A World of Colour and Warmth
The Ezcaray Matisse Throw M-14 at the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.
Juan Luis Valgañón was wearing a mask and speaking Spanish—which I don’t understand—through a translator. Yet, despite that, I have never seen anyone quite as enthusiastic and passionate as Juan Luis is about mohair.
“Tell him about the mohair,” he interjected as Ignacio Valgañón Iriarte began translating what he had said, eager for his nephew to get to the part about Mantas Ezcaray’s most famous product. Even I, sitting thousands of kilometres away, unable to see his smile or understand much of what he was saying, understood just how much mohair meant to Juan Luis. “My uncle particularly loves our mohair products,” Ignacio relayed, a smile audible in his voice, “because there’s nothing else in the world quite like them.”
Juan Luis is the CEO of Mantas Ezcaray, a company his father founded in 1930; Ignacio is part of the third generation to get into the family business, having joined last year. It stands to reason, then, that they’d think highly of their mohair.
But so does everybody else.
Marion drapes the Picasso Throw over her on a fresh Spring day.
On the other hand, it’s a warmth that’s hard to describe—the kind that you feel inside. It’s a warmth that radiates from the knowledge that something is the product of generations of a family’s know-how, passion and craftsmanship. A warmth that you feel coursing you through you when you see Mantas Ezcaray’s vibrant colors—colors which are an integral part of the company. When Cecilio launched his business, in the 1930s, it was a time when “everything was grey and sad,” explains Juan Luis, with Spain emerging from a period of war. “My father wanted to give the people some color—to bring life.”
Almost a century later, those colors have taken on a life of their own. Of course, that wouldn’t be possible without the Valgañóns’ commitment to making Mantas Ezcaray sustainable.
By sourcing their materials from suppliers in South Africa, Mongolia and Peru—and paying the premium that comes with the finest natural fibres in the world—Mantas Ezcaray has helped support small, independent farmers. In turn, those suppliers overwhelmingly employ better, more ethical practices when it comes to harvesting their wool: the animals roam free and are cared for, when needed, by veterinarians, not just because healthy animals live longer and produce better quality materials but also because it’s the right thing to do; reducing waste is environmentally-friendly, but it also makes an outsized difference for small-scale suppliers, for whom every last ounce of fibre is important.
The Mia Throw doubles as a picnic blanket.
It may seem self-evident, but there’s a symbiotic relationship that allows Mantas Ezcaray and its suppliers to thrive—and to leave something for the next generation.
Even as Mantas Ezcaray has grown and gained fans the world over, it remains a small, family-run operation with a focus on its immediate community. Ezcaray is a town with a rich history in textile production, but Mantas Ezcaray is now the lone company keeping that tradition alive; the townspeople have generations of expertise, which allows Mantas Ezcaray to continue to make their goods by hand. It’s with good reason, then, that the company changed names, eschewing the family name for that of the town it calls home—an homage to a place that’s home to fine cuisine and finer craftspeople. A place that, while physically cold, has a warmth about it that gets into your bones.
Just like the colorful mohair that Juan Luis loves so much.
Marion and James all wrapped up in the Tie Dye Scarf - TD 3B and Tie Dye Scarf - TD 2B
Marc is a writer and photographer. His work focuses primarily on fashion, culture, and the intersection between the two. He has spent the better part of the last decade cataloguing menswear from New York and London to Florence and Paris.
