Chilewich

Chilewich produce a wonderful range of fashion and home accessories in woven vinyl that are sold all over the world.  Founder Sandy Chilewich stumbled across woven vinyl during her research into materials, and immediately saw great design and practical potential for this under utilised material.  Beginning with woven placements, which I first saw in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I was very excited to see the principle being extended into woven floor mats and fashion accessories.  In particular, the jacquard woven 'Acorn' floormat is inspired, and the iPhone cases are very desirable.  The intelligent use of colour and structure is a Chilewich trademark an has been extremely influential across the home furnishing sphere.

Joanna Louca

I discovered Joanna Louca's website through the AVL list of customers websites and then realised I had been coveting one of her bags in the London Oxford Circus Urban Outfitters store in the previous month. Panels of hand woven cloth in various fibres are assembled with leather to create contemporary bags that have a vintage flavour. Based in Cyrus, Joanna also produces belts and scarves, which along with the bags are stocked all over the world including Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason in the UK. 

Some of my favourite bags are pictured below.

In her own words:

Joanna Louca woven accessories skillfully combine fine craftsmanship and innovative materials to create a timeless elegance. Elements of every collection are the manually woven textures made of precious, fancy yarns. A harmonious interaction of hand-woven fabrics and leather, which gives unique identity to the product.

All the woven fabrics are created entirely by hand on domestic handlooms with yarns of the highest caliber. Hand dyeing and artisan techniques are used to embellish each piece, always providing special attention to detail with strictly defined standards of quality and design with great respect to traditional weaving techniques.

Joanna Louca woven accessories was founded in 2000. Launched with a limited edition woven handbags selling to exclusive boutiques in London and Tokyo. Joanna Louca collections consist of bags, belts and scarves, all produced at her weaving workshop and production unit in Cyprus and Italy.