In yesterday's post we looked at a collection showcased during New York Fashion Week that moved from an artist and textile designer in love with colours.
Yet colourful inspirations can come from the most unlikely sources such as Instagram accounts or Facebook and Tumblr pages belonging to companies producing textiles. If you don't believe it, check out Taroni's Instagram page.
One of the oldest silkweaving mills in Como, Taroni mainly works with Haute Couture houses and produces yarn dyed fabrics, yarn dyed stripes and checks (yes, it can turn any plain yarn fabrics in any kind of stripe and check desired), piece dyed fabrics, and also develops special coatings and finishes, prints and jacquards.
Taroni was founded in 1880 by weaver and artist Amedeo Taroni and his work is still carefully preserved in the company's archive and it is still used as a source of inspiration.
The passion for art of the founder informs the social media accounts of the company that feature a wide range of images: Taroni's Tumblr page features images of catwalk shows, fabrics and artworks.
Its Facebook page also features videos of machines at work while its Instagram account is a riot of colours: there are machines spinning multi-coloured silk yarns or weaving textiles in vivid shades.
There are also pictures of artworks and of arty photoshoots of Taroni's silk fabrics created by Maximilian Canepa and Lillian Grant, such as the company's classic polka dot printed silk faille photographed inside the Sol LeWitt chapel in Barolo, Italy.
At times inspirations are revealed to show creative minds how an idea can be turned into a yarn and a fabric: so a yarn dyed stripe in electric blue and yellow is juxtaposed to a picture showing the plumage of a vulturine guinea fowl, while a multicoloured rainbow warp woven on classic shuttle looms and transformed into 100% silk double duchesse satin fabric, is directly linked to Ellsworth Kellys Spectrum series.
But there's more to discover in the brief videos of machines weaving fabrics for Haute Couture or in the mesmerising process behind the making of a Lurex warp or in the surprising back of an uncut jacquard.
A while back Taroni won the prize for "Most Sustainable Producer" at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards in Milan as the company worked for years towards better standards and committed to Greenpeace's Detox campaign, receiving the GOTS certification (the company has also been working with other weavers in Como to update data on the water consumption used during the dying process - the data have not been updated since the 1950s, so this is an important task).
Last but not least, Taroni's Instagram account also features images of its weaving team at work or posing in the factory plant: they are praised for being a group of dedicated and passionate individuals looking after the company's silks and the legendary machines that weave them.
Maybe the account should be given an award for combining fashion, art, textiles, sustainability and self-esteem in the workplace, or maybe we should just stop looking at accounts of vapid celebrities and start refocusing on more intelligent inspirations that could genuinely change our lives and the way we create fashion and beauty.
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