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Maharam is pleased to announce that Waxed Cotton Leno is featured in Rachel Comey’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection. The connection between the two companies was formed in 2014 after Comey selected another Maharam textile, Cotton Velvet, in luminous citrine for the dressing room curtains of her New York City flagship. United by a shared commitment to material exploration, this is the first time Maharam and Comey have worked together.
Although recent Rachel Comey collections have included materials as diverse as chain mail, lambskin, and Mylar, the designer has remarked on the shortage of “interesting domestic fabrics and materials.” In this case, she has successfully overcome the challenges of creating and constructing accessories and ready-to-wear pieces—including bags, a coat, skirt, and pants combining cotton canvas with lambskin—from a netlike material intended as a window covering.
Waxed Cotton Leno is a true leno weave: an increasingly rare specialty construction in which the warp yarns form a double helix around the weft, creating a material that’s open but stable. In keeping with the Maharam Design Studio’s emphasis on purity, substantiality, and simplicity of materials, Waxed Cotton Leno’s construction is magnified by a single high-denier, twisted cotton yarn with a thin coating of wax that adds sheen and resilience.
First presented on February 7th, 2017 at an open-air dinner party hosted by Rachel Comey at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel gallery in Los Angeles, the collection, including the Waxed Cotton Leno pieces, will be released in RC and wholesale stores in July 2017.
About Rachel Comey
Rachel Comey (b.1972) is an American fashion designer and creator of the eponymous New York-based label. The brand, which started as menswear, grew out of the downtown arts scene of New York in the early 2000s. Her collections became known for artful custom textiles, graceful modern silhouettes, and covetable footwear. Her work is said to be designed for real women, like herself, with strong opinions, big aspirations, and a view to the world that is at once radical and romantic.
The women's collection quickly took off and developed its own grassroots following as well as notable customers Michelle Williams, Maggie Gyllenhall, Cindy Sherman, and Parker Posey. In 2012, Comey launched an e-commerce shop and in June 2014 opened her flagship brick-and-mortar store in SoHo, New York. In the summer of 2016, Comey made moves west, and opened the doors to her second brick-and-mortar store in Los Angeles, California.