Colour on the loom: in conversation with Olmetex’s Riccardo Breschi
Founded in Como in 1952, Olmetex is a technical fabric mill supplying premium and luxury brands with high-performance materials. Three generations of weaving knowledge sit behind its work, alongside a steady investment in new capability. That balance of heritage and forward thinking is what made Olmetex a natural partner for Amphicolor™.
Amphicolor™ creates colour through weaving rather than dyeing. Solution-dyed base yarns are combined in the weave, following our colour recipes, to produce the shade a collection needs. Olmetex brings the looms and the weaving expertise. To date, the mill has woven around 200 colours from Amphicolor™ recipes.
We spoke to Riccardo, General Manager at Olmetex, about how the mill's work has evolved, what was different on the loom, and why deciding colour at the weaving stage matters to a mill.
Amphico: Olmetex has been making fabric since 1952. How would you describe what the mill is known for today?
Riccardo: Today, Olmetex is known for combining more than seventy years of textile expertise with a constant focus on innovation. Our strength lies in developing high-performance technical fabrics that meet the demanding requirements of premium and luxury brands, while maintaining the craftsmanship and attention to detail that have always been part of our identity. We see heritage and innovation not as two separate elements, but as complementary ones: our experience gives us the knowledge to innovate with purpose.
Amphico: You work with a number of leading premium and luxury brands. What are they asking you for now that they weren't a few years ago?
Riccardo: The expectations have become much broader. Brands are looking for fabrics that combine performance, aesthetics and sustainability, without compromising on quality or design freedom. There is also a growing demand for greater transparency around materials and processes, as well as for more efficient production methods. For us, this means continuously investing in technologies and processes that can respond to these needs while maintaining the level of quality our customers expect.
Amphico: How did this collaboration come about, and what made you want to explore it?
Riccardo: The collaboration came from a shared interest in finding new ways to rethink the traditional relationship between colour, yarn and fabric production. Amphico’s approach immediately caught our attention because it combines colour innovation with a significant reduction in the resources traditionally associated with dyeing. We saw an opportunity to experiment with a different production concept and to understand how it could be integrated into our weaving expertise.
Amphico: What was different about producing Amphicolor fabric on your looms compared with your usual process?
Riccardo: The main difference was the way colour was approached. Instead of introducing colour through a conventional dyeing process after weaving, Amphicolor uses the combination of solution-dyed yarns to create the desired colour directly during weaving. This required us to work differently with yarn combinations and colour recipes, but it also gave us a new level of creative and technical control at the weaving stage. It was an interesting challenge because it brought together our knowledge of weaving with a completely different approach to colour creation.
Amphico: You've now woven around 200 colours from Amphicolor recipes. What stood out to you about the results?
Riccardo: The breadth and richness of the colour possibilities. Working with different combinations of yarns allows us to achieve a surprisingly wide range of shades, while maintaining the technical characteristics of the fabric. Producing around 200 colours also demonstrated that the concept is not limited to a small, predefined palette: it can offer genuine creative flexibility and be adapted to the needs of different collections and brands.
Amphico: From a mill's perspective, what's the appeal of being able to create colour at the weaving stage?
Riccardo: It changes the way we think about colour development. Colour becomes part of the fabric construction itself rather than a separate finishing step. This can simplify the production process and reduce the resources traditionally required for dyeing, while also opening new possibilities for colour customisation. It gives us the opportunity to work more closely with brands on colour development and to integrate aesthetic choices directly into the technical construction of the fabric.
Amphico: Where do you see this fitting into what brands are looking for, particularly around performance and sustainability?
Riccardo: We see a strong fit with the direction in which the industry is moving. Brands increasingly need materials that deliver technical performance while also helping them reduce the environmental impact of their products. Amphicolor offers an interesting answer because sustainability is integrated into the production approach rather than treated as an additional feature. For Olmetex, this is exactly where innovation should lead: developing fabrics that combine performance, aesthetics and more responsible processes, while continuing to meet the high standards of the premium and luxury market.
If you're a mill or brand exploring colour at the weaving stage, get in touch: hello@amphico.uk
