The return of crochet or how to renew a simmering craft to place it at the forefront of fashion

Time, in the age of immediacy, has become a subversive concept. A luxury that can also be transferred to fashion. It is the philosophy that inspires the Sevillian firm Hilando el tiempo, which works slowly with the firm intention of evading the dictates of the consumer market and betting on products that can be used throughout life and that are inherited, thus gaining over the years an invaluable sentimental value. Pieces that stitch by stitch become eternal jewels in the closets.

Eva Pozuelo and Rosario Andrade (Seville, 200 and 49 years old, respectively) have been able to invest up to 52 hours of work for a single garment. They are responsible for a brand that was born in 2012, without references in its sector, to value this ancestral technique by taking it to the world of fashion. "Since I was seven years old I crocheted with my grandmother, she has always accompanied me," Pozuelo, a graduate in Italian Philology, explains to EL PAÍS, who was the first to convince Andrade, a computer engineer who was on leave at that time, to give professional outlet to her great hobby: crochet.

More informationThe art of photographic embroidery or how to transform the recent past with needle and thread

Some of the pieces of Hilando el tiempo in his workshop in Seville.Alejandro Ruesga

"Hilando el Tiempo was born after a long coffee with Rosario," Pozuelo recalls. They barely knew each other about taking their daughters – of the same name and in the same class – to school in a central neighborhood of Seville. From there arose this union, which took its first steps as a cooperative, testing with small textile pieces for the home and children's fashion and going to craft markets until, in 2014, the Andalucía de Moda catwalk created a green fashion show and commissioned 10 items. Both place that milestone as the beginning of what they have achieved today: although they continue to be a rarity within the fashion industry, they have managed to promote from Andalusia an exclusive firm capable of uniting the use of natural fibers and an ancestral technique with contemporary designs. A green, sustainable and unique fashion, "for an audience that wants things with soul," they say.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by hilandoeltiempo (@hilando_el_tiempo)

Among consumers looking to put heart to their way of dressing there is a recent example: the representative of Spain in Eurovision, Blanca Paloma, who throughout the Benidorm Fest contest appeared before the media with exclusive crochet garments of Hilando el Tiempo, as she did for the official photographs of the contest, in a mixture of tradition and avant-garde that fits perfectly with his music. Likewise, Eva Pozuelo and Rosario Andrade were protagonists a year ago of the Hispania parade of the designer Leandro Cano, for whom they made specific pieces, and also in the celebration of the tenth anniversary of this creator, with the presentation of his collection in the week of haute couture in Paris last summer. The actresses Macarena García or Milena Smit, among others, have also been his ambassadors on the red carpet.

Two models with balaclavas or executioners topped in the shape of a crown at the Leandro Cano parade in Jaén, on April 6, 2022.M. PORCEL

However, exclusivity is implicit in its creative concept. They make – only the two of them intervene and control the whole process – an average that ranges between 50 and 70 pieces per year. "Small collections, but forceful," confirms Pozuelo. In fact, they work by appointment and on request. "We only buy to make, we do not accumulate material," they say from their tiny premises in the Andalusian capital, a whole laboratory of ideas of these two "textile creators", as they like to call themselves. "First we create the fabrics and, from there, we make the pattern. It is a very slow work, of many hours, of trial, trial and error, "explains Andrade.

Another of its singularities is that they have dared to pass through the needle all kinds of fabrics – "crochet is the technique, not the material" – from the classic wools to algae fibers, bamboo, corn, milk fibers and coconut, and even an organic cotton spun and dyed by disadvantaged women in South Africa. "Hilando el Tiempo maintains a firm commitment to environmental sustainability and the ethical origin of its raw materials," they emphasize.

Exclusivity is implicit in the way Hilando el tiempo works. Alejandro Ruesga

This philosophy of work has inspired from Seville a whole national craft revolution, with festivals such as the last Madrid Design Festival held in the capital of Spain the first week of February and that had, precisely, with Seville as a guest city, as well as in the initiative España Artesana or the exhibition Sevilla Teje. "It is true that we are reaching more and more people. Craftsmanship spent a reviled time and now it has returned to it with a concept of exclusivity and luxury, "reflects Eva Pozuelo. Even so, there are still no exclusive references of crochet, which places this brand as a rara avis within the fashion industry.

Since 2020, after the first ravages of the pandemic, they made the leap to Madrid with an exhibition space for the press in theBarrio de las Letras (TeMeCé Showroom), which allows them to "be present without having to be there and be able to work from Seville". Her next challenge is to resume crochet jewelry, made with gold and silver threads in chokers, necklaces, bracelets, earrings ... As Rosario Andrade presumes, "everything that is a continuous thread can be done in crochet".