The Folk Art Crafts Expedition Visits Shalnoy Orenburg

At the end of August, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, held a large-scale project, the “Folk Art Crafts Expedition”. Its participants were students of the HSE School of Design (Moscow) and the Italian fashion school Polimoda. The future designers got acquainted with crafts that still live in our country today, in order to then create their own works and collections for a show at “Fashion Week” in spring 2019. On 24 August the participants of the “Folk Art Crafts Expedition” arrived in Orenburg to study the hallmark of our region — down knitting. Shalnoy Orenburg became their guide and helper.

We set ourselves the task of giving the guests as complete a picture as possible of the down-knitting craft of the Orenburg Region: from the history of the craft, with roots going back to the 19th century, to its present state. And, of course, to show clearly how an Orenburg shawl is created — “from the down goat to the finished item”.

Getting to know the history of the region and the craft

Immersion in the world of Orenburg down knitting began with a sightseeing tour. The students learned about the history of the region and the Orenburg Cossacks, who played a key role in the origin of the craft. They visited themed museums, including the Orenburg Museum of Fine Arts with its “Orenburg Down Shawl” gallery. There, museum staff led by senior researcher Natalya Nikolaevna Khartsienko helped the guests literally touch history: the participants saw unique exhibits — handmade items by Orenburg craftswomen, each of which holds a piece of this history.

The main task of the future designers is to create their own collections using the Orenburg down shawl. So they needed to understand in detail how this miracle of the down-knitting craft is made.

At Shalnoy Orenburg's production

We showed the guests the production sector of Shalnoy Orenburg and described and demonstrated in detail the stages of making down shawls. Moreover, the students had the opportunity to briefly become participants in the process themselves.

The expedition participants got to know the down goats more closely — it is with them that the creation of any item begins. The guests saw in person a legendary goat of the Orenburg breed, whose undercoat gives the most valuable down, and got a lot of positive emotions from this “encounter”.

Then the students were shown different kinds of goat down. Everyone received comprehensive explanations and could touch, examine from all sides and study in detail any of the grades presented.

Lessons from the craftswomen

What is an Orenburg down shawl without those who create this masterpiece with their own hands — without the craftswomen? Shalnoy Orenburg's team of knitters was happy to talk with the future designers and share their experience. With commentary from genuine hereditary professionals, the students saw with their own eyes how goat down becomes a fine and strong thread, how patterns with their intricate combinations are knitted, how shapeless strands of down step by step turn into genuine handwork with perfect proportions and a rich composition. The guests' training was led by a hereditary craftswoman, a true expert in all the subtleties of the craft — Roza Sakhabovna Gumerova.

As we promised, every guest could feel like a participant in the process. The young people were invited first to spin down yarn themselves and then to knit small fragments of items. It must be said that the future designers coped with this task brilliantly — see for yourself what they achieved.

The craft in all its diversity

The guests could also appreciate the scale, originality and breadth of the down-knitting craft where many knitters sell their products. Such diversity and such a range could not fail to make a serious impression on the expedition participants.

Since the students intend to create clothing collections with elements of the Orenburg down shawl, a mandatory part of the programme was meeting Anna Sovetova — the author of more than one such collection. The guests visited her “House of Down Fashion”, talked with her personally and saw her magnificent works.

Everything the students of the HSE School of Design and Polimoda learned, saw and tried in Orenburg and the region came together into a complete picture — from the origins of the craft to the most modern trends and the current state of down knitting. And they will be able to put the skills acquired during this course into practice.

What comes next

This body of knowledge will certainly come in handy: the ultimate goal of the expedition is their own design collections based on folk crafts, in our case the Orenburg down shawl. All the experience our team tried to pass on to the guests, they will use when designing clothing with the Orenburg shawl. Based on the students' sketches, our craftswomen will make items that will form the basis of future works. The finished author's collection will be presented in spring as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2019, and our company will receive related rights to it.

The guests were very pleased with their trip to the Orenburg Region: they took away invaluable experience and knowledge, as well as many positive emotions and impressions. Here is what they themselves say about it.

We, in turn, are glad that the exchange of experience is reaching the international level and that folk crafts are again attracting interest all over the world. Passing on the experience of the craft and raising interest in it is one of the most important tasks today. And events such as the “Folk Art Crafts Expedition” show that it is being successfully accomplished.