Feltro & Lana cotta, or Felt & Fulling wool

fulling wool and felt balls

Felt and fulling wool are some of the earliest forms of textile processing we know. Asian nomadic tribes started spreading all over the continent thousands of years ago. Felt gives wool a very windproof quality when it's thick enough, and it gets relatively water-resistant as well. 

Felt differs from fulling wool beacuse it takes raw fleece and puts it through the same process without having any initial structure. On the contrary, fulling is the process of fluffing up an already woven or knitted piece of woolen cloth. A well-known example of fluffing wool is Loden cloth, developed to deal with Alpine climate, which is knitted before it's fulled. 

There are some ways to make the process easier. One of the primary ways to encourage the little scales to open up quickly is by wetting the fibers. Cold water will work, but very hot water is far better. Alternating hot and cold water (this process is called 'shocking') it works best. That’s the reason why, in Italian, we call this material “Lana cotta”.

Raw and scoured silk

silk cocoons, raw silk and scoured silk

Silk is a natural protein fibre, obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori, reared in captivity (sericulture).

The silk thread is made up by 74% fibroin and 23% sericin (3% remaining is made by dye). Sericin gives to raw silk his specific tactile poperties: matting and roughness. But sericin dissolves totally in hot soapy solution. 

We can call “Raw silk” the crude one which usually appears dull, rough and pretty hard, white or amber coloured. Submitting raw silk to “scouring”, a specific washing process, we obtain “Scoured silk”, which, on the contrary, appears very soft, smooth and iridescent.

Fashion is A Matter of Taste

Italian photographer Fulvio Bonavia has some amazing photographs compiled for his book “A Matter of Taste” combining fashion and food. Words won’t do it justice. Take a look at the photos, using food to create fashion accessories and products...

Lady Gaga & her meat dress

Can the dress be made of real meat? Look at Lady Gaga. More information: http://style.mtv.com/2010/09/13/2010-vmas-was-lady-gagas-meat-dress-real/