✅ Tomeu Fuster, general manager of the prestigious and historical Majorcan company, Teixits Vicens, new Hidden Icon.
Why Hidden Icon?
We chose VICENS because of its commitment to continue the family legacy, the tradition, and the history of handmade Mallorcan fabrics.
Champions of the Mediterranean lifestyle and trendsetters with the best handmade products with the “made in Mallorca” label.
▷ In a Snapshot
Products with design and manufacture 100% handmade and with a production stamp “Made in Mallorca”.
Fabrics of “lenguas mallorquinas” (“Mallorcan tongue cloth”), as they are popularly known, which can be adapted to all types of products. A company that has managed to reinvent itself, adapting its product to new trends and market demand.
Focused on a client who values the authenticity and reality of a place when he visits it, a client who decides, not just visit but to live the place. An audience that seeks the hidden profile, the local side of the destination.
The differential value of Vicens, is that it is not a souvenir: is the memory of a place, is a commitment to a quality product. Also for the residents, it is a symbol of identity and belonging to a place: its culture, its tradition, and its history.
Over the years, Vicens has become an icon of Mallorca and the Mediterranean.
# Talking
We interviewed Tomeu Fuster, general manager of the historic textile company, Teixits Vicens. He told us how they have experienced the confinement, the advances and constant versatility of the company and his recommendations to enjoy Mallorca, the hidden essence and its hidden gems.
1.VICENS. A company that never stops growing and reinventing itself. How has the process of seeing ¨las lenguas¨ set the trend?
Ikat fabrics have been a trend-setter for some years now. There seems to be one irrefutable fact and that is the consumer’s return to quality products. There is a new trend that claims the craft as a value of trust and authenticity against the dehumanized forms of work and consumption. Here we know where they come from, who has made them, and under what conditions.
2. CREATIVITY. The COVID-19 has not stopped you, you have also designed masks… What inspires you, and how have you kept it active during this confinement?
Mask making arose from a shortage of medical supplies during one of the toughest times of the pandemic. So in order to help in some way, we decided to keep the workshop open under minimums and try to be supportive. The truth is that these hygienic masks are having a lot of success. Our only means to reach customers has been, and still is, the online shop and through social networks.
3. MEDITERRANEAN. You manage to take the Mediterranean and the pure essence of Mallorca everywhere with your designs. What is your new goal, or your great dream where you would love to go?
The fabric we manufacture is very versatile, so it is relatively easy for us to think of new product prototypes. There are no specific goals. What interests us is not to stop being excited and inspired to keep on experimenting, to create new drawings of fabrics, colors, and to collaborate, as we have done so far, with other firms, in projects that make us feel identified. The goal is to continue maintaining this authentic craft, which is also our culture.
4. TRADITION. A family business that doesn’t stop growing. How do older generations see the change in the company? Has the market and manufacturing changed so much?
This is a company that began its trajectory in 1854. The 3rd generation, Martí Vicens and Antonia Capllonch, with much effort, reinvented Ikat’s fabrics.
Today we give all the value and priority to continuing the family legacy and maintaining the philosophy of the artisan work. We feel the responsibility of continuing to seek a balance between the most technological times in all history, and the excitement of maintaining a craft that has endured over time.
In Europe there are only three companies left that use this technique, another added value for our company.
5. DESIGN. Is there only one person in charge of designing or is it a team effort?
Vicens is a team company. It is true that the company is organized in different departments, but all the work is done by consensus.
6. VICENS TOP. What basics do you recommend to people who buy as a souvenir from your brand and from Mallorca?
I think a basic Vicens is to be able to have a tablecloth. It’s like owning a treasure, even if it’s wrong for us to say so, but it’s a piece that’s for life.
Then, if you want to take a basic souvenir, you can buy anything from a tote bag with a “Mallorcan tongue cloth” and wear it however you want, with whatever you want and whenever you want, to some espadrilles that are like a sign of identity of the islands.
✨ Hidden Tips
Your recommendations to enjoy the hidden reality of Mallorca.
If you visit Mallorca, at least you have to swim in a bay, taste the typical Mallorcan cuisine and to experience the hidden authenticity of the island, we recommend you visit our workshop in Pollença to see and understand how the fabrics are made while the artisans work.
Teixits Vicens, a company with a firm step in the present and in the future that does not forget the path it has had to take to get where it is today.
+ HIDDEN ICONS
