Journal

Innovative weaving by Elda Cecchele, Venice

After her death, the heirs of the Venetian weaver gave her entire studio contents to the Il Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo in Venice.  All the photographs here were taken at the exhibition The Elda Cecchele Donation which runs until 2nd March 2025*.

Elda Pavan was born near Padua in 1915.  Her father was killed in the First World War and she was largely raised by her grandparents, learning textile skills from her grandmother. 

She clearly had entrepreneurial skills as in her teens she chummed up with her close friend Angela, who worked as a commercial spinner, creating household linens and selling them to shops in Padua and Venice. 

In 1937, at the age of 22, she married Gino Cecchele, whose wealthy family owned a number of spinning mills in the area and had five children. 

After the second world war the Cecchele mills hit financial problems and Elda’s family moved into one of the disused mill buildings in Padua.  Here Elda set up a small scale workshop with a hand loom and, in 1947 she registered her business on the artisinal register as Elda Cecchele. By 1966 she had a trademark, Cecchele.

What she was now interested in was making unusual one off, artistic pieces, pushing the boundaries of what weaving meant.  That meant either creating her own range or working with existing couture houses to give an edge to their ranges.

From 1947 until 1988 she worked with various Italian fashion brands, providing fabrics for clothes, bags and shoes.  Her work - becoming the raw materials for named designers like Ferragamo and Cerrutti - was rarely credited, though behind the scenes she was well known and honoured at large trade events.

What I loved about the samples in the exhibition is how you can see her thinking. 

She has a magpie eye for materials.

All kinds of braids, ribbons, leather strips, plastic streamers . . . .

were incorporated into fabrics without worrying about whether it was ‘the done thing’

I particularly love how she incorporates thick ready made trimmings into fabrics.

Threading dyed net and a furnishing braid through a linen woven base.

This one appeared to be plastic streamers with overlocked thread on top, threaded through a wool design.

The fabrics would then be cut up and made into clothes, bags or shoes. 

Wedding dresses were particularly popular - probably because they were high ticket, special occasion outfits where laundry would not become a problem.

The fabrics were also made into simple dresses where the various woven ribbons (so like threaded nightdresses in many ways) could be mitred into straps.

And then there were some samples that were simply joyful play

If you read Italian, and are interested, an inventory of the entire collection can be downloaded here though there are not photographs of everything.