A Week with the Heritage Mills of Northern Italy
Notes from a working visit to the Como and Biella weavers — what they are warping, what they are sunsetting, and what is worth specifying right now.
I spend a week each year inside the mills around Lake Como and the Biella hills. These are the houses that weave for the major Italian, French, and American editors — names you would recognize and names you would not. The fabric that comes off these looms is half of what the studio specifies for primary suites and formal rooms.
This visit, the conversation across every mill was the same: returns to true natural fibers, a sharp pullback from polyester-blended performance fabrics, and a deeper investment in low-twist yarns that hold a soft, hand-loomed character when finished. The mills are tired of producing fabrics that look identical to their competitors. They are returning to house signatures.
What I will be specifying more of this year: heavy hand-loomed Italian wool for primary suites, double-faced cottons for great rooms, and a remarkable new dimensional sheer woven on a heritage Jacquard loom that reads as a textured plaster wall when stacked. What I will be specifying less of: any fabric described as a 'performance velvet' that cannot be traced back to a real European warp.
Olga Rechdouni is the principal designer of House of Drapery and a consulting specialist on custom drapery for the residential interiors of Los Angeles. She is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and works privately with homeowners, interior designers, and architects.