The fine art of weaving in

There are many weaving districts in Italy, specialising in many different types of cloth: velvet, damask, silk, macramé, etc. The weavers are highly qualified and are the modern representatives of ancient traditions. They serve famous designers and world famous artisans, but also customers who want to create elegant spaces with exclusive tapestries, fine rugs, bespoke household linens and so forth.

Just consider the province of Genoa: it was already the worldwide capital of textile manufacturing in the 1400s. Today, as in the past, damask is still produced in this zone on the ancient shuttle, lampas and macramé looms that are typical of the Liguria region.

Other centres in Liguria include Zoagli, the city of velvet, and Lorsica, famous for damask since the 1500s.

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Traditions are also very strong in Calabria, where skilled weavers continue to work on fascinating medieval looms that originated in Lombardy (for weaving robust rag rugs) and the Aosta Valley.

The 18th and 19th centuries introduced much innovation to the textile sector. Workmanship was still artisanal, but new machinery opened the way to very fine warps, reduced thickness and woofs of all types. Examples are still extant in Perugia and in Tuscany.

Rugs and tapestries would deserve a chapter of their own. In Italy, they incorporate a perfect union of tradition and contemporary design.

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Rubelli

Rubelli has been creating, producing and marketing fine fabrics since 1889, innovating while remaining faithful to tradition. Today it makes high-performance technical fabrics on new-generation looms, in addition to precious velvets and the exclusive soprarizzi, silk velvets handwoven on original 18th-century looms moved to Venice from the Rubelli factory in Como. In Venice, the Ca’ […]

Venezia

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Laura de Cesare

In Laura de Cesare’s workshop ideas and thoughts intertwine like threads giving life to new projects that take the form of precious fabrics and elegant fabric objects, made on hand looms of 4, 8, 16 and 24 healds. Teaching at the laboratory but also at universities and academies, she constantly cultivates exchanges with young enthusiasts, […]

Pisa

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La fonte della tessitura

Some artisans inherit their craftsmanship from their ancestors and others one day feel something, a sort of vocation they cannot escape. Such is the case of Assunta Perilli, who suddenly fell in love with an old wooden loom she found in her hometown, Campotosto, known for its long-standing textile traditions, and decided to carry on […]

Campotosto (AQ)

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Fi.ri.fà

Born and raised amidst knitting needles, crochet hooks and balls of wool, Rita Bochicchio turned the passion for yarns that she inherited from her mother into a business. She trained with Graziella Guidotti, a famous expert in Italian textile culture. All the weaving is done on manual looms but, in addition to the use of […]

Casole d’Elsa (Si)

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Restauro Tappeti D’Arte

One of Italy’s oldest workshops for the restoration of artistic carpets. The workshop is currently run by Benedetto Bumaguin and Orna Bachar, husband and wife, but it dates back to the early 1900s, when Benedetto Bumaguin’s grandfather, the famous Alberto Meschoulam, born in Istanbul, Turkey, the cradle of the great masters of carpet restoration, opened […]

Pietrasanta (LU)

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Tessilarte di Paola Martinetti

Tessilarte is a well-known workshop that has been producing fine fabrics, colorful tablecloths and tablemats, with modern and innovative patterns, as well as bed and bathlinen since 1947. It is an all-female business run by Vittoria Camerino Martinetti first and then by Paola Martinetti Graziano. The techniques used are up to date but also deeply […]

Firenze

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Mario Celestino

The capable hands of maestro Eugenio Celestino opened the original artisan workshop in the town of Longobucco in the 1930s for the production, on traditional handlooms, of the finest fabrics that were used for coverlets, tapestries, carpets, doilies, household linens and trousseau. The quality of the textiles was such that the workshop became a supplier […]

Longobucco (CS)

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Arteviva

Arteviva was founded in 1980 as an artisan workshop, at the time producing primarily very finely crafted tapestries and carpets. Today, while remaining faithful to the traditional methods and the level of quality, it has extended its range of products, and is also creating fabrics for furnishings as well as clothing. Arteviva, in harmony with […]

Udine

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Museo della Tessitura – La Tela

La Tela began as a workshop that produced handcrafted artistic fabrics of the highest quality. Now it is also home to an interesting museum and training courses, aimed at preserving the memory of the art of weaving. Inside is possible find textiles designed with style and creativity by two artisans and teachers, Patrizia Ginesi and Maria […]

Macerata

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Ruffoni Tappeti Pezzotti

The Ruffoni family has been producing hand-woven carpets since 1935. What distinguishes their products is the use of the traditional technique of Valtellina pezzotto, in combination with an ongoing research into style. The process is exclusively manual, and the warp and weft are interwoven to produce a magnificent artistic creation. Carpets, tapestries and textiles of […]

Morbegno (SO)

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Renata Bonfanti

Renata Bonfanti’s weaving workshop creates handmade tapestries and carpets, according to centuries-old techniques. The patterns are very modern-style, created by the workshop’s artisans and to the customer’s requests. All processing stages of tapestries and carpets are carried out by hand, while the curtains, tablecloths and some rugs are woven on mechanical looms. Renata Bonfantis skill […]

Mussolente (VI)

