THE MATERIAL
Alcantara®
Every Elemento interior is cut from Alcantara. It is the surface a watch rests against, the wall a cufflink touches, the lining a card is drawn past a hundred times a week. It is the part of the object nobody photographs and everybody feels.
What it is
Alcantara is a microfibre composite of polyester and polyurethane, produced by Alcantara S.p.A. at Nera Montoro in Umbria. The process was developed in the early 1970s by the Japanese scientist Miyoshi Okamoto at Toray; the Italian company was founded in 1972 to manufacture it in Europe, and it has been made there ever since.
It is not suede, and it is not a substitute for suede. The filaments are finer than silk, spun and bonded into a mat rather than split from a hide, which is why the surface reads uniform from edge to edge with none of the variation a hide carries.
Why we cut it
We line in Alcantara for four reasons, and none of them is cost.
- It absorbs light. A matte interior returns nothing to the eye, so a dial or a stone placed on it is the only thing in the frame.
- It does not crush. The pile recovers. A watch left in the same slot for a year lifts out without leaving a permanent shadow.
- It holds a strap without gripping it. Enough friction that nothing slides in transit; little enough that nothing drags on the way out.
- It survives handling. Abrasion, light and body oils are the three things that finish an interior. Alcantara is specified in automotive and aviation interiors precisely because it resists all three.
Alcantara, in the hand.
Made in Umbria
Single-source. Every metre we cut comes from the same plant in Nera Montoro, which is why a lining specified today matches one cut two years ago.
Carbon neutral since 2009
Alcantara S.p.A. has measured, reduced and offset the emissions across its product life cycle since 2009 — one of the few interior materials that can be specified without a caveat.
Cut, not wrapped
We do not stretch Alcantara over a form. Each face is cut flat to its own pattern and set into the frame, so the nap runs in one direction across the whole interior.
THE STANDING RANGE
Seventeen colours
Held at the Maison and available on any catalogue piece or commission. Colours are shown as photographed material; screens vary, and we will send physical swatches on request.
Living with it
Alcantara asks very little. Lift dust with a soft brush along the nap. For a mark, a barely damp cloth and a light circular motion, then let it dry in open air and brush the pile back. Nothing solvent, nothing abrasive, no heat.
A COLLECTION IS A SEQUENCE
Few people buy a second watch. Most buy a third, then a fourth, and find the difficulty is no longer choosing but keeping. A trunk is not storage. It is the order you impose on the sequence.
TRAVEL WATCH CASE
Always within reach
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The Edition Space, Dubai Hills Mall — open daily, 10:00 to midnight
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