Made in Italy

The development of our coveted Grande Bouclé textile was influenced by Mokum’s nostalgia for the eccentric glamour of the 1970s – an era synonymous with Italian designers like Mario Bellini and Tobia and Afra Scarpa.

As its name suggests, it is a dimensional bouclé upholstery beloved for its luxurious weight and composition – a blend of natural fibres give the textile a soft handle while synthetic fibres increase its performance. Mokum’s Italian products are predominantly crafted in the northern regions of Prato and Tuscany which also produce fashion textiles, therefore the diverse variety of yarn development and finishing processes available further enhance Grande Bouclé.

“A textile becomes more bespoke at each step; there are little ways to add value, luxury, comfort, and softness during production,” explains Stephanie Moffitt, Mokum Design Director. “The beauty of these Italian mills is that they’re relatively small so they’re agile; they’re not limited by their own internal capabilities, instead enhancing their abilities by outsourcing specific technical processes or luxury finishes for each product as it can go to multiple places for enhancement.” 

Also benefitting from the proximity and strong relationships forged with fashion textile mills are skilled velvet weavers who once crafted the fabric exclusively for aristocrats such as the House of Medici. “Our liquid velvets – Vintage Deux, Monarque, and Peonia Velvet – are produced in the Prato region by a weaver who has spent his entire life working in velvet production. So again, he outsources cloth to specific mills for finishing which allows him to create fabrics in a lot of different techniques, styles, and weights,” says Stephanie. 

Another luxury textile woven in Italy’s Prato region at a mill specializing in upholstery fabrics is Santa Fe, the hero jacquard from Mokum’s Surface Collection. 

“Santa Fe as a design is very simple, it’s like a patchwork landscape inspired by maps and the mountain shapes within the area of Georgia O’Keeffe’s home.” Tactile yarns and natural raw fibres illustrate these geographic forms to bring Santa Fe to life in a heavy, carpet-like construction that is interspersed with thick bouclé yarns. “The beauty of weaving is that you can create something simple, but the yarns, binding styles, and colours make it beautiful.”

Alongside skilled weavers, the mill is home to an extensive yarn bank and without restrictions on warp or weft, everything is customizable. As samples of weaves and constructions come from the mill to our studios, our designers hold onto pieces of interest to incorporate into future designs.

“I picked the styles of weaving that I liked from a series of different samples which were all on the same warp, piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle and photoshopping it as part of my design process to check that I was happy with the placement.”

“The mill got it right the first time. It’s our knowledge aesthetically of what we want to do, and most of the time we know technically too, but it’s their ability to interpret our ideas and respond to them with their knowledge that really adds value. I asked them to design Santa Fe with two different bouclé styles but everything else – all the other weave aspects – they were perfect the first time because they’re highly skilled and are constantly crafting a diverse range of constructions.” 

It is the loops woven across the fabric’s surface which create the volume, dimension, and softness that make bouclé the ultimate Italian textile.

Elba and Sole Bouclé from Mokum’s Surface Outdoor collection transition the luxurious weight and body of indoor textiles into outdoor spaces. Like Grande Bouclé, Elba and Sole Bouclé are woven in the north of Italy at mills offering expert capabilities and high-quality yarn development.

“Colour customization is limited in outdoor textiles, but the yarn can be customized much more freely to bring a sense of luxury into the weight, scale, and complexity of the weave.” 

While Sole Bouclé replicates the dimension and weight of luxurious indoor wool-bouclé textiles, Elba takes its name from the famed island in the Tuscan archipelago, renowned for its pristine beaches and turquoise waters. The Mediterranean coastline is reflected by Surface Outdoor’s optimistic, coastal colour palette which features the baked terracotta, deep sea blues, emerald greens, and fresh citrus shades of every Italian summer vacation. 

Mokum’s tactile upholsteries Grande Bouclé, Santa Fe, Elba, Sole Bouclé, and luxurious, liquid velvets are all examples of the quality craftsmanship and undisputed flair for design which Italian textile producers possess.

Continue exploring the world of textiles in our previous article Made in India, and look out for our extended colourlines of Grande Bouclé and Bespoke by Catherine Martin by Mokum in late 2023.