Out of 900 nominations and nine finalists, one of the four prizes awarded by the Italian edition of the LVMH Métiers d’Excellence, Carlo Colombo—co-owner, along with his brother Mario, of Tessitura La Colombina—has received the Master Craftsman of Excellence Award 2026.
The award went to the company based in Badoere, near Treviso—founded in 1895—honoring its four generations of textile history and its contemporary vision of craftsmanship. Carlo Colombo, in particular, has successfully revived 19th-century handlooms and transformed them into tools for research and innovation to serve today’s market.
The company, which began as a silk mill, has expanded to include weaving, knitting, and accessories. The award recognizes a specific vision of craftsmanship. Rather than viewing its historical legacy as a static entity, the company has succeeded in making it vibrant, productive, and contemporary once again.
“When I decided to bring our old handlooms back to life, I didn’t want to simply preserve them as a relic of the past. I wanted to take a tool created over a century ago and bring it into the present, using it to create and experiment with contemporary and innovative products,” says Colombo.
Tessitura La Colombina preserves and uses 14 mid-19th-century wooden orthogonal handlooms. It uses them to create fabrics, accessories, and a cashmere knitwear brand—Nicki Colombo—through a slow, manual, and highly customizable process.
For several years now, they have been creating fabrics and experimental projects using natural fibers, fine yarns, recycled materials, and unconventional techniques, always keeping the focus on the manual craft and the slow pace of the process.
Its work is primarily based on on-demand and bespoke projects, developed in collaboration with the client according to specific requirements for materials, colors, textures, dimensions, and finishes.
For Carlo Colombo, who considers himself an architect-weaver, innovation in craftsmanship arises not only from technology or materials research, but from the coming together of different people, skills, and generations.
“The future of craftsmanship cannot be built alone. In recent years, I’ve sought to create what I call ‘positive synergies’ with young people, with fellow weavers, with designers, and with companies—and to develop projects that share a desire to experiment and create new languages,” says the entrepreneur.
Among the collaborations launched by La Colombina in recent years are those with Federico Ongaro of Ongaro Lab, focusing on fabric processing and experimentation with prints; with Giulia Ferraris of Ateliervetra, on projects involving local wools and natural dyes; and with Francesco Vantin of Gimmi Jeans, a young fashion and denim industry insider dedicated to experimenting with artisanal Venetian hemp.
“Our past is our future.” This is the mantra that sums up the philosophy through which Carlo Colombo interprets his role today as the guardian of the know-how passed down from previous generations—know-how that he has, at the same time, been able to transform and make useful for future generations.
“This award is not just a personal recognition, but also a tribute to all the people with whom I’ve had the luck to work, exchange ideas, and grow. Expertise does not belong to a single person: it comes to life the moment it is shared and continues to generate something new.”