We have recently renewed the image of our website, we started a new year, the third for our online store, and we are full of energies, new projects and new ideas. Among all the improvements, we have realized that we must to tell our story and talk about our origins so that our new friends know us and know what we are made of, how and when everything started and what we do here.
The story begins in a beautiful place on the southern coast of Chile, in a town of beautiful beaches, dense forests and lush vegetation. The textile industry was the engine of its economy.
At that time, life in that place revolved around the factory that gave work to thousands of people, who made high quality wool fabrics and blankets and designs that would be mostly exported to Europe.
For those years, everything was quite different from our current life, dressed differently, gentlemen use to wear suit and hat, ladies, coats and pretty skirts. The style was quite sober, austere and formal. There was an army of people in the area who worked in the creation of these garments, the seamstresses and tailors lacked time and the fabrics with which their clients would be dressed were piled up in their workshops. Coats, jackets, skirts, school uniforms for children and trousers for the gentlemen ... everything was done by hand and this way the economy of the community was nourished.
At that time, garments lasted longer than we use our clothes today, they were worn out little by little, many were dry cleaned, their design was classic, so much classic so that we still see those designs reproduced year after year in our modern articles , pied de poule, prince of wales, tweed, herringbone, stripes, tartan, etc.
The clothes had several times, first it was "new", it means that it was the attire with which people presented themselves to weddings and funerals, baptisms and celebrations such as Independence Day and as guests to eat at friends' houses. After a while, these items passed into the background, that is, it was no longer new, and since it was not thrown away it was used to be at home or go out to the grocery. In those years it was not used to be dressed in pijamas at home! Neither go out carelessly or in sportswear!
The clothes lasted a lot, were ironed and kept with care, their quality was good, the shoes were taken care of in the same way, they were polished and sent to the shoemaker to keep them in good condition and so they would last much longer. The cold climate of the area warranted thick and hot clothes. The wool was definitely the queen.
The houses of the families of the place were very similar. In the beds the blankets were made of wool, like way the mattresses and pillows were filled with this noble fibre, and our walks to the countryside were always accompanied by the famous tartan travel blankets, all done in those factories.
On top of that, knitting, by needles or crochet was one of the favourite pastime of many people there on the cold and rainy winter afternoons. Cardigans and sweaters were knitted, clothes for children and babies and blankets.
Nowadays, all that movement seems to me to be what we call "slow fashion".
In those years, when something was dislocated or if due to wear and tear something broke, it was sewn or patched. The same thing if something at home was broken, a tap, the stove or repair the roof did the men of the family. A garden was grown, food was stored for winter in the pantry, there were chickens that provided delicious fresh eggs, there were fruit trees, apples, pears, plums and lemons and the gardens were colored by beautiful roses and flowers that were taken care of personally. The houses smelled of wool, wood (the houses in the area were mostly made of wood), customer soup and fresh flowers.
All that is quite different today, just an important part if history of that place, the factories worked more than a century in the area, now they almost in disuse since the 80’s and in 2017 was declared National Monument.
Life changed radically when that important engine of the economy stopped working leaving thousands of people and families looking for a new future on the horizon. Finally, just as it happens in nature, things change, life goes on and nowadays that rhythm of life no longer exists.
In 1994 we left there for Europe leaving behind all that life, and the memories of the place, friends and some relatives were kept for many years deep in the heart. The time there stopped in our minds to give way to what was to come. A lot has rained since then.
Time was passing, people, different places, everything new, new experiences formed a new skin. All the experiences of all these years are added to that story that was kept in a closed book. Now everything is useful, every bit is part of a whole, nothing can be discarded.
Passionis Verae was formed like this without knowing it. It lay asleep until one day the life, the weather, the rain and the vegetation of The Netherlands woke it up and began to give unequivocal signals of wanting to get out of the lethargy and show what it is. Is a sum of all that life, in its fabric you can see the threads of all those memories added to the experiences of all these years that have shaped our online store of complements mainly made of 100% wool, a challenge to maintain the classic style adapted to these days, because although everything has changed a lot since that time, it does not change the pleasant feeling of comfort and shelter of a woollen garment when it is cold, when the passing of time the garment remains intact and we are still providing good company and keeps us warm, the smile that gives you the recipient as a gift because it knows at a glance that is a good thing, to know that even today many people live their sheep farms with all the hard work that this entails, the process by passing the fibre to become soft and ready to be woven. This whole process is slow, very slow, just as a tasty stew is prepared in the heat of the fire. That's why when you know a little about that process you feel more than grateful for what you have in front of you, we appreciate the fact that trades like this are still standing and we hope that it does not get lost, because there are hundreds of places like that little place on the south coast from the Pacific around the world, many communities that work and live off this rewarding profession.
Passionis Verae aspires to continue in that line. A product made with a noble fibre, durable, adapted to the new times, at a fair price, and maintaining a tradition of know-how behind. A nice garment, which will give many satisfactions and surely one day you'll look carefully and see between his threads also a piece of your history.
