|
|
FONTE: www.iht.com
COMO, Italy Under the thunderclouds, Lake Como in Italy is papal purple. Yet its sultry shade is not half as vivid as the colors spewing off the printing machine: violet, grass green, scarlet, sunshine yellow, creating the Louis Vuitton logo in a rainbow of contrasting hues.
.
"Oh, that's not much of a print - just 43 colors," says Moritz Mantero, chief executive of the family company that has been producing silk in Como for 100 years. Maybe this Vuitton scarf seems a mere nothing, considering the 5,000 colors produced daily in the Mantero Seta factory, the 1.5 million scarves that roll off the presses annually, and the complex weaves and prints. On one summer day in the high-tech factory complex, there is a thick Jacquard weave for Ferragamo ties, a merry splatter of patchwork prints for Kenzo, kaleidoscopic geometry for Pucci and for Paul Smith, flat, stylized flowers.
.
To look through the company's fat books of necktie print archives or the studio drawings done by hand and by computer is to marvel at the amount of imagination that can be condensed into a flat panel of fabric.
.
There are flowers, of course, fields of them, from soft watercolor roses to bright, rigid tulips. Flora meander across shiny surfaces or blooms are buried in three-dimensional weaves. Then there are abstract patterns, from grosgrain regatta stripes to sunset pink and gold cut threads to the logos of luxury brands such as Celine, Dior and Trussardi.
.
Other patterns are cute, funky or sporty - like the outdoorsy Ralph Lauren prints of tiny figures climbing miniature mountains. Since developing licensed business in the 1980's, Mantero has garnered a roster of fashion labels, making it numero uno in the world for two million neckties produced annually and for luxury silk accessories. The company's revenue for 2002 was E138 million. Mantero Seta takes silk from cocoon to the elegant finished product, integrating, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing. Silk runs smoothly off giant machines 24 hours a day in the hanger of a factory, built in 1960 at Grandate, outside Como, by Beppe Mantero, the son of the silk wholesaler Riccardo, who founded the company in 1902 and turned it into an industrial powerhouse.
.
Mantero Seta's progress reflects Italy's "economic miracle." First Mantero was a supplier to Paris haute couture and then, as the Italian ready-to-wear industry was founded in Florence in 1956, it aligned itself with burgeoning brands: Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Salvatore Ferragamo and Gianni Versace. "I remember when I was a young salesman and I met Giorgio, Gianni and Bill Blass," reminisces Moritz Mantero, who became chief executive in February 2002 after the exit of six of his eight brothers (all grandchildren of Riccardo, who died in 1951). His brother Frederico is chairman and the fourth generation has already joined the company.
.
That includes Carlo Mantero, the technical expert, who uses his human eyes to evaluate the rainbow of dyed threads created from Chinese silk cocoons or the patterns produced from the state-of-the art inkjet printer.
.
"It may be the next revolution, but it is very delicate technology - and there may be a loss of quality," says Carlo Mantero, watching the machine with its range of almost one million colors churn out Paul Smith prints at high speed and low cost. Just as Como's silk companies had to invest in technology to replace the 2,000 looms in private homes at the start of the 20th century, keeping up with the latest inventions is part of Mantero's future.
.
Moritz Mantero has followed in his grandfather's footsteps, trying to anticipate the next move - as Beppe did when he plowed up the green fields at Grandate while other Italian executives were running scared of the leftist slant of the government. "It's important to have a history," says Mantero, whose challenge is to create the future while respecting the past. In the frescoed villa in old Como that was once the family's mansion are the comprehensive archives, both in-house and historical collections. The archivist and fabric researcher, Enrico Redaelli, opens old sample books: fancy cut velvets from 1884, chintz flowers and chine ribbons from 1900, the entire archive of the British menswear supplier Holliday and Brown (a current favorite with Prada). Recent scraps of history include a Gucci bar and bit print, the first Armani ties from 1984 and a decade-long collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent. Then there are the magazines, early GQ's or obscure journals, hundreds of them in the 12,000-piece archive.
.
It is a source of disappointment to Mantero and his 18-strong studio that fashion designers tend to visit the archives only until they become famous. After that celebrity, they work by fax and e-mail - hence a photocopy of flowers received from John Galliano for interpretation.
.
"I feel it is a mistake that they stop coming because textile houses have such a culture and attitude to fabric," says Mantero. "By studying our archives, I am sure the designers could have input - it is different when they send their assistants."