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Arazzeria Scassa

Ugo Scassa, expert tapestry-maker with a love for figurative art, has succeeded in combining his two passions with style and professionalism. He has worked with artists such as Corrado Cagli, Giorgio de Chirico and Renato Guttuso, but also with great architects like Renzo Piano, who had his designs transferred to tapestries. Ugo Scassa, in fact, […]

Asti

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Lou Dzeut

Hemp has been grown in the Val d’Aosta region since ancient times: this plant thrives along the riversides and the fiber it gives is woven into a very strong material which, in some cases, is better than wool. This centuries-old tradition is now carried on by the Lou Dzeut Cooperative, which sells fabrics by the […]

Champorcher (Valle d'Aosta)

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Tessilart

A weaving and traditional embroidery workshop that only uses medieval wooden frames and Singer sewing machines. A word of advice? Ordered a Pacchiana dress, a typical Calabrian dress made from nine pieces that needs to be ordered at least one month in advance, or a Vancale, a typical shawl from Triolo. If not, there are […]

Tiriolo (CZ)

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Giuditta Brozzetti

This Museum-Workshop of hand-weaving is incredibly fascinating: started in 1921 in the Church of San Francesco delle Donne, it still makes use of eighteenth and nineteenth-century looms to create furnishing fabrics. These fabrics’ warp thread is in cotton, while the weft thread, which is what makes up the pattern, is usually made of silk, cashmere, […]

Perugia

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Tessitura Figli di DeMartini G.

The textile production of the DeMartini family has a long history, dating back to 1500, a time when the textile art was one of the main economic activities of the Republic of Genoa. Today, as then, they produce damask with old shuttle looms, lampas and canvases for macramé, typical of Liguria, but also woven goods […]

Lorsica (GE)

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Giuseppe Gaggioli

Tessitura Gaggioli was established in 1932 from a long family tradition. The weaving of damasks, velvets and silk is still done by hand on historic looms, according to an art handed down from father to son, rich in the experience and secrets of the magistri texitores. These are the very finest warps that on request […]

Zoagli (GE)

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Carnica Arte Tessile

The art of weaving is a deeply-rooted and centuries-old tradition in Carnia. This region has been committed to textile manufacturing since the 1700s, because of the Republic of Venice’s high demand for these products. Carnica has been producing with artisan methods and selling throughout Italy and abroad top-quality houselinen for over 50 years. The heirs […]

Villa Santina (UD)

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Seterie di Zoagli

Since 1849 the Cordani family has been making hand-woven silk velvet. They still use the nineteenth-century wooden frames to create etched velvets, yokes on satin backgrounds and gros de tours, all with pure silk threads. The feather in the cap of this company is the smooth velvet of Genoa, of which they are the only […]

Zoagli (GE)

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Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio

Hand-woven silk and precious velvets and brocades is the ancient art that the Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio wants to preserve and endorse. An art that has been established over the centuries and is now being continued using early twentieth-century looms to produce exclusive fabrics on commission or to reproduce historical collections. The Fondazione creates […]

Firenze

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La Congrega

Valeria David has been working in the field of textiles for almost 35 years. After transforming her vintage shop into a workshop, she began to dedicate her time, with knowledge and passion, to creating fabrics for decor: curtains, tablecloths, tapestries, pillows and bedspreads, second hand makeovers, in other words, created by recovering old pieces and […]

Ancona

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Valli dal 1860

Since 1860, this historic shop in Rome has been a reference point for those seeking mats, runners or small carpets of high quality for the home. After three generations, the customer is guaranteed to find what they need even today, from ‘storini’, the antique shutters typical of the centre of Rome, to the finest oriental […]

Roma

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Les Tisserands

The artisan cooperative Les Tisserands has been promoting and protecting the centuries-old hand-weaving tradition of the Valgrisenche area for 45 years, through production and selling of handmade products and through classes that teach this ancient art. The cooperative produces fabrics, even made to order, and sells both fabrics by the meters and ready-to-wear clothing and […]

Valgrisenche (AO)

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Cooperativa Artigiana SU TROBASCIU

The Artisan Cooperative SU TROBASCIU was established in I978 and is currently composed of seven women who carry on the tradition of textile art typical of Mogoro, dedicated to creating fabrics for dowries, such as everyday items like tablecloths and blankets, to the more strictly artistic items, like tapestries. The Cooperative SU TROBASCIU maintains the […]

Mogoro (OR)

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Antico Setificio Fiorentino

Antique looms show the passage of time since 1786, the year when the Antico Setificio began producing customised fabrics in the heart of San Frediano, using ancient looms that give the finished cloths a timeless appeal. There are many lines, each characterised by something precious: Broccatelli is made of golden linen and chenille, fabric with […]

Firenze

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Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua

The history of the Bevilacqua family in the weaving business dates back to 1499. The current company, however, was officially started by Luigi Bevilacqua in 1875 with 18th-century looms from the Scuola della Seta (Silk School) of the Republic of Venice, which are still used to  make raised velvets and soprarizzi velvets of rare beauty, […]

Venezia

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Antiche tessiture Lucchesi

The warping, weaving, finishing processes, everything is done by hand at Antiche tessiture Lucchesi. The experimentation with different fabrics and colors is combined with the use of centuries-old methods and procedures, such as vegetable dyeing. The workshop creates clothes and accessories for men, women and children, as well as furnishing objects and house-hold linen, in […]

Lucca