{"id":13927,"date":"2026-08-10T13:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/?p=13927"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:59:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:59:41","slug":"callas-milano-x-valerie-barkowski-embroidery-as-a-creative-gesture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/callas-milano-x-valerie-barkowski-embroidery-as-a-creative-gesture\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u00e2llas Milano x Val\u00e9rie Barkowski: embroidery as a creative gesture"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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For its Spring 2025 collection, the Italian house C\u00e2llas Milano<\/a> called on the Val\u00e9rie Barkowski workshop in Marrakech<\/a>. It is the first time the brand has agreed to let a fashion house use its eponymous tassels. C\u00e2llas approached her, and the fashion-and-craft collaboration was built on one simple thing: shared values. <\/p>

Multicoloured tassels, hand-embroidered onto cotton shirt collars. A precise gesture, drawn from home textiles and transposed onto clothing. This is the starting point of this meeting between artisanal embroidery and contemporary fashion. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Derek Lam<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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C\u00e2llas Milano: fashion conceived from the material<\/h2>

C\u00e2llas Milano was founded in 2020 by Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann and Marco Panzeri, whose family runs the Cieffe manufacture<\/a> in Soncino, in the Lombard countryside. The brand produces all of its pieces in Italy, following a vertical approach: from fabric to cut, from cut to finishing. <\/p>

At C\u00e2llas, a garment begins with the textile. The choice of a cotton, the body of a linen, the fluidity of a silk determine the silhouette even before the sketch. This material-led approach explains the brand\u2019s reputation for its trousers, cut with an almost obsessive precision, and for a wardrobe conceived as an ecosystem: each new piece complements the previous ones without making them obsolete. <\/p>

The Spring 2025 collection, presented at Villa Borsani, the residence of architect Osvaldo Borsani and described by Derek Lam as the brand\u2019s \u201cspiritual home,\u201d offers a relaxed summer wardrobe. Dark denim, washed linen, seersucker, silk: each material is worked as much for its texture as for its function. The Spring 2026 collection extends this direction, with increased attention to artisanal finishing and luxury textile collaboration as a creative axis. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Derek Lam<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Derek Lam, Creative Director: attention to detail and meaning<\/h2>

Derek Lam<\/a> joined C\u00e2llas in January 2024 as Creative Director. Twenty years of designing in New York, a decade split between his own label and the creative direction of Tod\u2019s, recognition from the CFDA and Cooper Hewitt. A career in which silhouette takes precedence over logo, and fabric dictates form. <\/p>

It was during a trip to Morocco that Lam discovered Val\u00e9rie Barkowski\u2019s work. What he saw held his attention: textile craftsmanship in fashion that is precisely on point. Artisanal embroidery is there because it answers a specific intention of the garment. <\/p>

That is the perspective that matters. Seeing in a hand-embroidered tassel something other than an ornament: a language. Lam wanted to work with VB. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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From home linens to clothing: the tassel as a signature<\/h2>

The VB tassel<\/a> was born in 1997, in northern Morocco. In the Rif region, women wear the mendil, a cloth tied at the hips, edged with artisanal tassels. Val\u00e9rie Barkowski transposed this gesture onto home linens<\/a>. The tassel became the brand\u2019s emblematic finish, hand-embroidered by the craftswomen of the Marrakech workshop. <\/p>

Val\u00e9rie Barkowski had already explored transposing the tassel onto clothing, in the days of Mia Zia<\/a>. But she had never authorised another brand to use this signature. What changed with C\u00e2llas was the conviction that Derek Lam upholds the same values: respect for the gesture and exacting standards. <\/p>

For C\u00e2llas Milano, moving from home textiles to clothing required adaptation. The red-thread tassels applied to cotton shirt collars had to withstand different constraints: body movement, the drape of the fabric, repeated washing. Every detail was recalibrated: the tassel size, thread tension, the attachment stitch. A work of handmade textile finishing in which precision is required at every step. <\/p>

The tassel changes its support. The gesture endures. Embroidery applied to clothing retains the same rigour, the same slowness, the same attention as for a tablecloth or a bath sheet. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Cilou de Bruyn<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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When craftsmanship enriches a contemporary fashion collection<\/h2>

The fashion-and-craft collaboration between C\u00e2llas and VB makes visible what some houses are beginning to understand: contemporary textile creation gains strength when it incorporates a manual gesture. The long time of embroidery, the repetition of the stitch, the regularity of a handmade tassel – everything gives the garment a quality that a machine cannot produce. <\/p>

There is a difference between decorating a garment and giving it a visual structure. The tassels applied by the textile workshop in Marrakech<\/a> are that structure. They create a rhythm on the collar, a counterpoint to the plain cotton. Embroidery as a creative gesture: what distinguishes finishing from ornament is intention. <\/p>

Each tassel bears the trace of the hand that formed it. That is what houses seek when they call on external expertise: a truth of making. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Val\u00e9rie Barkowski, an international textile creative partner<\/h2>

The collaboration with C\u00e2llas Milano is the story of a brand that recognises a savoir-faire and asks permission to come close to it. The Marrakech workshop<\/a> operates as a working space where the artisanal gesture adapts to the requirements of a fashion house. Adapting, proposing, adjusting: that is the role of a creative partner. <\/p>

For nearly thirty years, Val\u00e9rie Barkowski <\/a>has been developing her expertise in textiles for fashion and lifestyle, working between Brussels and Marrakech. As the founder of V. Barkowski and the designer behind Mia Zia<\/a>, she has also provided creative textile consulting services<\/a> to brands such as Lafayette Maison, Ligne Roset, and AM.PM. This experience collaborating across fashion, artisanal crafts, and luxury textiles\u2014where high standards are expected on both sides\u2014is what made the partnership with C\u00e2llas possible. <\/p>

The workshop is part of this process. It is this ability to respond to a precise request while bringing something more that positions VB as a unique partner. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Delphine Warin<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In C\u00e2llas\u2019s words<\/h2>

C\u00e2llas Milano wrote the following about the fashion-and-craft collaboration:<\/p>

\u201cCreative Director Derek Lam came across Barkowski\u2019s work while visiting Morocco, and was compelled by the authentic and modern artisanal beauty of her creations. It sparked the idea to create whimsical yet chic tasseled collars for shirts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

\u201cVal\u00e9rie\u2019s first pompom-festooned pieces remain a key reference to her creations. Passementerie, tassels, hand-finishes and home textiles followed, boldly reinterpreted and thoroughly contemporary, yet steeped with historical respect.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

These words confirm what the article sets out: recognition of an existing gesture, not the commissioning of a new one.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For its Spring 2025 collection, the Italian house C\u00e2llas Milano called on the Val\u00e9rie Barkowski workshop in Marrakech. It is the first time the brand has agreed to let a fashion house use its eponymous tassels. C\u00e2llas approached her, and the fashion-and-craft collaboration was built on one simple thing: shared values. Multicoloured tassels, hand-embroidered onto …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[229],"tags":[458,459,460],"class_list":["post-13927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dna-and-archives","tag-artisanal-embroidery-in-fashion","tag-luxury-textile-collaboration","tag-textile-craftsmanship-in-fashion"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collaboration-mode-artisanat-callas-vbarkowski-banner.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15259,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927\/revisions\/15259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}