Venla Elonsalo

I Weave Clothes

I Weave Clothes explores the design and production of multilayered woven garments and accessories that do not require sewing. The collection is a collaboration between Elonsalo and a Turkish weaving mill Vanelli. By combining the expertise and facilities at Vanelli with Elonsalo’spattern cutting and textile design, the collection opens new possibilities to whole-garment weaving.

Elonsalo brings cloth-weaving and garment construction into one step. Textile design, pattern cutting and implementation of digital tools such as CLO3D and Shima Seiki’s ApexFiz play a crucial role in the design process. Elonsalo’s main material is wool. It enables fulled finishing, which is done after weaving and before cutting to prevent fraying of cloth. Small details like metal fasteners are used to help balance the softness of the fulled wool.

Even though post-weaving cutting is required, there is a significant reduction in manual construction steps compared to the industry standard of cut-and-sew production. Currently, it is possible to knit whole garments industrially, however, for weaving, the development is still in the beginning. Elonsalo’s collection aims to find inspiring solutions to the development of multi-layered woven garments that the designer believes will revolutionize the fashion making process.