Some textiles are saved for guests and celebrations, folded away for most of the year. We have never quite understood that habit with linen. A good linen cloth asks to be used — on a Tuesday morning with coffee and rye bread, just as much as on a set holiday table.
This is one of the reasons we have carried Libeco in the shop for years. The mill has woven linen in Flanders since 1858, in the part of Belgium where flax has grown for centuries and where the craft of turning it into cloth is still taken seriously. Five generations of the same family have run the mill, and the weaving is still done there, on looms that are looked after the way old tools deserve to be.
A fibre that improves with use
Linen is spun from the flax plant, which needs little water and few interventions to grow in the Flemish climate. The fibre is strong, naturally slightly crisp at first, and it softens beautifully with every wash. A Libeco cloth bought today will look better in five years than it does on the day you bring it home, few things in a home can honestly promise that.
It also behaves well at the table. Linen absorbs moisture without feeling damp, dries quickly, and releases stains more readily than cotton. The slight creasing is part of its character; we have learned to leave the iron in the cupboard and let the cloth fall as it wants.
What we have chosen for the home
Our selection centres on the table and the kitchen. The Olympia tablecloth is woven in a quiet stripe that works as well under a weekday breakfast as under candlelight, and the matching Olympia napkins soften into something you reach for without thinking. For the kitchen, the Parma kitchen towels are the kind that dry glassware properly and hang well on a hook by the sink.
And then there are the foutas, the light, large linen towels, like Inyo, that move between bathroom, beach bag and the back of a chair without ever looking out of place. In summer they travel to Hanko with us; in winter they are the towel that dries before the next morning.
Everyday, not only festive
If there is one thought behind this selection, it is that the everyday table deserves the same care as the festive one. A cloth that is used daily becomes part of the rhythm of a home, it is washed, folded, spread out again, and slowly it carries the memory of the meals served on it.
You are welcome to come and feel the weaves in person, linen is a textile that chooses you by touch. And if the shop is far, the whole Libeco selection is here online. Welcome!
