la tessitura Salvaged Silk Textile Store

Few retailers have reason to encourage meditation on the boring old details of industrial production. Como, Italy's la tessitura ("weaving"), however, has turned its niche process of converting luxury silk remnants to women's, men's and home collections into a museum-like "concept store". Visitors to the renovated textile factory retail space encounter multimedia and interactive displays on the history and processes of silk production and design. The outgrowth of high-end silk-weaving company Mantero, la tessitura takes cast-offs from its clients and reweaves, dyes, prints and textures them. Why go through all the trouble of reworking the fabric rather than using existing scraps to make new items? Factories are contractually bound to burn or dispose of their clients' designs. At la tessitura, your gorgeous purse, hat or rug may carry the eco-burden of toxic dyes and lots of waste water, but at least your purchase helps divert the raw material from incineration or the landfill. That's a good concept. :: la tessitura via I.D.