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In the beginning, there was her desire to work with a natural, living material. Violaine Buet’s choice intuitively fell on seaweed, the ancient marine plant that formed part of the landscape of her childhood in Brittany. The overarching goal of her efforts: To develop an innovative expertise on seaweed to use it in art, haute couture, scenography and decoration as well as visual merchandising and industrial manufacturing. Because: seaweed can be used in many ways. Whether weaving, dyeing, sewing, printing, embossing, tufting, engraving, braiding or pressing – the possibilities seem almost unlimited.
With her craftsmanship as a designer, Violaine Buet explores the aesthetic and technical properties of the material, develops natural dyeing methods with the support of experts in vegetable dyeing and biopolymer researchers. Using interdisciplinary methods, she combines expertise with craftsmanship, inspired by weavers, leather workers, jewelers, tailors, screen printers, gilders and master glaziers. In this way, she not only creates customised textiles from the biodegradable algae, but also walls, landscapes and installations.
»It’s like writing a story with an inevitable factor of time. With seaweed I have to take into account seasons, species, tides, weight, smell, particularities, colour-fade, hydrophilicity and decomposition, all of which change with time. It’s about everything coming together in a kind of balance.«
Violaine Buet
Modularity is not a new concept. For decades, it has shaped architecture, furniture and industrial design. Applying it to soft textiles, however, opens up an entirely new discussion.
Creativity and curiosity have always been our driving force. Our work evolves through prototypes—never finished, always raising new questions about materials, processes, and possibilities.
Both the fashion and textile industry often celebrates creativity. Yet many of the industry’s creative decisions are made long before a designer ever begins designing. Colour being one of them. The thing is, by the time a designer selects yarn, someone else has already determined the available colours, sequences and combinations. Choice exists, but only within boundaries.
“Through hands-on experimentation, I explore the potential of new surfaces and alternative forms of leather, aiming to reconnect human life with the natural world as an interconnected fabric.”