.
Even the book titles in the studio would stir creative juices: "African Seasons," "Antique Fishing Tackle," "Orientalism," "Sea Shells," "Wildflowers of the World." From their pages, images can be scanned and transformed by the computer in size and color. Yet most designers still "start with a natural hand-painted design and then play with it," says Marzia Brogi, head of the design studio.
.
Turning imagination into fashion reality was at the heart of the "Made in Italy" revolution. But what of the future? Mantero has diversified into nonsilk fabrics and has embraced the Far East, founding a joint venture with Japan in 1994 to create polyester microfiber. His father, Beppe, had told his son: "It's not silk; it's a great product. Do it!" Now Mantero is mulling some production in China to produce silk for "price sensitive" markets, especially America.
.
"My hope is that China will repeat some of the phenomenon of Japan," says Mantero. "When we started, everyone told me that the Japanese were copying everything. Now they say the same about China. It is possible that the next generation in China will upset the next generation in Europe. But I believe that we will import for a long time their handcrafts and export for a long time our high value items."
.
International Herald Tribune
< < Back to Start of Article COMO, Italy Under the thunderclouds, Lake Como in Italy is papal purple. Yet its sultry shade is not half as vivid as the colors spewing off the printing machine: violet, grass green, scarlet, sunshine yellow, creating the Louis Vuitton logo in a rainbow of contrasting hues.
.
"Oh, that's not much of a print - just 43 colors," says Moritz Mantero, chief executive of the family company that has been producing silk in Como for 100 years. Maybe this Vuitton scarf seems a mere nothing, considering the 5,000 colors produced daily in the Mantero Seta factory, the 1.5 million scarves that roll off the presses annually, and the complex weaves and prints. On one summer day in the high-tech factory complex, there is a thick Jacquard weave for Ferragamo ties, a merry splatter of patchwork prints for Kenzo, kaleidoscopic geometry for Pucci and for Paul Smith, flat, stylized flowers.
.
To look through the company's fat books of necktie print archives or the studio drawings done by hand and by computer is to marvel at the amount of imagination that can be condensed into a flat panel of fabric.
.
There are flowers, of course, fields of them, from soft watercolor roses to bright, rigid tulips. Flora meander across shiny surfaces or blooms are buried in three-dimensional weaves. Then there are abstract patterns, from grosgrain regatta stripes to sunset pink and gold cut threads to the logos of luxury brands such as Celine, Dior and Trussardi.
.
Other patterns are cute, funky or sporty - like the outdoorsy Ralph Lauren prints of tiny figures climbing miniature mountains. Since developing licensed business in the 1980's, Mantero has garnered a roster of fashion labels, making it numero uno in the world for two million neckties produced annually and for luxury silk accessories. The company's revenue for 2002 was E138 million. Mantero Seta takes silk from cocoon to the elegant finished product, integrating, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing. Silk runs smoothly off giant machines 24 hours a day in the hanger of a factory, built in 1960 at Grandate, outside Como, by Beppe Mantero, the son of the silk wholesaler Riccardo, who founded the company in 1902 and turned it into an industrial powerhouse.
.
Mantero Seta's progress reflects Italy's "economic miracle." First Mantero was a supplier to Paris haute couture and then, as the Italian ready-to-wear industry was founded in Florence in 1956, it aligned itself with burgeoning brands: Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Salvatore Ferragamo and Gianni Versace. "I remember when I was a young salesman and I met Giorgio, Gianni and Bill Blass," reminisces Moritz Mantero, who became chief executive in February 2002 after the exit of six of his eight brothers (all grandchildren of Riccardo, who died in 1951). His brother Frederico is chairman and the fourth generation has already joined the company.
.
That includes Carlo Mantero, the technical expert, who uses his human eyes to evaluate the rainbow of dyed threads created from Chinese silk cocoons or the patterns produced from the state-of-the art inkjet printer.
.
"It may be the next revolution, but it is very delicate technology - and there may be a loss of quality," says Carlo Mantero, watching the machine with its range of almost one million colors churn out Paul Smith prints at high speed and low cost. Just as Como's silk companies had to invest in technology to replace the 2,000 looms in private homes at the start of the 20th century, keeping up with the latest inventions is part of Mantero's future.
.
