The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice
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Weavers and Tailor
Refined Wraps
Tessitura Bevilacqua's story is woven into the heart of Venice's artisanal tradition, and the Bevilacqua family's involvement in Venetian weaving dates back to 1499.
Passion, talent and determination are what define the 60 year long career of Master Tailor Franco Puppato in Calle dei Fabbri, in the heart of Venice. Using the finest materials from Italy, Scotland and England, Puppato lets his mantra "elegance made-to-measure" guide his work along the right path amongst a tide of serialisation and uniformity that flattens everything and stifles creativity.
TESSITURA BEVILACQUA
The Venetian Weaving Tradition
Working on looms that date back to the eighteenth century recovered from the Serenissima Silk School, Tessitura Bevilacqua combine historical techniques and designs with a touch of modernity to create their iconic velvet textiles and damask Renaissance designs.
TESSITURA BEVILACQUA
Passion, Process and Precision
Although the process is difficult and complicated, the most satisfying part of my job is looking back at what I've created, knowing the finished fabric in front of me was worth all the effort.
In this job you never stop learning. I'm currently learning the "Soprarizzo" technique, one of the most complex and time consuming manual velvet processes, and one that takes years to master. It's done by hand on 18 looms which date back to the 18th century. They previously belonged to the silk guild of the Republic of Venice.
Giulia Incipini, Weaver
TESSITURA BEVILACQUA
Why is craftsmanship important in today’s world?
Tessitura Bevilacqua is a legacy of the tradition that was vital to Venice for centuries. In the 1500s there were 6,000 looms in Venice, so thousands were involved in the production of velvet. In a world where everything is now mass-produced, it is especially precious to be able to craft unique pieces with love, wisdom and experience.
Alberto Bevilacqua, CEO
TESSITURA BEVILACQUA
If you hadn’t been a textile weaver what other craft would you have pursued?
If I hadn't been a weaver, I think I would have entered the world of Biomedical engineering. It was my passion! But I changed my mind when I did the internship at Bevilacqua, and experienced just what it was like to do this job. I fell in love with it immediately and have never looked back.
Giulia Incipini, Weaver
FRANCO PUPPATO
Tailoring to Perfection
Franco Puppato's suits are characterised by a distinct empathy and understanding of a customer's psychology but also by the use of finely-tuned mathematical calculations: masterstrokes which earned him the Arbiter award, the Oscar of Italian tailoring.
FRANCO PUPPATO
What is your favourite process within your craft?
Cutting the fabric, the origin of the suit, always fascinates me, because it represents the birth and development of the garment for the client's body. My favourite technique passed on by my teacher is creating suits using trigonometry. A mathematical approach allows a young artisan to almost immediately acquire confidence within the profession, and in pursuing his artistic expressiveness.
FRANCO PUPPATO
A Tailor’s Journey
I consider all the garments I create as my children and each one has its own story. Once, during a bicycle trip from Venice to Paris, I stopped to meet some customers to take their measurements, because my craft accompanies me wherever I go. Another time, I brought a suit to a customer on a bicycle from Venice to Innsbruck.
FRANCO PUPPATO
A City of Creativity
Every artisan, shoemaker, goldsmith, restorer, makes their own contribution to the culture of their city, developing both their manual skill and their mind at the same time. Pursuing artistic perfection through my tailoring creations, I have to tailor the characteristics of every suit to perfection.
Venice has been, and will always be, a city that gathers the world of craftsmanship both culturally and artistically - it is difficult not to be inspired here. Venice's light instills in me a series of emotions and sensations that enrich my daily life. It is a city that offers continuous creativity.
LINO LANDO
Founder, Atelier Fortuny Venezia.
The Spanish artist-designer Mariano Fortuny was a creative luminary in the fields of fashion, textiles, art and more; working in Venice with his wife for most of his life to create revolutionary designs like the Delphos gown. Upon his passing, his house - now the Palazzo Fortuny - became a museum dedicated to his life’s work. Fortuny’s legacy on display inspired Venetian Lino Lando to decode and analyse Fortuny’s creations, rebuild his workshop and carry on the Fortuny story, preserving and championing his precious artistic techniques and secrets to bring them to a new generation.
LINO LANDO
What do tradition and innovation in your craft mean to you?
One of the keys to my work is constantly renewing things, whilst also upholding traditions. Tradition is like a creative anchor, without which we would lose our way, however we must always be able to innovate, which is not always easy, because time passes, raw materials change and so do people's tastes. Today’s audience expects perfect results that match their tastes, so we walk a tightrope of remaining faithful to our inspiration and meeting these mod-ern expectations.
LINO LANDO
Is there something you have crafted that was particularly significant to you?
One of the things that we spent a great deal of time researching was Fortuny’s, or rather, his wife Enriette’s silk plissé. It took us years to recreate their style of pleated and wavy dresses, and when we finally did, there was a real collective“hooray” in our studio. Over time, every 2 or 3 years, we manage to improve and renew our techniques to the extent that our old methods seem ancient.
LINO LANDO
What is the most complex aspect of your craft that requires more attention?
Many of our pieces require various complex steps. For example, when we perform screen-printing on silk velvet, depending on the design, up to 5/6 passes are required, with each step adding a new colour and new patterns - with each frame overlapping the previous one.
Another example is our silk lamps. Starting from a sheet of silk, which we very slowly, wet and dry, making sure that it gradually moulds to our desired shape, all without making a single crease.