{"id":1511,"date":"2011-03-28T11:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedailycouture.com\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2019-03-21T13:36:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T12:36:14","slug":"lin-grand-cru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedailycouture.com\/en\/lin-grand-cru\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW HEYDAY FOR LINEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to both its incredible sustainable and technical attributes stimulating the development of eco-high-tech products with a flax base, the European flax life is booming with creativity, gaining the limelight among designers. Let\u2019s focus on the European linen, regarded as the best one in the world. Benefitting from a humid climate with narrow thermal range, flax seeds grow best in European soils providing the highest-quality food grade flax seed dedicated to linen fabric as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9OATV<\/span><\/address>\n
The fiber is gaining a facelift among some fashion designers. <\/span>On Aura Tout Vu <\/span>explored it for their Spring\/Summer 2011 collection with this hemstitched linen short lace dress, embroidered with crystal and feathers and braided with black satin. This unusual work with linen was made possible thanks to the designers\u2019 collaboration with <\/span>the CELC Masters of Linen<\/span>. Linen got rid of its inherent weight and gained in lightness for an ethereal, sensual silhouette to play with!<\/span><\/address>\n

The uniqueness of the European flax life also lies in its organization as an industry at close proximity, with a trickle-up mindset empowering all its players perpetuating the local and artisanal know-how transmitted from generation to generation: farmers, scutchers, spinners, weavers, knitters, finishers and traders. As a result, everything is known about the fiber, from the farmer who plants it to the trader who sells it! With raising sustainability awareness, this bottom-up management model united with the fact that linen is a 100% sustainable development vegetation fiber. This is what makes it efficient and attractive to all the people discovering where the European linen does in fact come from. This is an outstanding case of transparent traceability of a fabric within the textile industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below are other examples I like and that show more conventional uses of linen, presented for Spring\/Summer 2011 with Emenegildo Zegna, Etro and Herm\u00e8s.<\/span><\/p>\n

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LINEN, A SUSTAINABLE FABRIC: \u00ab BE LINEN! \u00bb<\/span><\/h4>\n

Once you’ve discovered this fabric, you won’t forgets it! This is what the Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration Europ\u00e9enne du Lin et du Chanvre (CELC) team explained to me. The CELC speaks for 10\u00a0000 companies from 14 E.U. countries\u00a0 making them the world leader in flax production. And what they told me is true! I, myself,\u00a0 just could not believe my eyes and ears when I learned about the organization of the industry, the very fabric itself and the research made to further use the fabric in design. Above all, however, I was attracted by the values promoted by this one fabric and the master craftsmen perpetuating this know-know: naturalness, sharing, quality, innovation and traceability. The flax fiber is doing well by doing good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the European flax industry is being approached by R&D divisions of companies (specialized technical institutes, universities and the European Union ) wishing to promote a more sustainable way of life, by its \u201cBe Linen!\u201d program to make linen better known.<\/span><\/p>\n

In light of this context, one is stunned to learn that linen represents less than 1% of the worldwide fiber industry in spite of all its great qualities, which include :<\/span><\/p>\n

– zero irrigation (it only needs rain)<\/span><\/p>\n

– a natural, entirely mechanical transformation process (retting and scotching)<\/span><\/p>\n

– a lack of defoliant rejected into the environment<\/span><\/p>\n

– no water pollution<\/span><\/p>\n

– zero waste (all parts of the plant are used) and finally<\/span><\/p>\n

– heat-regulating and hypo-allergenic.<\/span><\/p>\n

China is the world’s largest linen importer and France the number one producer of the fabric and the flax fibers in it\u2026 What the hell are European fashion designers waiting for to experiment with it?! The potential of all these fabric finishings made possible because of linen are just incredible\u2026 A trend book is edited by the CELC each year to make them known to professionals. Samples show sophisticated textures made of linen coupled with cashmere, silk, wool, metal etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Laurence Andr\u00e9<\/em><\/span><\/address>\n

Another great example of collaboration between designers and the CELC Masters of Linen is shown by the Laurence Andr\u00e9 Spring\/Summer 2011 collection. \u00a0Transparency, stretch and metal finishings are explored with the Origami theme resting on the new technical possibilities offered by linen. The designer comments that\u00a0pieces have been conceived as sculptures with folding techniques.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE KNOW HOW IN GROWING FLAX FOR FABRIC<\/span><\/h4>\n

This agro \u2013 industrial organization is transmitted by artisan and home-learned folks who knows the tricks of the trade. Someone just doesn\u2019t just wake up in the morning thinking out of the blue: \u201cWell…what about getting into flax culture for seed and fiber?\u201d First thing\u2019s first, he\/she would have to know that it is possible to do it in Europe, which many people don\u2019t know about. Second perhaps linen is mostly regarded as some imaginary fabric reserved for the stylish adventurer about to comfortably set off to some so-called exotic locations in the world\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

So immerge yourself into the real life of European flax and have a look at this great 15 minutes long refreshing history of European linen produced by the European Union and France\u2026get educated!<\/span><\/p>\n


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