The atelier of Brooklyn-based Laine + Alliage bears out the theory that mood boards are an integral part of the creative process. Every collection and commission has its genesis here, replete with “Milan in the ’70s” appliqués and curved dress-pattern shapes that eventually find their way into the company’s wallpapers, textiles, and pillows. They tell a story of movement and composition. “The color samples and fabric swatches are active,” says Laine + Alliage’s founder and designer, Tania Leipold. “They live with me and are a great way to stay on track with my vision.”
During high school, Leipold spent summers in France, learning “how to sew while apprenticing with my mentor, a master patternmaker for Dior.” After attending the Fashion Institute of Technology and a brief stint at Paco Rabanne in Paris, she decided to seek out a broader outlet than what her fashion studies had provided. “I was toying with the idea of what to do with fabric that was not fashion,” she recounts. “I found that playing with different materials and appliqués all on one surface was really exciting.” Inspired further by haute couture, vintage Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, and all things “Eurocentric,” she launched Laine + Alliage—French for “wool and alloy”—in 2017.
Her decoupage-like approach to making pillows, curtains, and upholstery begins with sketching shapes and meticulously calculating measurements. “With appliqués, the measurements have to be exact,” Leipold says, “but you’re also making art, so it’s not as rigid as making a dress. It’s like a puzzle.”
After measuring the appliqué shapes onto felt, she carefully cuts them out and labels them for placement within the larger composition. Curved appliqués are created by cinching the fabric before sewing it, then pressing and trimming it on the inside to avoid overlap. Finished appliqués are then temporarily stitched to the larger piece with contrasting thread, which is removed later, once everything is in place. “A lot of the shapes we create in dance influence the composition,” says Leipold, who has practiced ballet and contemporary dance since she was a young girl. “It intuitively comes from the eye I have for how the body moves in space.”
Leipold exacts calculations.
Leipold measures appliqués on felt to be cut out and used as patterns.
In the composition stage, Leipold places a finished appliqué onto a linen panel.
Leipold uses a basting stitch in a contrasting thread to attach it temporarily.
She cinches appliqués to create a smooth curve.
She takes the same approach to Laine + Alliage’s wallpaper panels, making painted shapes on paper, then scanning them and sending them to printers who create large panels ranging from 27 to 33 inches wide. Rugs and a ceramic tabletop collection, Leipold says, are coming next. “I always knew the brand would continue to grow and evolve. It feels natural, sort of like a healthy obsession.”