We are very happy to have Lotte Dalgaard with us at Textilesnaturales in north Spain at the moment, not long after the inauguration of her new collaborative exhibition in Denmark.
Lotte is an expert Danish weaver with many years of experience. In fact Textilesnaturales´ own weave teacher, Anna Champeney, is in fact a pupil of Lotte´s. Lotte specialises in using innovative high twist yarns in a sophisticated and advanced way. Decades of experience and her commitment to experimentation and innovation place her in the top eschelon of European weavers today.
Textilesnaturales will soon have a couple of copies of the English version of Lotte´s book on working with innovative yarns so look out for it in the new online shop, launching 1 December 2013 so contact us if you´d like to reserve one.
If you don´t already know how Lotte works it´s worth explaining. For she collaborates in a very interesting and unusual way with Copenhagen-based fashion designer Ann Schmidt.
Most fashion designers we know in Spain regard the craftsperson as a specialist technician who simply works up the designs. However, fabric weavers like Lotte are designers in their own right and it is far more interesting for her to participate in collaborations based on a more creative and open philosophy which reflects a more equal partnership between weave and garment designers.
In Lotte´s case the highly unusual textile design takes precedence and conditions to a far greater extent the design of the garment, its shape, its drape and in particular the edges, particularly the detailing around the neck or arms.
But then Lotte Dalgaard´s Danish textiles are not simply rolls of flat, rectangular fabric. These are truly original and unusual three dimensional fabrics. They are sometimes woven in layers or shaped like books or feature fins which jut out. They can have varying textures, thicknesses and vary in width from one section to another. All these elements are unique to hand-woven textiles and enable Ann Schmidt to adopt a far more original approach to fashion design than would normally be possible. The relationship between Ann and Lotte is a continuing “creative conversation” or “ping pong” with every project feeding into the next. In fact it is difficult to say where the role of the weave designer ends and that of the fashion designer begins, and vice versa.
The same garment laid flat enables you to appreciate the very different construction compared to conventional design
The woven edges of the fabric may be be scalloped or zigzagged or frilled and as such offer the designer the opportunity to create unusual necklines or cuffs which are loom-formed rather than cut or sewn. This way of creative fashion is so totally different from the standard model of pattern-cutting and of course results in very different garments.
Usually the pieces are either one-off or form part of very limited series. The results are craft haute couture, utterly unique and original and of extremely high quality. Lotte and Ann are totally driven by their passion for experimentation and this is both the strength of their work. It is also perhaps the reason why their work is not better known.
It also means that the work is – in Textilesnaturales´ view – underpriced for what it is – it should really command haute couture or fine art prices. So take note, fashionistas and coleccionistas! Lotte and Ann´s work is still waiting to be “discovered” by the international fashion scene.
The natural woven edge forms a beautiful and unusual zig-zag border to Lotte´s woven garments that conventional garments made using traditional pattern-cutting techniques cannot imitate.
Another example of how the natural woven edge of a hand-woven fabric can be shaped to form an unusual neck part of a garment without complex sewing or hemming.
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