Hands up: Benjamin Benmoyal

Weaving wonders

“In my daily life, I not particularly deft. For instance, I would not be able to assemble a piece of furniture. Strangely enough, with weaving, I have discovered a way to use my hands as an instrument. There are lots of positioning techniques to weave the warp with your fingers. It feels like a musical instrument, like I am playing the guitar. For model making, I use a ruler, a pencil to draw lines. I am actually pretty good at drawing. Since I started, my collections are very touch oriented. I need to feel the fabrics. It is essential. We make all the patterns by hand. We have seventy references and it’s time consuming. For this collection, I emphasised the craftsmanship. This is the first time we introduced jacquard weaving and we have explored different stitches. My intention was to transcribe every sensation conveyed by Monet through water, flowers and impressionist painting. Each colour was woven to give a different texture. In pictures, people will assume it is printed. In fact, it took four months to finalise the technical files so that they could be industrialised. The Spring Summer 2023 collection is much more colourful than those that have come before. I went against the grain of beige, with flashy greens and fuchsia pinks. I feel like I have stepped out of my comfort zone.”