In 1915 Coco Chanel opened her third establishment in the French town of Biarritz. It was precisely there where it is considered that she conceived her first fashion collection. For many, the main thing about her designs since then was that she left behind the corset and other uncomfortable clothing for women, but her innovations in fabrics must also be taken into account. Coco was a pioneer in using knitting beyond sportswear and dignifying it by even using it for evening dresses. A trend that is still alive and has transcended the world of fashion.
“After many years dedicating myself to fashion design, I realized that my passion for crafts had more room in the world of interior design. I make timeless pieces that dress up spaces, surpassing the trends that set the catwalk world so muchâ€, Fina Badia, who has her own showroom on Bori i Fontestà street in Barcelona and has worked side by side with large names from the world of interior design, such as Sandra Tarruella and Lázaro Rosa-Violán, and brands such as Santa
Considered for years as minor disciplines, now needlework has recovered its artistic value and is even considered a healthy ‘mindfulness’ mechanism. So much so that several Hollywood celebrities, from Julia Roberts to Russell Crowe or Leonardo di Caprio, have begun to popularize it by publicly knitting in New York cafes under the slogan ‘Do Knit Yourself’.
For the world of interior design, “they are the necessary counterpoint to so much digitization. Jute, wicker, linen… take us back to a nobler, more comfortable past. They are materials, like crochet, with a rustic appearance, but if we go a step further we will see that the focus is on handmade with that care that will never be comparable in the large production chains of pieces for the homeâ€, he explains. Martha Douglas, professor of knitting at the Parsons School of Design in the Big Apple. We are talking about a job that is equivalent to tailoring and that requires many years of effort, tenacity and even obsession. In Japan, the masters who master a technique like this are called ‘takumi’, whose proven experience serves to achieve the highest level of perfection in the manufacturing process.
Colloquially nicknamed crochet, crochet always emerges in that ‘deco’ universe when summer arrives, since in some way it “transmits freedom, freshness, fluidity, the essence of relaxation… Missoni, for example, like Westwing or Hannun, He makes interior design pieces for the whole year, but when it is most appealing to the general public it is in summer, perhaps because it is when the noblest materials come into daylight. If we look at the number of sales, summer quilts, cushions, seat covers and even lamps and candles skyrocket from March to early September,” Julia Bartons, from the marketing department of the main company, tells us. trend forecasting company, WGSN. Even so, there are several interior designers who advocate crocheted headboards or other techniques such as ‘finger knit’ (knitted directly by hand) for residences in La Cerdanya and other towns more linked to recreation in winter. It all depends on the thread used, which is why many professionals in this zigzag technique already opt for fire-retardant and water-repellent threads, which will not be damaged by fire or rain.
This is how the Anglophone term ‘cocooning’ has been permeating the creative narrative of our country, as it has been doing for decades in Scandinavia. Home has become our refuge, even our fortress. “The point takes us to that shelter, to that much-needed embrace, to that triumvirate ‘hands, head and heart’ that only crafts can offer,” Badia explains.
This hand-knitted artisan emphasizes other effects, in most cases sought after, of crocheting or other knitting techniques: lighting. Beyond the beauty of the piece itself and the comfort it brings to the space, the shade with daylight or artificial light is an ally. Many of the professionals of crochet and other knitting techniques only start knitting after checking, with a lot of patience and perseverance, how that knot will cast its shadow. Sometimes ‘art deco’ or modernist effects are sought, others are even linked to pointillism, but there is no doubt, as is the aesthetic-function binomial, is that the artisans of these very personal projects have at all times Present all tonality and form that your creations will take.
One of the wonders of the point is that it allows you to create infinite garments, which have no end. We will never see a rivet or a seam. It is something totally unheard of if we stop to think about its history. Crochet in particular was born in the 16th century and it was precisely Queen Victoria of England who popularized it. What’s more, she herself went from buying lace made with this needle to creating her own garments with it â€, emphasizes Martha Douglas. Crochet has a deep, almost structural texture thanks to the painstaking use of quilted knots and channels in the fabric itself. To all this, the Irish added in that century their skill and imagination to create compositions with natural motifs, from flowers to fruits… all in loops, chains and spikes.
This versatility has meant that one more season, and following the necessary trail of sustainability in the fashion industry, are brands from our country such as Loewe, Yerse, Sita Murt, Mus
