STORY OF THE STYLE – SHEARLING COMBO QUILT

Next in our ‘Story of the Style’ series is the popular Reversible Shearling Combo Quilt, perfectly timed with its arrival back in stock this week. We take you behind the scenes of the production process, to understand the hours of work (a lot of which is by hand) to make this coveted style.   

WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION?

I design with a philosophy of function and solution first. The intention of the shearling combo quilt was to create a style which can be worn in colder climates, a hybrid between a quilt and a shearling coat – an elevated version of our Signature Reversible Quilt, with the added shearling panel to add further warmth. When it’s very cold, or if it rains, turn inside with the shearling against your body and the water repellent nylon as the outer shell to protect you against the elements!I also love the contrast of texture between the technical nylon and the natural shearling, creating a functional yet luxury aesthetic.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE?

There is always a lot of skilled hand work involved in crafting our pieces. This style takes between 16-18 hours.

HOW MANY ARTISANS WORK ON IT AND WHO ARE THEY?

It takes approximately 8 different women in our family run factory, Magia, in Florence to produce the Reversible Shearling Combo Quilt.The process involves a pattern maker, a quilter, two hand sewers, one or two machinists, another two people for finishing, hand stitching buttons and steaming, as well as a shearling specialist to iron and hand stitch the shearling together seamlessly. As always, each Marfa Stance style has at least two rounds of quality checks before shipping.

WHAT ARE THE KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS?

The Reversible Shearling Combo Quilt is hand cut from super-soft Italian Shearling, combined with water-repellent Japanese quilted nylon and recycled padding. The nylon quilting panel is water and stain repellent for when sitting down on a bench or outdoor surface. The shearling panels are hand matched and stitched together by a shearling expert, to ensure an even appearance and that colour and texture are even.Our quilting is not a standard quilting and is made on an embroidery machine. The round shape of the quilting creates a more lofty, soft and light weight feel, not rigid as a more traditional small diamond quilt. Whilst most quilts are stitched through and through, we use a doubled style which allows for pockets on both sides, and also a cosier feel. The elbow pleats add increased movement and the cut away shape of the cuff at the wrist makes it more comfortable, easier to type and wear gloves etc.The garment is fully bound, making it a more expensive process, but it is the best way to achieve a clean finish and reinforces the seams. All of the colour matching of fabrics, buttons and bindings from dead stock fabrics is also not a standard process and takes care and time to achieve a sustainable and ethically crafted product.Because this is a reversible construction, it means there is a lot of hand finishing. This ensures it is functional and durable with a clean luxury finish. Each loop and buttonhole are made completely by hand and is extremely time consuming to neatly construct.

WHAT ARE THE MODULAR ELEMENTS?

Our uniquely buildable accessories can all easily button on and off the Reversible Shearling Combo Quilt to update your look to suit the climate, season and occasion. We have a range of Shearling Collars in different colourways, a new Camouflage Shearling Collar and both quilted and shearling Reversible Hoods.We have also recently introduced our new Buildable Shearling Liner, which can easily button inside all of our reversible quilts for thermal modular layering in style.