Moritz Mantero has followed in his grandfather's footsteps, trying to anticipate the next move - as Beppe did when he plowed up the green fields at Grandate while other Italian executives were running scared of the leftist slant of the government. "It's important to have a history," says Mantero, whose challenge is to create the future while respecting the past. In the frescoed villa in old Como that was once the family's mansion are the comprehensive archives, both in-house and historical collections. The archivist and fabric researcher, Enrico Redaelli, opens old sample books: fancy cut velvets from 1884, chintz flowers and chine ribbons from 1900, the entire archive of the British menswear supplier Holliday and Brown (a current favorite with Prada). Recent scraps of history include a Gucci bar and bit print, the first Armani ties from 1984 and a decade-long collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent. Then there are the magazines, early GQ's or obscure journals, hundreds of them in the 12,000-piece archive.
.
It is a source of disappointment to Mantero and his 18-strong studio that fashion designers tend to visit the archives only until they become famous. After that celebrity, they work by fax and e-mail - hence a photocopy of flowers received from John Galliano for interpretation.
.
"I feel it is a mistake that they stop coming because textile houses have such a culture and attitude to fabric," says Mantero. "By studying our archives, I am sure the designers could have input - it is different when they send their assistants."
.
Even the book titles in the studio would stir creative juices: "African Seasons," "Antique Fishing Tackle," "Orientalism," "Sea Shells," "Wildflowers of the World." From their pages, images can be scanned and transformed by the computer in size and color. Yet most designers still "start with a natural hand-painted design and then play with it," says Marzia Brogi, head of the design studio.
.
Turning imagination into fashion reality was at the heart of the "Made in Italy" revolution. But what of the future? Mantero has diversified into nonsilk fabrics and has embraced the Far East, founding a joint venture with Japan in 1994 to create polyester microfiber. His father, Beppe, had told his son: "It's not silk; it's a great product. Do it!" Now Mantero is mulling some production in China to produce silk for "price sensitive" markets, especially America.
.
"My hope is that China will repeat some of the phenomenon of Japan," says Mantero. "When we started, everyone told me that the Japanese were copying everything. Now they say the same about China. It is possible that the next generation in China will upset the next generation in Europe. But I believe that we will import for a long time their handcrafts and export for a long time our high value items."
.
International Herald Tribune COMO, Italy Under the thunderclouds, Lake Como in Italy is papal purple. Yet its sultry shade is not half as vivid as the colors spewing off the printing machine: violet, grass green, scarlet, sunshine yellow, creating the Louis Vuitton logo in a rainbow of contrasting hues.
.
"Oh, that's not much of a print - just 43 colors," says Moritz Mantero, chief executive of the family company that has been producing silk in Como for 100 years. Maybe this Vuitton scarf seems a mere nothing, considering the 5,000 colors produced daily in the Mantero Seta factory, the 1.5 million scarves that roll off the presses annually, and the complex weaves and prints. On one summer day in the high-tech factory complex, there is a thick Jacquard weave for Ferragamo ties, a merry splatter of patchwork prints for Kenzo, kaleidoscopic geometry for Pucci and for Paul Smith, flat, stylized flowers.
.
To look through the company's fat books of necktie print archives or the studio drawings done by hand and by computer is to marvel at the amount of imagination that can be condensed into a flat panel of fabric.
.
There are flowers, of course, fields of them, from soft watercolor roses to bright, rigid tulips. Flora meander across shiny surfaces or blooms are buried in three-dimensional weaves. Then there are abstract patterns, from grosgrain regatta stripes to sunset pink and gold cut threads to the logos of luxury brands such as Celine, Dior and Trussardi.
.
Other patterns are cute, funky or sporty - like the outdoorsy Ralph Lauren prints of tiny figures climbing miniature mountains. Since developing licensed business in the 1980's, Mantero has garnered a roster of fashion labels, making it numero uno in the world for two million neckties produced annually and for luxury silk accessories. The company's revenue for 2002 was E138 million. Mantero Seta takes silk from cocoon to the elegant finished product, integrating, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing. Silk runs smoothly off giant machines 24 hours a day in the hanger of a factory, built in 1960 at Grandate, outside Como, by Beppe Mantero, the son of the silk wholesaler Riccardo, who founded the company in 1902 and turned it into an industrial powerhouse.
.
