The Andalusian designer Leandro Cano presented his artistic collection ‘CANO: The Dance of the Excluded’, within the Haute Couture Week in Paris.
In Hispania: land of rabbits-, Leandro Cano transported us to an invented space/time that had its roots in the Middle Ages of southern Spain, and which developed a collection in which castles and borders were the common thread, but which was nothing more than a metaphor for the convulsive and agitated times in which we live. It was an analysis of a current society, sometimes advanced and many others with a mentality older than the Middle Ages.
With CANO: the dance of the excluded, the designer from Jaén delves deeper and makes a more introspective journey into that fictional medieval society, in which those who did not belong to ‘normality’ were excluded.
CANO: THE DANCE OF THE EXCLUDED
These creations represent different and unique characters, all of them being part of the designer’s personal journey. In the collection you could see a reinterpretation of the most iconic pieces of his 10-year career in fashion. The most prominent materials in the collection are cotton twill, quilted fabrics, jacquards woven with garment prints, fabrics made on handlooms, leather-based suits, and tailoring wool, gold em- broidery, and crochet made with metal chains. Red, blue and gold will be the predominant colors in the collection.
As for the artisanal techniques that have been used, gold embroidery on gold and in wool stand out, elaboration of fabric made on hand looms, with Spanish merino sheep wool, crochet, crochet with mohair, work with embossed leather, elaboration ceramic fajalauza (traditional Andalusian ceramic) and hand-painted garment.
LOOKS Leandro Cano
LOOK 1: JALEO JALEO
Long-sleeved tube dress executed with 5 mm silver metal chain. The dress is made up of a central part knitted with the rib stitch technique (knitting 2 stitches and purling two stitches) and the sleeves using the ribbed technique. Furthermore, the look is finished with a veil and a mask executed with the same technique. The total preparation of the look has consumed approximately 1750 meters of chain.
ARTISAN: Maria del Pilar Valverde WEIGHT: 15kg
RUN TIME: 300 hours
REFERENCE: It is a tribute to a dress present in all Leandro Cano collections. In addition, it is a reinterpretation of crochet, also used in all Leandro collections.
LOOK 2: TIEMPO
The look consists of a long fitted skirt with fired godet, which has been made with quilting. A dress with volume at the hip is placed on the skirt, as well as gloves. The head is covered with a diver. It is a two-tone dress, pink and red.
The execution technique is crochet, made with a fiber composed of mohair, virgin wool and polyamine.
Every cm of the dress is knitted by hand controlling the tension and fit of each pattern. The difficulty of the execution has mainly come from the fiber used since it is very fine and frayed, which gives air to the fabric, but much difficulty in its work. Another of the challenges of this look has been to square the pattern, that is, from the patterns you have to get the tension and extension of the patterns, (adapt the paintings to the tension of the hands of the artisans).
ARTISANS: Eva Pozuelo and Rosario Andrade WEIGHT: 10 kg
RUN TIME: More than 200 working hours
REFERENCE: Leandro Cano’s mythical dress that Lady Gaga wore in 2013.
LOOK 3: LOS CUATRO MULEROS
Male suit consisting of jacket, trousers, double-collared shirt and bullfighter jacket. The suit is carrying figures of children.
It is made with white cotton twill, and hand-painted with the typical technique of Fajalauza ceramics. (traditional Andalusian ceramic)
ARTISANS: Juan Pablo Martínez Tito, executor of the hand painting and Nikolas Telles, executor of the previous treatment of the fabric
WEIGHT: 25 kg.
RUN TIME: 280 hours.
REFERENCE: In previous collections, Leandro has used figures of children worn on the suits. On this occasion, and coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the firm, the pattern of the children’s figures has become larger, to simulate this age.
LOOK 4: PRIMERAS CANAS
Suit jacket with pants, shirt, jacket and jacket. (en- capsulated) inside are encapsulated pieces of clay decorated with all the medieval imagery made with the fajalauza technique.
The fabric has been worked on artisan looms woven by hand 100% with Spanish merino wool. The used loom is handled with one’s own hands and feet. Specifically, it has been woven on a low heddle loom. Two techniques have been used, taffeta for the fabric of the trousers and double-layer fabric encapsulated in 8 healds (when it is normal to use 2 healds) to be able to make a double-layer fabric made at the same time.
