Massaua
At Massaua, Eritrea, with the precious cotton from Zimbabwe, a soft and resistant fabric called Massaua cloth used to be made, particularly suitable for the tailoring of uniforms.
Uniforms, unlike fashion items, have never had to put up with the problem of either time or change. Their timeless essence guarantees duration and identity, so that those who wear them feel quite at ease. The Massaua project has developed these concepts and, overcoming the basic clothing brand idea, proposes itself as a true cultural operator. By translating and handling the concepts of fashion, form and collection, all through a semantics of its own, Massaua has focused on a field of research parallel to, but detached from that of mainstream fashion.
The brand’s items, rigorously for men, are the outcome of sartorial care and are manufactured in numbered edition. The items are unique specimens of a collection, which is no longer meant as serial production linked to the fashion seasons, but as a selection of collectable artworks, meaningful handicrafts that convey long-lasting, timeless values. With its precise editing and view of the world and fashion, the Massaua project conveys a spirit and a culture of clothing meant to manufacture limited editions rather than serial ones. The materials employed by Massaua consist of Berber wools and pure, natural, traditionally grown African cotton. The fabrics are processed in Japan, dyed with vegetable indigo and exclusively woven on ancient looms through “a slow, traditional process” with the use of artisanal production techniques.