Mantero Seta's progress reflects Italy's "economic miracle." First Mantero was a supplier to Paris haute couture and then, as the Italian ready-to-wear industry was founded in Florence in 1956, it aligned itself with burgeoning brands: Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Salvatore Ferragamo and Gianni Versace. "I remember when I was a young salesman and I met Giorgio, Gianni and Bill Blass," reminisces Moritz Mantero, who became chief executive in February 2002 after the exit of six of his eight brothers (all grandchildren of Riccardo, who died in 1951). His brother Frederico is chairman and the fourth generation has already joined the company.
.
That includes Carlo Mantero, the technical expert, who uses his human eyes to evaluate the rainbow of dyed threads created from Chinese silk cocoons or the patterns produced from the state-of-the art inkjet printer.
.
"It may be the next revolution, but it is very delicate technology - and there may be a loss of quality," says Carlo Mantero, watching the machine with its range of almost one million colors churn out Paul Smith prints at high speed and low cost. Just as Como's silk companies had to invest in technology to replace the 2,000 looms in private homes at the start of the 20th century, keeping up with the latest inventions is part of Mantero's future.
.
Moritz Mantero has followed in his grandfather's footsteps, trying to anticipate the next move - as Beppe did when he plowed up the green fields at Grandate while other Italian executives were running scared of the leftist slant of the government. "It's important to have a history," says Mantero, whose challenge is to create the future while respecting the past. In the frescoed villa in old Como that was once the family's mansion are the comprehensive archives, both in-house and historical collections. The archivist and fabric researcher, Enrico Redaelli, opens old sample books: fancy cut velvets from 1884, chintz flowers and chine ribbons from 1900, the entire archive of the British menswear supplier Holliday and Brown (a current favorite with Prada). Recent scraps of history include a Gucci bar and bit print, the first Armani ties from 1984 and a decade-long collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent. Then there are the magazines, early GQ's or obscure journals, hundreds of them in the 12,000-piece archive.
.
It is a source of disappointment to Mantero and his 18-strong studio that fashion designers tend to visit the archives only until they become famous. After that celebrity, they work by fax and e-mail - hence a photocopy of flowers received from John Galliano for interpretation.
.
"I feel it is a mistake that they stop coming because textile houses have such a culture and attitude to fabric," says Mantero. "By studying our archives, I am sure the designers could have input - it is different when they send their assistants."
.
Even the book titles in the studio would stir creative juices: "African Seasons," "Antique Fishing Tackle," "Orientalism," "Sea Shells," "Wildflowers of the World." From their pages, images can be scanned and transformed by the computer in size and color. Yet most designers still "start with a natural hand-painted design and then play with it," says Marzia Brogi, head of the design studio.
.
Turning imagination into fashion reality was at the heart of the "Made in Italy" revolution. But what of the future? Mantero has diversified into nonsilk fabrics and has embraced the Far East, founding a joint venture with Japan in 1994 to create polyester microfiber. His father, Beppe, had told his son: "It's not silk; it's a great product. Do it!" Now Mantero is mulling some production in China to produce silk for "price sensitive" markets, especially America.
.
"My hope is that China will repeat some of the phenomenon of Japan," says Mantero. "When we started, everyone told me that the Japanese were copying everything. Now they say the same about China. It is possible that the next generation in China will upset the next generation in Europe. But I believe that we will import for a long time their handcrafts and export for a long time our high value items."
.
International Herald Tribune COMO, Italy Under the thunderclouds, Lake Como in Italy is papal purple. Yet its sultry shade is not half as vivid as the colors spewing off the printing machine: violet, grass green, scarlet, sunshine yellow, creating the Louis Vuitton logo in a rainbow of contrasting hues.
.
"Oh, that's not much of a print - just 43 colors," says Moritz Mantero, chief executive of the family company that has been producing silk in Como for 100 years. Maybe this Vuitton scarf seems a mere nothing, considering the 5,000 colors produced daily in the Mantero Seta factory, the 1.5 million scarves that roll off the presses annually, and the complex weaves and prints. On one summer day in the high-tech factory complex, there is a thick Jacquard weave for Ferragamo ties, a merry splatter of patchwork prints for Kenzo, kaleidoscopic geometry for Pucci and for Paul Smith, flat, stylized flowers.
.
To look through the company's fat books of necktie print archives or the studio drawings done by hand and by computer is to marvel at the amount of imagination that can be condensed into a flat panel of fabric.
.
