London Craft Week: The Last Tassel Maker of the East End
At first glance, passementerie can feel like one of those wonderfully old-fashioned words that belongs to another century. It refers to the decorative world of tassels, braids, fringes and elaborate trimmings once found on everything from grand interiors to ceremonial dress. Yet at this year’s London Craft Week (11 - 17 May 2026), one compelling textile story from the festival comes from a maker proving that this historic discipline still has a place in contemporary design.
Jessica Light at work in her East London studio, where every passementerie piece is woven and finished by hand using centuries-old techniques.
Jessica Light, known as the “Tassel Queen of Bethnal Green”, is believed to be the last working passementerie weaver in London’s East End. For London Craft Week she brings A Maker of the Metropolis to East London Cloth on Vyner Street, a presentation that feels less like a conventional exhibition and more like a living portrait of a disappearing trade.
Jessica Light hand crafting tassels in her studio.
Light’s work sits at the intersection of heritage and reinvention. Every tassel, tieback, rosette and trim is hand-woven and made to order in her East London workshop using techniques that date back to the 16th century. But there is nothing dusty about what she creates. Her richly layered pieces use unexpected materials, carefully developed colour palettes and a slightly rebellious sense of scale that pushes passementerie beyond ornament and into something more sculptural.
Hand-woven silk tassels by Jessica Light, whose contemporary passementerie reimagines a centuries-old craft for modern interiors.
For the exhibition she is unveiling two new bodies of work. The first, The Phoenix and the Carpet, is a series of home and body wares inspired by imagined cities and urban landscapes, with shades that recall brass, wet tarmac and weathered steel. The second, Black Mountain, introduces a new collection of hand-woven trims and tassels that combines rough jute and linen with smooth rayon in vivid and neutral tones. Together they show how a craft once considered an afterthought can become the focal point.
What makes Light’s presence at London Craft Week especially meaningful is the chance to see the process itself. Visitors will be able to watch her working on a real commission during the week, offering a rare glimpse into a handmade practice that has almost vanished from the capital. She is also opening her Bethnal Green workshop to the public for a one-off tassel-making class, allowing a small group to experience the complexity behind these seemingly delicate objects.
A selection of threads, ribbons and specialist tools used by Jessica Light to create her hand-woven tassels and trims.
Light has created work for everyone from Vivienne Westwood to Buckingham Palace, yet her greatest achievement may be something quieter. In a city where many traditional trades have disappeared, she continues to show that old textile skills can still feel relevant, radical and unmistakably modern.
That wider conversation continues later in the festival when Light also takes part in Living Legacies, a special London Craft Week event organised by Heritage Crafts in partnership with the Leathersellers’ Foundation and the Saddlers’ Company. Bringing together some of Britain’s most endangered makers, the day-long showcase highlights the fragile future of specialist skills, from pigment making to shoemaking, and places passementerie firmly within that national story of preservation.
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Further Information:
London Craft Week takes place throughout the city from 11 - 17 May 2026.
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Image Credits:
Lead: The Vestal Tieback by Jessica Light, incorporating seven traditional passementerie techniques, from ruff making to hand-braided decorative elements. Made from horsehair/rayon/linen/cotton.
Further images courtesy of Jessica Light and London Craft Week