Embroidery: what are they for and why do I use them?

Normally when I design collections I really enjoy making fabrics; that is, don’t take a fabric like this and make a garment, I like to complicate my life and move on. I usually don’t choose fabrics with embroidery, because if I choose something that is already pre-designed, I run the risk that, as it is not my own creation, another colleague chooses it and suffers a fatal accident.

I don’t like to say “I won’t drink this water” because fabric suppliers are working hard on design and they have more and more spectacular pieces, but until now it is normal that I make my fabrics myself by means of prints, pleats, pleats or embroidery† In this article I will take a closer look at embroidery.

If we go back to their origin and purpose, embroidery was used as a decorative element since the time of ancient Mesopotamiain tapestries and canvases, where even stories or battles could be interpreted through their motifs, then came embroidery with gold and silver thread in Roman times, where it became synonymous with wealth, aristocracy and royalty.

But they also had a simpler use, as in the past people had few clothes and in the case of shirts embroidery collars and cuffs, that is the area that suffers the most or is most damaged, to strengthen them and make the garment more durable. It was also common to embroider on top of a torn piece as a patch and reinforcement.†

There are many different types of embroidery, depending on their relief and material. We have just experienced Holy Week in Spain where, after two years of pandemic, the brotherhoods have again brought out their virgins with those beautiful cloaks embroidered with gold and silver thread on sturdy fabrics such as velvet or silk, and in many cases they are the “highlight embroidery” because they have cotton fillings.

In the case of my collections, I quite often use embroidery, as I have said before, from personalized pieces to the embroidery of our brand “branding”, as in the case of organic cotton sweatshirts, it is more ecological than screen printing or dyes and it is much more durable.

But the main utility in my embroidery business is used in the collection and it usually comes from the design of the print that we make for that collection, we take some motifs from this print, we make the digital punch for the embroidery machine and we get the embroidery from the application in which it is usually embroidered outside the last piece or fabric, and that we later place it in the chosen area to sew it by hand in many cases, this technique is called “entolar”.

This gives all the garments in the collection a lot of identity.differentiation and especially coherence and connection.

This is one of the parts I like most about my job, the ‘rhetoric’ of creative freedom.