The complication has been in the double-sided fabric of the jacket and in the execution of the en- capsulation, since it had to be made to match the pattern of the suit. 992 threads have been used threaded one by one.
For the encapsulated fabric of double fabric it is necessary to make the calculations of width, length, number of threads, number of passes, threading of meshes, comb, tying… which entails 2 days of assembly of the loom before starting the work. Almost 20,000 meters of thread have been used.
The ceramic pieces have been made following the ancient technique of fajalauza ceramics and fired in Arab ovens at 1000 degrees. The ornamentation of the pieces has been done by hand following medieval motifs.
ARTISANS: Ana Santiago and Francisco Carrasco (Ana and Francis weavers). Juan Pablo Martínez Tito potter.
WEIGHT: 10 kg.
RUN TIME: 150 hours
REFERENCE: The reference of this look takes inspiration from the design made by Leandro Cano for his final year project, which had large volumes on the shoulders.
LOOK 5: CAUTIVO
Men’s short suit with bermuda shorts, tailored wool. Grids of different sizes have been created on the wool, on which more than 3000 golden metal nails are inserted.
ARTISANS: Leandro Cano Team
WEIGHT: 15kg
RUN TIME: 200 hours
REFERENCE: The reference comes from the inspiration of the collection, located in medieval times.
LOOK 6: CRESPÓN DORADO
Gold over gold embroidered maxi dress. The scenes represent the universe of Leandro Cano.
It has been made with a pedal machine embroidery technique, from the end of the 19th century, and with them you handle a wooden frame. The material used is metallic wire (60,000 meters used), which is more difficult to work with because it is a continuous wire covered with metal foil. In addition, it also has gold leaf and 24K gold inlays, fine gold thread
It is embroidered, done on tissue (cofrade fabric) gold. It is woven in Valencia. It is a complex fabric because it has a very thick weft. Tisú fabric is only used to imitate embroidery, not for clothing, which was a challenge since it had not been done before.
ARTISAN: Susi Ruiz WEIGHT: 5 kg.
RUN TIME: Over 500 hours of machine embroidery and 50 hours of hand embroidery.
REFERENCE: This look takes references from the cloak of a virgin since religion is very present in the life of the designer. The embroidered motifs represent the universe of Leandro Cano.
LOOK 7: LA CALLE DE LOS MUROS
Klein blue jacket suit with simulated volume on the hip. It is executed entirely in leather.
ARTISAN: Leandro Cano team
WEIGHT: 2 Kg.
RUN TIME: 60 hours
REFERENCE: It refers to the volumes that Leandro has been using throughout his career.
LOOK 8: NO DARÍA YO
Leather body in badana (sheep leather) skin, made in low relief. The look is completed with gloves and shoes. The model is wrapped in a speech bubble with text simulating medieval style works of art. The complexity of its elaboration has consisted in modeling the skin wet and embossing it on the mould. The techniques used have been reinforcement, embossing, matting, sewing, edge fliteado. They are traditional leather working techniques.
ARTISAN: José Rivas WEIGHT: 1000 g. RUN TIME: 200 hours
REFERENCE: This model makes references to the print of the medieval costumes that were used in the Hispania collection. In addition, bodies are recurring pieces in all Leandro Cano collections.
LOOK 9: LAS BELLAS CRIATURAS
Jumpsuit made of cotton twill with figures and towers in relief around the body. The figures are embroidered by hand giving texture to the piece.
ARTISAN: Paula Barroso Pérez WEIGHT: 10 kg.
EXECUTION TIME: 3 meses.
REFERENCE: Reinterpretation of the woman carrying the people. It is salvation and an ode to women, always present in the designer’s life and work.
LOOK 10: PAN Y VINO
Jacquard maxi coat with volume on the shoulders, created with the inspiration of the tailor’s fabrics from the commercial collection. A checkered pattern has been created on the jacquard on which random texts appear, which, reading them in all directions, appear mantras, thus gaining meaning.
ARTISANS: Leandro Cano Studio
WEIGHT: 6 kg.
EXECUTION TIME: 2 meses y medio.
REFERENCE: print based on medieval clothing. They refer to the mystique of the time.
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