Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua
- LABORATORY: Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua
- PRODUCTS: Fabrics, Bags
- MATERIALS: Yarn
- NEIGHBORHOOD: Santa Croce
- AVAILABILITY: By appointment
- ADDRESS: Campiello de la Comare, 1320
Stepping into the headquarters of Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua in Venice is like entering the 18th century, with its sounds, smells, and dappled light. With a water entrance opening onto the Grand Canal, the workshop is a treasure trove of precious fabrics, wooden looms, and countless colorful threads.
The Tessitura is a place where the noble craft of weaving, in which Venice has excelled for centuries, thrives in the modern world. Although the company was founded in 1875, the Bevilacqua legacy dates back to the 15th century and continues today through the family heritage. It is here that the fabrics that once distinguished Venetian production—velvets, damasks, lampasses, brocades, and the real show-stopper, velvet soprarizzo—are still made by hand. Seven skilled weaveresses work with hypnotic coordinated moves, each manuvering one of the 18 original 18th-century looms.
A vast historical archive holds more than 3,500 original designs on perforated cards, which continue to inspire the world’s most famous designers and stylists. For soprarizzo velvet, the process begins with designing the pattern. Each hole in the perforated card represents a thread, and every card corresponds to half a millimeter of the fabric’s design. Meanwhile, the loom is prepared, a process that can take up to six months of manual work, including knotting 16,000 threads. Once the warp is loaded onto the loom and the perforated cards are in place, the weaving process can begin, with 20 to 70 cm of fabric produced per day, depending on the complexity of the fabric. The resulting velvet has a distinct shine and tactile quality.
Bevilacqua’s fabrics hold an exceptional cultural value as they combine designs, techniques, and machinery that span centuries, with a commitment to tradition and craftsmanship ensuring that their quality remains as high as it was in centuries past.