Textile Design: Afternoon Mate with Lanaria
Mate...what is mate you may ask? Well, don't you worry, I asked that same question when I first lived in Buenos Aires. I was 21 years old and my host sister handed me a gourd filled with tea leaves, hot water and a sprinkle of sugar. She said, "Tomar (drink)!" I thought, well when in Rome! I took a sip and to my surprise it was delicious! I was officially hooked.
Traditionally, mate (written maté in English) is shared between friends and family at afternoon gatherings in the park, at the kitchen table, really where ever you can imagine, you can drink mate. Argentinians even have a thermos and carrier for their mate, so it can be easily transported. The actual tea is yerba mate. It is a loose leaf tea full of caffeine. It is prepared by steeping the loose dry leaves of the yerba in hot water. Traditionally it is served in a gourd of some sort with a metal straw that has a filter on its end. Before pouring the hot water over the leaves, you stick the metal straw in the dry leaves, creating a hole for the water to seep in and surround the yerba. There is always a person who prepares the tea each time and usually they are the ones to take the first serving. Once sipped (and a slurping noise is considered proper mate etiquette) the prepare then pours another serving and passes it to the next person. If it is just two people, you would pass it back and forth until the yerba leaves lose their potency. If it a larger group, the preparer will pass it along to everyone in the group.
Textile Design + Lanaria
I met Sofia at La Feria de San Telmo in Buenos Aires. I instantly fell in love with Lanaria, her line of textile design jewelry and infinity scarves. I had the opportunity to meet with her several times while I was in there. Every time we met, we shared mate tea together. The first time, she was surprised I loved it so much! Every time we got together we sat and talked for several hours. I was able to get to know her over some mate tea and good old conversation. I think this is why I love the whole concept of drinking mate. It is a tradition that is shared mostly among family and friends, but has a way of instantly taking down the barriers between strangers and bridging the gap to become friends.
Viví simple, viví bien is Lanaria's tag line. Live simple, live well is what it translates to in English.
Lanaria was born from the passion for fabrics, materials and textures. Sofia uses her passion for textile design and creates pieces of textile jewelry that are elegant, functional and versatile. In each series she works from a playful perspective, offering the possibility of personalizing the pieces and colors, even giving the possibility to interconnect the different families of products she makes.
Textile Design + Lanaria's Acessories
Her textile design in her chain link series has been awarded the Sello Buen Diseno Argentino. She makes her chain link necklace out of crocheted vegan silk. What is vegan silk? Basically it is a vegetable based silk derived from viscose. Sofia tells me that viscose is, "A cellulose-based man made fiber. It's taken mostly from cotton wooden parts and other plants. By mechanical and chemical processes the fiber is extruded. The most important aspect about viscose (at least for me) is that is not a synthetic fiber (which are almost always made from by-products of petroleum, such as nylon or acrylic). Historically, viscose was invented to imitate or replace natural silk, when the textile industry needed to fulfill fashion industry requirements in terms of expansion and lowering the costs for mass consumption." She also uses magnetic clasps for easy wear. She has literally thought of everything!
Another aspect of her textile design is her infinity scarves out of the softest mohair wool. It is not itchy whatsoever and it is super lightweight, yet keeps you so warm. Mohair yarn uses the long silky hair of the angora goat and mixes it with wool. Wikipedia states, "Both durable and resilient, mohair is notable for its high luster and sheen, which has helped gain it the nickname the 'Diamond Fiber', and is often used in fiber blends to add these qualities to a textile. Mohair is warm in winter as it has excellent insulating properties, while remaining cool in summer due to its moisture wicking properties."
We talked for hours about our dreams for our businesses and what we hoped for the future of fashion. We both share a desire for fair trade fashion across this planet. Sofia is doing just that by turning her vision for textile fashion into a reality. Her focus is on simple concepts, processes, manual techniques, and ethical production. She believes in what she does and how she does it!
I took some time to interview Sofia, asking her some personal questions about her work with textile design and what she does. Her responses were absolutely fantastic and I would like to share them with you below.
Interview with Sofia of Lanaria:
Mariposa Skies: What did you do before Lanaria?
Before Lanaria Í worked in costume and art department mainly as an assistant, in commercial films. I've started Lanaria some time before I started the career and after i quit that job. It was kind of a hobby that I shared with a friend at the beginning.
Mariposa Skies: How did your dream of Lanaria begin or what was your defining moment of when you decided to create Lanaria?
I really didn't ever dreamt about it. Lanaria always surprised me and I feel it as a living entity. It has something to do with 'letting things go with the flow'. Actually, if I have to set a starting point, it was on my 28th birthday (in 2008) that I decided to celebrate it by knitting in a park. That interest kind of "pop up" in my mind and had no apparent sense at that time, considering that the last time I've knitted was when I was a child when my mother taught me to. I can say now that this was the beginning of Lanaria, even when I wasn't aware of it.
Mariposa Skies: Why did you decide to create Lanaria?
As I started the career, I become more and more interested in knittings, experimenting with materials and techniques. Self management was also a tempting and challenging thing to do.
Lanaria is the pot where those ideas mix and come to life.
Mariposa Skies: What made you want to be a designer of textile jewelry and clothing?
Textiles are a great cultural fact. They are in the middle of the inner space (the personal space, the body, the emotional states) and everything that's on the outside. Textiles used on clothing and jewelry establishes a boundary (a connection) and a limit at the same time (establece un vínculo y un límite al mismo tiempo), Is where functionality, emotions, self esteem, come together and becomes part of our self expression and identity. This is what I love most of designing textile wearables.
Mariposa Skies: What does Lanaria mean and where did the name of your brand come from?
Lanaria is a plant that grows in South Africa, in clay and sandstone soils...its flowers has this densely white and woolly surface on one side and on the other is flat. I liked the sound of it, the woolly softness, the texture contrasts and what mostly captivated my attention was that it is a wild plant, those that you'll never see in any garden, those that are not domesticable.
Mariposa Skies: What is your mission and vision for Lanaria?
I feel more comfortable and prefer to think Lanaria by having some fundamental axes, some of them are: Ethical behavior (inside and outside the entrepreneurship) / generation of enjoyable and long lasting partnerships (such as with Mariposa's skies) / Be involved with associative and self-managed projects / Keep on adding value to the textile production chain by working with 100% (or the highest percentage possible) natural fibers from Argentinian rural providers / Keep on making good quality versatile wearable items.
To shop her collection of beautiful textile jewelry and scarves, click the image below or here.
Follow Lanaria on Facebook: @Lanaria.tejidos
Follow Lanaria on Instagram: @lanariahandmade
If you would like to learn more about the culture and people behind the looks of Mariposa Skies' fashion checkout some of the other artisans:
To connect to someone else's culture through the traditions of their fashion, you can also check out these fashions from Bali and Morocco:
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