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Wednesday, 8 December 2004 | senay
la tessitura Concept Store
Como, Italy
la tessitura, silk producer Mantero's concept store, has opened in Como, Italy five months ago.
 
To call la tessitura a shop is inadequate - it's much more than that. The concept store is also dedicated to the "art of silk" a tribute to the history of silk, which the family name Mantero, has been at the heart of for over a century. la tessitura is designed to create a full immersion experience in the art and production of silk.
Today fashion is all about colour and print - and this is the place to see it. Fabrics, scarves and accessories are deliciously coloured and hard to resist. And the space inside the store is wonderfully huge, light and airy, with plenty of room to browse, try things on, look at the multimedia displays or just hang out.
  
The products
What is special about the la tessitura collection is that many of the products are reinvented from Mantero's own production - in fact, recycled. "Nothing goes to waste," says Moritz Mantero, vice president and managing director of Mantero. "And we are giving value to these very original products because they are being sold where they were originally made".
 
The collection is created by an in-house team selected from design schools around the world led by project leader Margherita Accornero.
Exploration and experimentation are the key driving forces behind the project. The challenge is that the team should create accessories from remnant silks, which they can re-dye, print over, re-texture or even re-weave.
"The design team use reclaimed luxury silk, forcing the designers to be doubly creative - inventing a new fabric and product for that fabric. Instead of designing in the traditional way - the process is reversed, to create a limited number of one-off products that each have a story to tell," Mantero explains.
The results are refreshingly creative: one-off pieces, such as espadrilles made with silk tie fabrics, reprinted scarf materials made into patchwork quilts and unique handbags. Rich colours, patterns and texture, achieved in the layering of processes, are the hallmark of the collection
  
 
Notable too are the knitted rugs and throws made with the silk fringed cimosa or selvedges cut from the looms. Selected into tonal groups, the colours have both a subtlety and vibrance, which is hard to resist. These can also be made to any size.
Mantero also works with local artists and designers. One of these, Sergio Perrero, has over-printed and painted onto the precious silks, which have then been made into the most stunning kimonos.
Interestingly, the most popular items include the bagged patchwork pieces to be made up as and how you want - demonstrating perhaps how popular hand crafts have become again.
The store also sells silk by the metre as well as ties, foulards, shawls and blankets and other accessories produced by Mantero for its clients as well as branded items.
  
The store
Located a few minutes walk from the centre of Como, la tessitura is part of the Mantero headquarters. The old textile mill, built in 1887, has been revamped, keeping its original glass ceilings, exposed wooden beams and cast iron columns.
The complete restoration of the multi-floored space blends historical and contemporary architecture by using steel, glass and water. Designed by the architect Giancarlo Conti, the space is flexible, and the display area can be changed through a modular system of semi transparent cubes, which allows the light to filter through.
Visitors enter the store via a wooden board walk, placed over a water feature, symbolising the importance of water in the manufacture of silk.
 
Multimedia displays and interactive consoles are used to introduce visitors to the area's heritage and to showcase Mantero's contributions to the industry. Twelve interactive stations provide technical and visual information on fashion trends, silk production and products sold at the store - a wonderful piece of technology which is easy to use.
Plans are also underway to demonstrate how a product is made, focusing on traditional skills in making up. The first is the necktie, which will be cut and sewn before your very eyes - and made in your very own choice of fabric.
At a second level, more space is to be turned into meeting rooms, places for workshops and conferences. It will also house a library where visitors will be able to browse and consult contemporary and historical publications of the world of textiles. A new gallery and café opened in July and its called 'loom café'.
  
Mantero the company
For more than a century, the Mantero family has been making silk fabrics in Como beside the famously scenic lake. The company has developed the expertise to produce the finest silks which are made into clothing as well as accessories, scarves and ties.
The family mansion, built in 1922, now serves as the headquarters for the silk business that the present president's grandfather founded. It's an extraordinary and impressive building, highly decorated, even deep into the plaster walls.
Within, busy studios continue to create. Today about 80% of production is in silk and silk blends.
A resource of which Mantero is justifiably proud is its magnificent textile archives stretching back over the century and including racks and rows of magazines going back almost as far. This magnificent resource provides a wealth of creative inspiration for studio designers as well as customers.
But underneath the busy creativity of the studios and the production of the silk fabrics and accessories, there is a troubling reality for the whole of the silk textile industry.
While Italian companies continue to be leaders in the creation of luxury silks, much of the production has been moving to Asia - and, in the production of silk, particularly to China.
But while China is hurting Europe in terms of production, Moritz Mantero believes that China is also an opportunity as a market for its own products. "It takes time and you have to be patient," says Mantero.
The company's evolution is symptomatic of the industry itself, with reduced production. But that has made Mantero work and create harder - as the concept store proves.
http://www.latessitura.com
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