Built in 1760-63 for textile merchant John Lees and his wife Deborah Worsley, the grandeur of Platt Hall reflects the wealth of the colonial textile trade that had its roots in Manchester. Today, amongst other things, Platt Hall houses a collection of global textiles. Unfolding: tracing cloth histories at Platt Hall is a takeover in the windows of the Hall sharing something of the rich textile collections housed in the building and the work that is being undertaken with local residents and communities of interest to reflect upon the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of the textiles in Platt Hall’s care.

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The exhibition is both a celebration and a provocation. It celebrates Manchester's rich and diverse cultural heritage and offers a provocation in raising questions about legacies of power, ownership and authorship in the histories of textile manufacture in the Northwest and shares our ongoing exploration/discussion of the hierarchies of value and knowledge with museum structures of collecting and cataloguing material.