A homage to Iran by Hadi Teherani and Christian Fischbacher

When Camilla D. Fischbacher and Hadi Teherani met for the first time at a working lunch, they quickly realised that they had a lot of things in common. One is their shared country of birth, Iran, which they both only knew as children. Then they both emigrated to Europe: Teherani to Germany, while Fischbacher arrived with her family in Switzerland. Today, the creative director of the textile company Christian Fischbacher and the architect and designer both work in creative professions. The many parallels resulted in an intensive exchange. ‘I was born in Iran but influenced by the Western world,’ Tehrani says about his background. ‘About five years ago, I founded an office in Iran. Getting more involved with my roots has also brought me closer to myself. I've never denied Iranian origins, but I've never given them much space either.’ Fischbacher is also concerned with the contrasts between Europe and the Middle East. ‘Hadi Teherani and I see the country and the culture of Persia from both the inside as well as the outside.’

In reflecting on the nature and landscape of Iran, on its tradition and culture, colours and vibrant dynamics, the pair decided to distil the special spirit of the country into a jointly developed textile collection. Neither were interested in a direct interpretation, but rather in expressing their own atmospheric reading.

Both find inspiration in many directions. For example, in architecture, which is mainly characterised by traditional brickwork, in calligraphy or in elements of the country's impressive natural environment, such as the imposing Aladagh Mountains, its deserts or the island of Hormuz, on whose colourful surfaces one walks as if through a rainbow. These are landscapes shaped by extremes, and colours that tell of the rainless climate, the dusty heat in summer and the bone-chilling cold in winter. The basic colours of the fabrics are therefore restrained, earthy and natural, while a few strong nuances set definitive accents.

To address all the senses, material and texture play an important role in Christian Fischbacher's Contemporary Persia collection. The collection comprises a total of ten fabrics, which sometimes work with patterns, sometimes play with transparency or make the country truly tangible through an exciting feel, lively surfaces or uneven structures.

Many of the fabrics are woven from linen or wool. The fabric Donya, for example, is a dense wool satin, and Dasht is made of a soft-flowing and three-dimensional linen-cotton chenille yarn. Incidentally, the names give an indication of the cultural or geographical association: Dasht is the Persian word for desert, and the velour quality of the fabric is reminiscent of the soft feeling of warm sand.

‘Translating each design into its own textile feel was a great challenge. Many different fabrics were drawn on and studied. Patience, as well as persistence, were required until the perfect translation into yarn was found,’ sums up Teherani. The intensive examination is also evident in the designs. Roya, with its randomly arranged areas, resembles a camouflage pattern and refers to the colour sequences of a mountain landscape; the cotton, viscose and polyester yarns used create a noble, shimmering surface reminiscent of the shimmering air of a hot day. The semi-transparent curtain fabric Afsun, woven as a Scherli fabric, appears almost mystical. This term refers to an elaborate technique in which additional threads are woven into the basic fabric as a pattern and later exposed by cutting them along the contours. Inspired by calligraphy, the Persian letters H and T form the repeat – and stand both for Tehrani's initials and for Heetch Tamam – the spiritual teachings and asceticism of Sufism.

‘When you think of fabrics, it naturally has something to do with quality,’ says Teherani. ‘Fischbacher is a company that has always set standards. That's where it got its name from.’ Teherani and Fischbacher have merged their design and technical skills with another important component of good design – emotion. Fischbacher agrees that this has resulted in a very special collection: ‘Contemporary Persia has become a matter of the heart for Hadi and me, with a power all its own: cultural roots are in you, they are often diffuse and barely tangible, so to find someone who understands this language without words is something special.’

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