Selvedge magazine offers the world's finest textile photography, unparalleled design and peerless writing. Directed towards an international, discerning audience, Selvedge covers fine textiles in every context: fine art, interiors, fashion, travel and shopping. It is published every other month.

The trial issue features an interview by Yoshiko Wada with African-American quilter Effie Mae Howard , Jessica Hemmings chats to dancer-turned-designer Mariem Besbes and Catherine Howard investigates the social and cultural manifestations of the use of feathers in South America.

Other features include a section on news discussing the latest tends and essential ideas, a section listing international exhibitions, fairs and up comings events as well as a section on newly released books.

Returning to a family home for the holidays is an experience many of us enjoy well into adulthood. Spending time in a familiar space, long ago repurposed, can trigger unexpected emotions: a once-intimate bedroom, now home to a sewing machine, a fabric stash, and a thread cabinet, marks the passing of time. When my family gathers each December, recent projects are admired, and suggestions exchanged; this is how we have always talked to each other: through cloth.

As artificial intelligence reshapes how we work, learn, and relate to one another, it's tempting to wonder what will remain distinctly human. I'd argue the answer is sitting in sewing baskets across the world. AI can generate a pattern, calculate yardage, even mimic a stitch, but it cannot sit beside a child and guide their small hands through a running stitch, cannot pass down the particular way a grandmother threads her needle, cannot hold the weight of a story embedded in a worn hem. Textile craft is memory made tactile, patience taught through touch, and perhaps one of the last technologies that requires us to be fully present with one another. 

In traditional cultures, craft skills pass from generation to generation; in Western post-industrial society, that continuum has been disrupted. During the 20th century in the UK, formal education took up the baton, teaching textiles in schools with varying degrees of success. Today, art is no longer compulsory beyond age 14, yet interest in textiles among Gen Z has never been stronger. In this issue, we look beyond formal education to how children experience textiles during their formative years, through clothing and toys, and consider how these experiences shape how handmade textiles are assigned value across cultures and social contexts. 

This is why teaching textile skills in schools and homes matters more now, not less. When children learn to sew, weave, or knit, they aren't just acquiring a practical skill; they are learning to slow down, to value process over instant output, to understand that some things are worth making by hand precisely because they take time – a quiet counterbalance to a world of algorithmic speed. As we look toward a future increasingly mediated by machines, let's ensure that the next generation knows how to thread a needle - and, more importantly, why it matters that they do. That's how humanity endures: not AI, but by holding fast to what only

hands and hearts can make together.

This holiday season, when your family gathers, consider making something with each other. And when

selecting gifts, look to independent makers highlighted in our gift guide; the fruit of human labour makes

the most precious gifts all.

If the topics in this issue have inspired you to take direct action, you can sign petitions at actionnetwork.org

to support a campaign pioneered by A Single Thread, asking the UK government to tighten regulations on

microplastics in school uniforms and save craft and design courses at Edinburgh College of Art at change.org.

Please visit our website homepage, where we spotlight a rotating roster of our wonderful readers. If you would

like to be featured, please get in touch, and we will send you details on how to submit your portrait.