Rubelli | Carpaccio

Soprarizzo is the most demanding velvet the Venetian silk trade produced, and Rubelli still weaves it the original way: by hand, on nineteenth-century looms kept working at the Cucciago mill. The technique sets cut pile against uncut loop in the same cloth, so the pattern emerges as a difference in surface rather than in colour. One register catches the light, the other absorbs it, and the figure appears and disappears as you cross the room.

It is made at 60 cm, the width of the loom rather than a modern convenience, with a 40 cm vertical repeat and a silk pile on a silk and cotton ground. Output is measured in centimetres a day, which is also why it is offered in a single colourway.

This is not upholstery in the ordinary sense. It is for a cushion, a panel, a chair back or a screen, somewhere it will be seen closely and not sat on hard. 200 g, made in Italy.