There are flowers, of course, fields of them, from soft watercolor roses to bright, rigid tulips. Flora meander across shiny surfaces or blooms are buried in three-dimensional weaves. Then there are abstract patterns, from grosgrain regatta stripes to sunset pink and gold cut threads to the logos of luxury brands such as Celine, Dior and Trussardi.
.
Other patterns are cute, funky or sporty - like the outdoorsy Ralph Lauren prints of tiny figures climbing miniature mountains. Since developing licensed business in the 1980's, Mantero has garnered a roster of fashion labels, making it numero uno in the world for two million neckties produced annually and for luxury silk accessories. The company's revenue for 2002 was E138 million. Mantero Seta takes silk from cocoon to the elegant finished product, integrating, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing. Silk runs smoothly off giant machines 24 hours a day in the hanger of a factory, built in 1960 at Grandate, outside Como, by Beppe Mantero, the son of the silk wholesaler Riccardo, who founded the company in 1902 and turned it into an industrial powerhouse.
.
Mantero Seta's progress reflects Italy's "economic miracle." First Mantero was a supplier to Paris haute couture and then, as the Italian ready-to-wear industry was founded in Florence in 1956, it aligned itself with burgeoning brands: Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Salvatore Ferragamo and Gianni Versace. "I remember when I was a young salesman and I met Giorgio, Gianni and Bill Blass," reminisces Moritz Mantero, who became chief executive in February 2002 after the exit of six of his eight brothers (all grandchildren of Riccardo, who died in 1951). His brother Frederico is chairman and the fourth generation has already joined the company.
.
That includes Carlo Mantero, the technical expert, who uses his human eyes to evaluate the rainbow of dyed threads created from Chinese silk cocoons or the patterns produced from the state-of-the art inkjet printer.
.
"It may be the next revolution, but it is very delicate technology - and there may be a loss of quality," says Carlo Mantero, watching the machine with its range of almost one million colors churn out Paul Smith prints at high speed and low cost. Just as Como's silk companies had to invest in technology to replace the 2,000 looms in private homes at the start of the 20th century, keeping up with the latest inventions is part of Mantero's future.
.
Moritz Mantero has followed in his grandfather's footsteps, trying to anticipate the next move - as Beppe did when he plowed up the green fields at Grandate while other Italian executives were running scared of the leftist slant of the government. "It's important to have a history," says Mantero, whose challenge is to create the future while respecting the past. In the frescoed villa in old Como that was once the family's mansion are the comprehensive archives, both in-house and historical collections. The archivist and fabric researcher, Enrico Redaelli, opens old sample books: fancy cut velvets from 1884, chintz flowers and chine ribbons from 1900, the entire archive of the British menswear supplier Holliday and Brown (a current favorite with Prada). Recent scraps of history include a Gucci bar and bit print, the first Armani ties from 1984 and a decade-long collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent. Then there are the magazines, early GQ's or obscure journals, hundreds of them in the 12,000-piece archive.
.
It is a source of disappointment to Mantero and his 18-strong studio that fashion designers tend to visit the archives only until they become famous. After that celebrity, they work by fax and e-mail - hence a photocopy of flowers received from John Galliano for interpretation.
.
"I feel it is a mistake that they stop coming because textile houses have such a culture and attitude to fabric," says Mantero. "By studying our archives, I am sure the designers could have input - it is different when they send their assistants."
.
Even the book titles in the studio would stir creative juices: "African Seasons," "Antique Fishing Tackle," "Orientalism," "Sea Shells," "Wildflowers of the World." From their pages, images can be scanned and transformed by the computer in size and color. Yet most designers still "start with a natural hand-painted design and then play with it," says Marzia Brogi, head of the design studio.
.
Turning imagination into fashion reality was at the heart of the "Made in Italy" revolution. But what of the future? Mantero has diversified into nonsilk fabrics and has embraced the Far East, founding a joint venture with Japan in 1994 to create polyester microfiber. His father, Beppe, had told his son: "It's not silk; it's a great product. Do it!" Now Mantero is mulling some production in China to produce silk for "price sensitive" markets, especially America.
.
"My hope is that China will repeat some of the phenomenon of Japan," says Mantero. "When we started, everyone told me that the Japanese were copying everything. Now they say the same about China. It is possible that the next generation in China will upset the next generation in Europe. But I believe that we will import for a long time their handcrafts and export for a long time our high value items."
.
International Herald Tribune
|
