Show me your clothes...
Anyone strolling through the village of Lloseta can easily overlook the store. The house is tucked away between other houses in the village center. Teixits Riera, Stoffe Riera, is written on a round, rusty sign on the natural stone wall. It is hardly noticeable. The glazed entrance gives a clear view of the interior, revealing that this is one of the last three weaving mills on the island. Colorful bales of fabric lean upright against each other or lie in long rows on two wall-high shelves. You can tell straight away: this is high-quality fabric. In front of it is a long cutting table and opposite, on the other side of the entrance, are rocking chairs,
and cushions, covered with the typical Mallorca tongue fabrics, teles de llengües. They are so called because their long patterns are reminiscent of
tongues. If you venture further into the small store, you suddenly find yourself in the middle of the workshop - and in the past. Dusty looms, two large washing drums and a movable wall, the warping creel with its countless colored bobbins, are reminiscent of the early years of industrial production. In fact, apart from the chrome-plated washing machines, the appliances are from the past,
in which the yarn is also dyed, from the 19th century, or from the middle of the 20th century.
Century. Gabriel Riera is the fourth generation to run the business. He is in his late 30s and looks quite modern with his sneakers and distinctive glasses. Riera studied economics, took over the business a few years ago and has hardly changed it. He is aware that the charm of the old and small has an effect on his customers. "We don't want to get any bigger," he says, "and we don't want to move into an industrial area either
move." In return, he accepts the narrow access for customers and suppliers in the old part of the village, the cramped work in the workshop and also the small
In the fourth generation
Gabriel Riera is the fourth generation to run the company. He has hardly changed anything. And why should he? He and his employees still work in a village house in Lloseta, with old machines and a lot of manual work.
workroom on the top floor and the roof terrace for drying bundles of yarn. Climbing up the narrow staircase from the workshop, you first reach the small terrace and then the long room with a sloping roof. It is almost completely filled by a table. This is where the cotton threads are prepared in bundles for dyeing.
One of Riera's four employees tapes the strands a few centimeters apart: the secret of the tongue pattern, which is called ikat in other regions of the world.
Once they are dyed, they hang on poles on the terrace for a few days. The dry bundles are then wound onto spools and later, depending on the pattern, placed on the warping creel. From there, Riera feeds the colored threads individually to the warping drum: ten white threads, eight blue, ten white ... They run in a fixed order next to each other over the drum, forming one of the 70 or so patterns that Riera has in mind. "If I can't remember, I just look at the finished fabric and see,
how the threads have to run."
Tongue pattern in turquoise: real Mallorca style!
Teixits Riera
Teixits Riera
Carrer Major 50
Lloseta
Opening hours:
Mon-Fri 10-14 h and
15.30-19.30
Sat 10-14 h
web teixitsriera.com
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