Renáta Jančo designs and produces her own fashion and textile art, focusing on traditional crafts and natural materials. In her work she tries to continue the handicraft tradition and uses old textile craft techniques to become part of the modern world. Her unique work is the production of animal material from sheep's fleece to the actual woven product, such as a hand-woven rug, for which she uses traditional tools such as a spinning wheel, loom or needles to felt acoustic wall panels for modern interiors. The demand for her work extends to interior design studios in the Czech Republic and abroad, including a presentation of her brand in the Nordic countries this year.
You worked as a photographer for many years. How did you get from photography to textile art?
I got into photography in the same way. I'm fulfilling my childhood dreams and it's from these years that I draw everything I've absorbed, experienced, tried. Even as a little girl I longed to be a photographer, I felt I looked at things and people differently than others. Today I understand that feeling, to look at the world around me through a kind of viewfinder with an inward focus. Portraits, people in general, are just my floor, I think I can find in them what they don't see in themselves. But nowadays I don't do photography as much as I do textile work. One has to move on in life and discover new stimuli.
The shoot of two of your collections was also held at the Telegraph. How do you work on the visual presentation and choice of venue?
All my actions are guided by intuition. I see it as my gift and I follow it. The first time I visited the Telegraph, I got goosebumps and knew I wanted to co-create in this place. Then there are places that I walk by every day and they don't move me at all, even if they are more commercial in nature, but I don't hear about that. Another place where I can shoot hundreds of times a year is the forest, in any kind of weather, I can feel the energy in it and it makes me feel good.
When choosing materials, you also take care of natural resources and preserving traditions. What is your process in making your own materials?
I compensate for my childhood by creating with natural materials, even after all these many years I remember the unpleasant feel of silk and similar chemlon materials not only in clothes but also in home textiles. I grew up in this time. The techniques of various traditional works have remained in my head over the years and I have only dusted them off as an adult. It surprised me that one really doesn't forget the things one knows. When it comes to natural resources, it is a joy and a fascination at the same time. I work with organic cotton in my clothing, use only sheep and lama wool and linen for home textiles, and am newly trying silk, hand spun by Indian women. I also weave from camel hair provided by the Olomouc Zoo.
For me, wool is on the scale of winners and a material from the "lord of god", unappreciated by people and unfairly valued. The traditional process from sheep's fleece to finished product is quite a process. It starts with the shearing of the sheep and the collection of the fleece in its raw state i.e. including everything that doesn't smell, and it is at this point that many people give up, which is a great pity. However, if you keep going and overcome a bit of discomfort, after a few washes you get your hands on material that smells specifically, in a colour that is second to none. Then the wool is combed, spun on a spinning wheel and the finished yarn is woven - I use a classic loom. The product that results is my "baby". It often takes a long time to release it into the world and sell it to new hands, but I have to, it's a normal production process and a job like any other.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I don't draw it from myself or look for it, it comes on its own. Interestingly, at irregular intervals. Sometimes it pours itself into my head in full force, other times my head is completely empty. It's just as well. I don't want to be overwhelmed for myself or my surroundings. I'd like to maintain my status as an easy-going person.
What can we expect in the latest collection for this year?
I'm not a standard designer and I don't create regular seasonal collections. I only create when I have an idea and the desire to produce something. At the moment, with the spring season starting, I only have a couple of pure merino wool coats and three woven rugs. I would like to focus more on individual commissions this year, to collaborate with interior designers and take my pieces out into the world. There, handmade work is valued with a different coin and an admirable eye. In a few days I will be going to Brussels, in the autumn to London, I don't plan more, I will be surprised what will come.
By Erika Kovačičová / Telegraph Gallery
Photo: Renáta Jančo
