CONTENTS

INDULGE textiles to buy, collect or simply admire 12 HOW TO MAKE A strippy quilt Author, designer and maker Cassandra Ellis shares a simple quilt pattern 62 IMMERSED IN INDIGO A test of faith: Shibori and the work of Jane Callender By Linda Brassington

L I F E S I Z E CANVAS

Photographer Deidi von Schaewen documents decorative painted interiors in Mauritania

GLOBAL Textiles from around the world 14 LIFE SIZE CANVAS Internationally acclaimed photographer Deidi von Schaewen documents decorative hand painted interiors in Mauritania 20 HISTORY REPEATING Annie Bennett believes the roots of Spanish retail success lie in its strong textile traditions 44 A VOICE IN THE DESERT Studying al-Sadu textiles, Dr Keireine Canavan discovered woven patterns full of messages and meaning

ANECDOTE textiles that touch our lives 56 JOINING THE DOTS Dr. Ron Eglash, mathematician and author of African Fractals, connects modern computing and indigenous design – we try to follow his beautiful logic 96 FABRIC SWATCH No 23: Double Cloth Sarah Jane Downing investigates the origin of this intricate fabric – first documented in the ancient world. Illustrated by James Brown

ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends 36 FROM VENICE TO FLORENCE, FROM FLORENCE TO ROME Valentino mixes up “towns, rivers, palaces in one inextricable whirl” Written By Kate Cavendish

CONCEPT textiles in fine art 31 NATURAL STATE Ignorance is no defence but, as Kustaa Saksi discovered, it can lead to blissful design By Jessica Hemmings 66 IN THE SPOTLIGHT Dr Catherine Harper explores the work of Yayoi Kusama and glimpses pattern’s potential to overwhelm

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H I S TORY REPEATING

It seems the roots of Spanish retail success could lie in the country’s strong textile traditions

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Spanish fashion labels are thriving on the high street – at last count Zara has 6,500 shops in 88 countries and also owns brands such as Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti – Mango and Desigual occupy a significant amount of retail space too. But visit the country and you’ll find Spain’s more traditional textiles are still in evidence, from the embroidered silk shawls of Andalucía in the south to the elegant linens of Galicia in the northwest.

The former, the exquisite shawls, are the legacy of the 800 years (until the end of the 15th century) when Spain was under Arab rule. Granada and Almería in Andalucía were the main producer of silks, which were exported to the East, bringing great wealth to the region. An old saying goes,

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INDUSTRY from craft to commerce 27 FAMILY LINE Renata Molho revels in the talents of the Etro clan Photography by Eric Madigan Heck 38 THOROUGHLY MODERN MARGO... Elizabeth Machin meets a maker with designs on the artworld

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“When Almería was Almería, Granada was its alquería” meaning farmstead. The phrase refers to the fact that in the 10th century Almería was a city to rival Baghdad or Alexandria – the ancient fortress above the town is one of the few vestiges of this former grandeur.

During the Nasrid dynasty in Granada, from the 13th to the 15th century, there were 5,000 looms in the city. Today the practice exists in artisan workshops, particularly in the Alpujarras mountains on the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, which form a dramatic backdrop to the Alhambra palace. Here they make blankets and heavy curtains to keep out the cold in winter, when the mountains are covered in snow. To get there, you head south from Granada towards the coast and turn left into the hills. As you drive up the winding roads, through gorges and valleys, tiny white villages suddenly appear on the steep hillsides. The architecture here is unlike anything else in Spain. The original settlers were Berbers from North Africa and they built their houses with flat roofs. It’s a tradition that has never changed and parts of some houses date back at least 500 years.

In the pretty village of Bubión, at an altitude of around 4,200 feet, you can walk down the cobbled lanes and drop into Nade Favreau’s studio, tallerdetelar.com, where she makes and sells beautiful scarves and throws in silk, mohair and merino wool. Walking along the ancient tracks on the hillsides of the Alpujarras, you pass pomegranate, cherry, walnut and almond trees. In spring the mountains are a riot of wild flowers and as you gaze across the rows of blue-black hills to the horizon, the Mediterranean forms an inverted triangle between the 4

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precise way of representing and occupying space.

The forerunner, Gimmo Etro – who founded the brand in 1968, before becoming an enlightened entrepreneur – was a booklover and perceptive art collector. His four children – Jacopo, Kean, Ippolito, and Veronica – are, in turn, collectors of primitive art, contemporary art, and photography. For them, the custom of what is beautiful, the rules of living well, of education, of sartoriality, and a taste for craftsmanship are a mind-set, but none of them are content with what already exists: each gesture is a starting point that shapes an idea.

Irony, seriousness, irreverence, and respect are alchemically calibrated; each thing is illuminated by intelligence, as well as by the desire to transcend the boundaries and to search beyond. Eccentricity is at home here, but it is never affected or instrumental. The secret lies in the capacity to marvel with an almost childlike purity of gaze, from which a sense of nonstop evolution emerges. A constant desire for transformation starts from a set point: Paisley, which has become an identifying signature and the symbol of Etro’s respect for its origins.

Etro belongs to the aristocracy of fashion. Starting from its curiosity and love of history, art and many cultures, it has invented a language, a style and a way of thinking that are totally independent. An edited extract from Etro, Renata Molho, Rizzoli, ISBN: 978-0-8478-4422-7, $85

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Blood Brothers, Collection Hypnopompic, Kustaa Saksi, 2013, Edition of 6, Jacquard Weave, 241x170 cm, Mohair Wool, Merino Wool, Acrylic

Design in Lahti University of Applied Sciences in Finland before moving to Paris, and then six years ago to Amsterdam. He concedes that Finnish designers tend to draw influence from their country’s natural surroundings, which has the knock-on effect of prioritising natural materials in design. The clean Nordic design that interior magazines relish trades in these aesthetic priorities, but it’s a style stereotype perhaps more fairly squared on Sweden and Denmark. Instead Finland is experiencing a resurgence of interest in both tapestry weaving and kalevala – a Finnish epic poem – amongst a younger generation familiar with heavily patterned family heirlooms but not necessarily trained in woven textile design.

When an exhibition opportunity arose at the Korjaamo Culture Factory in Helsinki several years ago, Saksi decided that tapestry would be the right response for the space. After experimentation at the Textiel Lab in Tilburg, the Netherlands – a cornerstone for woven textile production in part because a technical team supports artists and designers both familiar and unfamiliar with the woven structure – he started to weave the eight part series.

His aspiration? “I wanted the weavings to be three dimensional.” The outcome frankly looks unlikely to have been created by a weaver, largely because of the cacophony of extremes found in each work. Viscose, lurex, various metallic yarns, alpaca wool and mohair are packed densely in some areas, loosely woven in others, to create a surface that bulges and then flattens. “I start in a different world,” Saksi reflects when I ponder how much4

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