The indigenous communities and artisans are the creators of textile luxury in Colombia. These textiles are characteristic for being completely handmade, full of stories that have a “rustic and artisanal feel”. Meanwhile, European textiles are worldly well-known for being luxury, made with the highest quality materials for a “refined and elegant finish”. I am interested in going deeper and questioning the ideas and definitions we have of luxury in textiles. To talk about this, I want to reference an experience shared by ‘Isabella,’ a Colombian textile designer, who for the past 30 years has been doing intermediate work between luxury international brands and traditional, indigenous, and contemporary artisans of Colombia.
“00:27:00 Isabella: When a very recognized Spanish luxury brand, came to us looking to collaborate with Colombian craftsmanship, I was a bit hesitant because fashion companies that come to us are used to industrial manufacturing and sometimes don’t understand that a product crafted at an artisanal scale can’t be managed under the same parameters. In industrial manufacturing, while there may be a person operating the machine, the machine dictates the sewing patterns, dyeing, or fabric printing. On the other hand, in artisanal manufacturing, everything is done by one person and many factors come into play. For example, if the artisan is angry that day, he/she may weave tighter. If they’re sad, it might be looser or even crooked. You might have interruptions in your weave, which will change it every time you restart.”
(Fragment of a conversation between her and ‘Juana Villate’, a Colombian textile designer working at a luxury fashion brand in Paris)
For me as a Colombian textile designer, this is luxury: the beauty behind the imperfections of what is handmade and the stories that are woven through it at the same time. But in Europe, the parameters are different, more linked to precision, repetition, and perfection. This is clearly also linked to the definition each side of the world has for a talented and respectable artisan. Overall, I believe that if we could arrive at a more worldly and well-rounded definition of what luxury is, we could not only enrich the textile field with new interesting visual material but also start to see luxury in what is made imperfectly, slowly, and that holds a mark of who made it.
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2. Morris, W., & Gillyboeuf, T. (2011). L’art et l’artisanat. Payot & Rivages.
Bibliography
Villate Ricardo, J. (3 de noviembre de 2023). “Creación de valor: colaboraciones de lujo – artesanal en contextos económicamente desafiados”. París; Disertación de maestría: Gestión de industrias de lujo internacional. Educación TBS.