A Napoli Vintage retrospective

04.09.2017

A Napoli Vintage retrospective

Linen Creations

Picture of Amy Behn, Designer at Libeco Home, Meulebeke, Belgium

Hi! I’m Amy, design director at Libeco Home. In my designer notes, I would like to take you with me, tell you more about my inspiration and how a collection comes together.

It’s strong and durable, yet soft.  It’s available in true ‘linen colors’. It’s a workhorse. Come discover Napoli Vintage!

Inspired by Vintage

We’ve been making the Napoli Vintage collection for quite some time.  So long in fact, that it’s become a bit of a Libeco Home classic.  The mission here was to create something from our past, something like the heavy weight linens of times gone by. Vintage grain sacks were a big inspiration to me for this collection.  We have a sample of all fabrics ever woven here – and I collect vintage linen whenever I come across it – so we knew what we wanted.

It was as much about the construction as it was about getting a washed out ‘vintage’ coloration. In this case, it turned out to be a fairly densely woven linen, 410 g/m²  (12.1 oz/yd²), with a washed out finish that looked rather vintage. Back then we typically named the collections after cities or places thus it came to be known as Napoli Vintage.

Linen Colors

There are colors, and there are linen colors, and to me they are not remotely the same thing. We here at Libeco always refer to a specific range of colors (muted, dusty, washed out hues) as linen colors.  I don’t mean for a minute that you can’t have a beautiful bright red or full black linen – those absolutely work too.  However, it’s not so easy to get those typical linen colors in other fibers- they are very specific to linen.  And Napoli Vintage is a range of typical linen colors with quite a vintage look about them, of course.

Pillow shams

Throws

Napkins

Tablecloths

Floor cushions

A Work Horse

Customers loved Napoli Vintage when we introduced it years ago, and they still love it today. It’s a chunky, thick linen, but not too heavy, so we use it for table linen and accessories alike. It makes a great floor cushion and pillow cover but at the same time a really rustic table linen look. What’s more: it’s a real work horse. You don’t have to be afraid to really use this collection intensely. It can absolutely withstand kids and animals and come out on the other side of a washing looking great. So, in the end, the message is, it’s really beautiful, and highly functional – and it will just keep getting better and better looking with age – like all linen does in my opinion!

Table runners

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