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As promised a few weeks ago, here is the first project developed by Manusa for DHG. The skillful women of the Manusa co-op have used our fabrics to create four fabulous stoles. Among the many fabrics at their disposal, they have chosen our 3.5 Silk Chiffon and 6 Silk Chiffon, our Gauze and our wool Etamine. They combined them and used different techniques to create some very unique and elegant garments.
I am going to show them to you, as such beauty is hard to describe with words. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
3.5 and 6 silk chiffon and Maori wool
Our 3.5 silk chiffon is truly a feather-light voile. When our customers buy it to use for nunofelting, this delicate fabric disappears because it is completely absorbed into the wool. In a way, it gets lost, and that is a bit of a shame. So, I am happy to see that for once it is the star of a project, along with other fabrics from our collection! Also, the women at Manusa have chosen one of my favorite colors, our Shell color, and have added some snow-white needle-punch flowers on top, made from Carded Maori wool. I love the final result: I really like the contrast between the shiny, delicate silk and the slightly rough Maori wool. I also love how the wool fiber was needle punched, because the artists were able to create some very light volume that make the flowers stick out from the background, making them look lively and less flat. I believe the overall final effect is truly impressive.
If you think about it, it's just 3 simple felted wool flowers on top of a silk fabric. It's proof yet again that, just as in life, in fashion LESS IS MORE!
6 silk chiffon and silk yarn
To make this stole, the chosen fabric was one of our edged 6 Chiffon maxi foulards. The color is another of my favorites, Paradise.
Also in this case, the artists chose to highlight the fabric, which was simply embroidered with a pure silk yarn in different shades of pink. I find the embroidery, something similar to stylized flowers, just lovely! Don't you agree? They remind me of some drawings I used to do when I was a little girl, but by that I do not mean to say that they are banal. On the contrary, they are simple but very impressive, even though I can't really tell whether it's because of the color combination or because of the technique (Palestrina stitch and bullion stitch). It's probably just due to the women at Manusa and their refined taste, which once again led them to choose to go for something simple. In the end, that is always the most rewarding choice.
Pure wool gauze and wool yarns
Ever since we decided to add pure wool gauze to our collection, many people have told me that it was a bit of a crazy idea. In fact, most of our clients use gauze as a base for nunofelting (as they do with 3.5 chiffon), so why offer a pure Extrafine Merino Wool product, and one completely made in Italy on top of that, when you can easily find imported cotton gauze which is definitely more affordable? Of course, such an objection is valid in a sense, because when one only needs gauze to use as a base, it makes more sense to go for the cheaper option, as the other fibers will absorb it and it will disappear.
However, I believe that gauze is a very interesting fabric, and that it sometimes deserves to be seen (whether you are working with nunofelting or with other techniques). In this case, of course, the gauze needs to be beautiful! And I believe our gauze truly is.
Take a look at the stole Manusa made. The gauze is almost "naked", apart from that simple embroidery made with wool yarn (and one of them is our Plume Yarn) and some big fringe, made with pure wool, made using the macrame technique. What did I tell you? Doesn't this gauze deserve the spotlight?
Gauze, pure wool etamine, and wool yarns
This last piece is probably the most complex of the 4, because it is made with a gauze and etamine patchwork, in contrasting colors. Starting with natural colors, to the Shell color and our Storm color. The embroidery and the small decorations that cover the surface of the fabric, as well as the sharp-cut edges, finely frayed by hand, reveal the awesome craftsmanship behind a piece like this. The extra touch is given by the pom poms on the corners. A few weeks ago, our pom poms were the subject of one of our videos in our ONE MINUTE series. And now, here they are again. A simple, fun project to make with wool.
What else can I say? Thanks to Manusa for this abundance of beautiful things.
If you liked this article, you may also be interested in the one about our Pongee Silk and Batik, written for us by Eva Basile.
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