson says. She looks forward to when she can move to London and have unlimited access to resources.

Anderson’s collection will be exhibited at the Sheffield Hallam University’s degree fashion show on 25^th May. She has ambitions of starting her own slow-fashion knitwear brand and wishes to further her research of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.