07 September 2026
Hayley Mills-Styles uses fabric and thread to record stories, preserve memories, and explore the complex experiences that shape our lives. Working across embroidery, assemblage, photography, and collage, her practice pushes beyond traditional ideas of textiles to create richly layered artworks.
“I always say what I make is textile drawings and objects,” she explains. “If you just say embroidery, people imagine a nice delicate embroidery. Not a piece about mental health or childhood trauma.”
““[Textiles] can be strange. They can include photographs, found objects, all kinds of different materials.”
Embroidery has been part of Hayley’s life since childhood. She began stitching at the age of four, initially learning through traditional kits and samplers. It was during her A-level studies that she realised textiles could become a vehicle for contemporary artistic expression.
“I suddenly thought textiles don't have to be adorable little embroidered flowers,” she says. “They can be strange. They can include photographs, found objects, all kinds of different materials.”
An interest in personal narratives is a recurring thread throughout Hayley's work. Drawing on lived experience of obsessive compulsive disorder, she creates artwork that invites reflection without prescribing a fixed interpretation.
Following the death of her mother, memory became an important focus, leading to a body of work exploring bereavement and commissions developed in collaboration with other artists, such as the Grief Series and Projecting Grief.
Many of the textiles she uses are reclaimed or donated. Growing up in a household where materials were routinely repaired and repurposed shaped her attitude towards making and sustainability. “I had access to drawers full of old fabrics and recycled materials when I was a child,” she explains. “Taking things apart and remaking them felt completely natural.”
These donated fabrics carry their own histories with them. One significant example appeared in her panel commission for the Leeds Tapestry, Threads of Freedom, where she worked with participants to respond to the question, “What does freedom mean to you?”
The work incorporated patchwork begun by a participant’s mother in the 1950s, later worked on by her daughter, before finally being integrated by Hayley into the completed artwork. “There's something magical about that,” she says, reflecting on the experience. “Three women working on the same piece in different decades.”
““I photograph things, take notes and collect ideas. Then back in the studio I start pulling together fabrics, threads, photographs and found materials to see how they relate.”
In addition to her participatory commissions, Hayley creates artwork inspired by the Yorkshire coast. Her first solo exhibition, Archive & Other Stories, drew on her memories of childhood holidays and the impression left on her by the collections in Whitby Museum.
“Both Whitby and the museum have played a significant part in my life,” she explains. “As a child I visited the museum with my grandparents and would spend hours looking at the cabinets of treasures, creating stories and learning about the rich history of the area.”
Other works, such as Flotsam and Jetsam, combine found wood, rope, rusted metal and embroidery in circular assemblages referencing walks around the harbour. The bold colours and weathered materials evoke both the physical landscape and the emotional resonance of place.
Hayley's ongoing Fancy Goods project draws directly on seaside arcades and souvenir shops, exploring nostalgia and the visual culture of coastal towns. She keeps extensive notes, observations that gradually evolve into new work.
“I’ve always got a pen and paper with me,” she says. “I photograph things, take notes and collect ideas. Then back in the studio I start pulling together fabrics, threads, photographs and found materials to see how they relate.”
When it comes to creating her artwork, Hayley often begins by stitching directly into fabric. Using embroidery as a form of experimentation and problem solving, failure becomes just another part of the process. As she explains, “If something doesn't work, I photograph it, write down why it didn't work, unpick the thread and use the fabric again.”
As well as hand stitching, Hayley has also become known for her innovative use of digital embroidery. Introduced to the technology while completing her MA in Manchester, she embraced it as a way of extending rather than replacing traditional techniques.
She transforms photographs, drawings and collaged imagery into digital patterns to be stitched, before working into them with hand embroidery or cutting fabric away. “People often think the machine does it for you,” she laughs. “It absolutely doesn't.”
Hayley has continued to develop the digital aspects of her work by editing her collages as the basis for new textiles and prints. But whether responding to personal histories or museum collections, her practice demonstrates the remarkable versatility of textiles as a contemporary art form.
Hayley Mills-Styles’ work is available to view and purchase at https://www.exhibtd.com/artists/hayley-mills-styles
Featured image: Hayley Mills-Styles, LS6, Digital embroidery installation, 2024
