Unsung Weavers: "We give our own personal interpretation and translate the greek heritage"

Unsung Weavers re-frames historic material metamorphosis, acting like a cape around the timeless collaboration between nature’s human and non-human agents. Unsung Weavers is a series of one-off garments hand-crafted out of woollen blankets salvaged from mediterranean villages. Each unique piece is a relic in itself, echoing the long forgotten rituals of rural production while reviving the ancient craft of weaving. Every garment is entirely hand-stitched from a unique pattern based on utilitarian apparel archetypes, such as the shepherd’s overcoat and monastic jacket. Materials gathered in Arcadia, designs made in Athens. Hems are raw cut, some designs feature decorative hand-embroidery. The coats take their structure from the blankets having been soaked on the riverbed for days to give them a felted quality, which also makes them water resistant.

The young Greek brand Unsung Weavers is the brainchild of architect engineer and designer Elina Tseliagou and designer and photographer Epaminondas Koutsikos. Together they collect the fabrics from the Mediterranean villages, with the aim of redefining their identity into "tactile sculptures", which impress as they are hand-stitched with embroidered details and bright colors. We spoke to them about the tradition and the inspiration by that for contemporary clothing design. How can the reuse, not only of materials from the Greek countryside but also of rituals, offer something unique to design?

Why did you choose wool as your “signature” material?

A very special textured handwoven wool blanket was one of the first materials we came across and started collecting obsessively. We were taken by the fact that it was a result of a very long process: these fabrics were first handwoven in family- run narrow looms (in most cases that involved first creating the thread for weaving, hand-spinning the wool and dyeing it). Then they were soaked in the riverbed for days, and that gave them this distinctive felted waterproof texture.

At this point, we decided we would use as our materials solely vintage or antique findings that were once part of the daughters` dowry. These materials had little or no part in contemporary Greek societies. They were (are) most of the times casted as outdated, “heavy”, or difficult to clean and use when compared to new light weighted synthetic materials that someone can just tuck in a washing machine. 

We, on the other hand, appreciated the fact that they were “there” and that they were the result of a long tradition of craftsmanship: most of them are made from the wool shorn from the artisans` own animals, dyed with plants of their region, and felted in their waters. They stood for us as remembrants of a society which was operating in completely different economic terms; one which had as its base a Symbiosis and one that was in tune with the seasons. 

You have a strong bond with the word “tradition”. How do the traditional ways of fabrication inspire you and why?

Allow us to say that we have a strong bond with “traditional” processes of fabric production but we differentiate our stand in terms of the cloth pattern or applied embroidery motif etc. What inspires us in the traditional ways of fabric production is that cloth making was a family matter. Was following a completely different rhythm to the contemporary ones of mass production. It was a slow-paced, resource-mindful production, with a personal connection between the person who made the cloth or garment and the material (or Matter) that shaped it. Their processes were following what the Seasons dictated; stood for restoring, healing and constant customisation. 

Unsung Weavers stands for very same things. Our processes are of similar nature: all of our garments are hand-stitched in their entirety, some of them bear hand-embroideries, whereas the dyes used are from plants hand-picked from the Attica hills around our studio. 

Still, this is not something we do as a sort of a blind submission to tradition, but as the only way to connect on a personal level with our creations. Our collection consists of handwoven fabrics that are extremely diverse, with irregularities that all the handmade pieces have. As such, it demands a small, slow paced production. Even if in some cases we did wish for a more “automated”, bigger production, it was incompatible with creating one-off pieces of unique singularity, something that still is our priority. As we are working a lot with a “made to order” model, we many times have a specific wearer in mind, their specific body type, character and preferences. 

But when tradition comes to mean embroidery motifs or very specific cloth patterns, we divert. We would say we give our own personal interpretation and translate the greek heritage so it can appeal to a contemporary international world.

How did you meet with Arcadia, and what does this so special, (almost) mythological place has to offer in contemporary design and fabrication?

The very first fabrics we collected were coming from this magical place. Naturally though, as our collections grew larger and larger we started collecting fabrics also from other regions of Greece.

What drew us there, were mostly the landscape and myths still echoing in this part of Peloponnese: bright sun, running waters, Platanus trees that are still honoured in festivals on full moons. In terms of story telling, it was condensing in the collective subconscious everything we thought of as important: Arcadia comes to stand for the lush nature, the Land of multiple becomings and hybrids. Its myths reflect on themes of human animality or animal humanness, all of which we found extremely inspiring. 

We felt that Arcadia could, as a point of reference, help in building connections between humans and other species, could teach us beyond the human, the animal or vegetal on how intertwined we are with our surroundings.

Photos credits: Nodas Coutsicos

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