CONTENTS
INDULGE textiles to buy, collect or simply admire 13 SHOPPING Chilean Warmth Founder Polly Leonard picks her favourite ponchos 28 MIGA DE PAN ARGENTINA A glimpse into the world of Adriana Torres
GLOBAL Textiles from around the world 15 HIGH FIBRE DIET Philip Fimmano discovers that Brazilians love grasses, roots and reeds 30 CROCHET COCOON Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto casts his spell By Grace Warde-Aldam 36 PILGRIMAGE TO PERU April Orcutt meets her textile heroes 44 NATURAL PROGRESSION Anne Laure Camilleri looks at the designers who are upholding traditional crafts and techniques Photographs by Mark Eden-Schooley, styling by Nelson Sepulveda
Previous page: Braided panel made from dyed Guinea Grass, Juao de Fibra, artisan from Brasilia and braided rooster made from carnauba straw, handcraft from Ilha Grande de Santa Isabel in Piaui state Below, Clockwise from top left: Linen and straw footwear and sisal loom rug Straw brooms with bamboo handles, state of Minas Gerais Indian boys playing with woven straw masks.
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, rug from ien footwear by Osk
Clockwise from top left: Triangular basket, made by the Surui ethnic group in Para state; braided Cargueiro Basket, made by the Kayapo ethnic group in
Mato Grosso State; (right) Basket made by the Yanomami ethnic group in Roraima state;
Flowers braided in coconut fibre, made by craftsmen from Pitimbu in Paraiba state, with sisal and banana fibre rug;
Fish traps made by the Enawe-Namwe Indigenous Group, from Mato Grosso, and two fishing baskets from Xingu in Mato Grosso, crafted by the Mehinako
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, baskets from l, rug by By Kam flowers by Arte So
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ANECDOTE textiles that touch our lives 23 FIBRE FILING Quipu – Resourceful Record Keeping by Sarah Jane Downing 58 BUILDING BRIDGES Remains of an Empire built on torsion John Alfredo Davis-Benavides 96 FABRIC SWATCH No.28: Andean Ch’ullu Sarah Jane Downing investigates the origin of this intricate craft – first documented in the ancient world. Illustrated by Hannah Waldron
GUEST APPEARANCE We are the guests of honour in Cristina Ymaz's Buenos Aires home
Every doorway looks into another world of colour – reds, pinks, shades of azure and acid greens are what take this home from sweet and old to comforting, warm, vibrant and cool. Cristina Ymaz first saw the house whilst walking through Tigre, a port town in the Buenos Aires province. The house was not even on the market and yet it struck Cristina as the place she needed to live.
Cristina eventually bought the house from its owner, a 97 year-old woman who had never lived anywhere else. At the time of purchase there was no running hot water, no power and practically nothing changed since it was first built in the early 1900s. Determined that everything should remain as authentic as possible – it still has its original plumbing – Cristina still managed to put her stamp on it.
Although the home’s previous owner was understandably reluctant to leave – her every memory was tied up in the house – it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to care for herself. Two years after Cristina first set eyes on it she moved to an old people’s home and Cristina was able to buy the house from her.
Since the house has many of the characteristics of the houses in La Boca, Cristina and her partner Gonzalo decided that was the best place to find authentic materials for her house. Not only did they spent a lot of time at flea markets in La Boca, searching for genuine articles to fill the house, now all the furnishings and other articles they had collected over several decades could be brought to La Verdosa and given a home. 4
ia Daneri itt, Photography: Eugen ine Nesb ld ilma Custers, Text: Gera ling: W
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ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends 54 HAT TRICKS Sandy Black takes her hat off to Bolivian knitting in the round 68 IT’S HIP TO BE (A GRANNY) SQUARE Helen Rödel and Katie Jones crochet modern couture Written By Kate Cavendish
CROCHET COCOON Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto casts his net wide
CONCEPT textiles in fine art 20 LINES OF COMMUNICATION Cecilia Vicuña’s installation Quipu Austral has its own language 76 UNDERSCORE The changing perceptions of textiles as art at the Whitworth Jennifer Harris 64 THE SEVENTIES NOW The meaning behind the decade’s sartorial revival By Dani Trew 70 YARN BOMBING Freddie Robins explores the revolution in crochet
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INDUSTRY from craft to commerce 40 NILDA CALLAÑAUPA Director of the Centre for Traditional Textiles in Cusco, Peru By April Orcutt 52 MOVING MOUNTAINS La Republica Del Tejido literally climb mountains to create their beautiful products Written by Rachel MacHenry
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PILGRIMAGE TO PERU
April Orcutt meets her heroes
Four Quechuans – descendants of the Incas – wearing brightly coloured, intricately woven and finely embroidered traditional skirts and jackets work diligently on backstrap looms, looped around a wooden pole in the middle of the showroom at the Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (El Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco or CTTC), high in Peru’s Andes Mountains. An older woman on a stool weaves her symbolic story into a scarf in shades of teal and brick, while a teenage girl with an exquisitely woven burgundy, ivory and black manta (shawl) over her shoulders knits a complex pattern into a woollen hat. A young man in a knit cap and bright vest studies the geometric tapestry he’s creating. A woman wearing a ruffled vermillion hat from the village of Sallac-Urcos works on the floor among a pile of red, yellow, purple, green and black abstractly patterned shawls.
Should these Quechuan artisans momentarily lack for inspiration, they could look up at the myriad patterns and symbols in the rows of splendid table runners, purses, tote bags, blankets, cushions that line the walls in the CTTC. Or they could wander through the CTTC’s small museum, which celebrates Inca weaving traditions, tells the importance of symbols incorporated into textiles, explores the Quechuan people’s connection to their centuries-old culture and displays exquisite hats, mantas, festival dress and wedding clothing.
Weaving and other textile arts have been part of Inca culture for millennia. I came to Cusco and the Sacred Valley (El Valle Sagrado) in the high teyrat ie Sou
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elevations of the Andes to learn about these artworks – which I adore – and to meet their creators. Four times a year the CTTC holds natural dyeing workshops for local weavers where corn, flowers, twigs, leaves, roots, bark and cochineal insects are boiled into intense colours – and are modified naturally to create additional or softer shades. This is the local artists’ best opportunity to dye cotton and alpaca, llama and sheep wool that they will use during the next few months. Watching and learning about dyeing the fibres can be incorporated into day trips or longer tours.
At the outdoor Sunday Market in Chinchero, Quechuan women display vibrant purses, runners, belts, etc., ranging from elaborate and detailed to simple (and inexpensive). Some of these Inca descendents spoke only Quechua – not even Spanish – but I enjoyed meeting them, bargaining with sign language for weavings and buying three distinctive purses.
Built on the site of a 15th-century Inca ceremonial court that was reconstructed into a Spaniard’s mansion, Cusco’s Pre-Columbian Art Museum (Museo de Arte Precolombino or MAP) displays remarkable works from six ancient Peruvian cultures created between 1250 B.C. and 1532 A.D. Most works are made of gold, silver, ceramics and wood, and all come from the distinguished Larco Museum in Lima. The CTTC has a small shop here.
My textile tour started in Lima at the stunning4
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