The Tollegno 1900 stand during Pitti Immagini Filati will be transformed into an Art Gallery thanks to the collaboration with young talents from the Design for Fashion System faculty of the Milan Polytechnic. The walls of the brand’s exhibition space will be furnished with tapestries made with Harmony 2/30 using a technology resulting from the project by Michele Fumagalli and Federica Coti Zelati.
“The system underlying the project commissioned by Tollegno 1900 is quite structured because it required me to develop a series of procedures and programs. Specifically – says Michele, 24, passionate about knitting and storytelling – I first created “packages” containing a series of complex instructions compressed into a palette of codes to be used for rapid programming. For example, I created the package that corresponds to all the commands that the machine must execute to make a stitch of a pre-established color while the other colors are effectively blocked on the back. Once everything worked, with some members of the Tollegno 1900 staff and my classmate Federica Coti Zelati, we chose the combinations from the vast Harmony range and then enhanced it with 5 vibrant palettes at the base of the tapestries. Federica then created a range of evocative images, which were passed through my exclusive color compression algorithm. This algorithm ensures that, from the millions of possible colors that a pixel can have, 5 are synthesized, thus making the image perfectly convertible to a knitting program”. The program developed has numerous merits. “I am not an expert programmer and therefore I don’t think I have done anything particularly new. The real challenge was to vary the way the threads are worked on the back of the cloth, minimizing the stretching of the image without losing the consistency of the final cloth. Rethinking the arrangement of the thread guides was certainly valuable and impactful. The solution adopted practically allowed us to eliminate the empty runs that the machine usually makes in the default programs. This allowed us to cut the time needed for knitting by at least 3/4 compared to the traditional technique”. The result are 5 “unique” works of their kind for their ability to combine technology, creativity and aesthetics. Aesthetics expressed in the careful choice of color and stitches entrusted to Harmony 2/30. “This yarn – explains Federica – has such a shine and stability that it was not easy for us to be able to skim certain colors: we wanted to use them all! However, by discussing with the company and the selection of yarns that would be used for the garments exhibited at Pitti, we were able to define the final palettes”. Much simpler, but equally fundamental, was the choice of stitches. “We wanted impactful images, enlarged, with details that could stand out from afar thanks to the contrast of the shades. So we chose unusual but significant stitches. The final result really satisfied us” Personally, I think it is one of my most successful projects and this is also thanks to teamwork”.
“We are proud to have collaborated with these guys who have demonstrated great ability and passion as well as objective skills and a clear vision of the objectives to be achieved. We also thank their teacher Giovanni Maria Conti, deus ex machina of the project, and the tutor Martina Motta who represented a precious help and point of reference”, commented from Tollegno 1900.
