What to do with inherited family textiles: a HÅG x Recouture story.

When we launched HÅG x Recouture in January, we created a series of HÅG Capisco chairs upholstered in vintage Norwegian åkle. We also offered the chance to commission your own. Clients brought their own åkle or chose from Recouture's collection, and each chair was sewn by Recouture and assembled at the HÅG factory in Røros.

We received 35 requests from people who wanted to create a chair of their own with Recouture. Mette was one of them. We visited her at home to hear her story, and why the collaboration resonated with her.

A chest from Gudbrandsdalen

Mette was born in Lillehammer, and her family's roots lie on a farm in Gudbrandsdalen. When the farm passed down, it went to another branch of the family, and the contents came to Mette's side. Among them was a large chest, filled to the brim with handmade objects from the farm, stretching back generations, including åkle.

Åkle is a traditional Norwegian woven textile, first used as bedcovers and wall insulation and later hung as decoration. Each one was woven by a single pair of hands, and each region of Norway developed its own patterns. The pieces in Mette's chest carried that history, along with her family's.

As an only child, Mette eventually inherited the whole collection.

The question of who keeps it

Mette has three daughters. Their lives have taken them in different directions, and the one thing they have in common is a lack of interest in old things. That leaves Mette with a question many families will recognise. She wants the family heritage to be passed on, but worries that it will sit unappreciated in a cupboard and slowly be lost.

For years she has tried, gently, to bring pieces of Norwegian folk culture into her daughters' homes. She describes it as sneaking the history in. Then an advert for HÅG x Recouture appeared on her Instagram feed, showing åkle upholstered on the HÅG Capisco.

"It was almost as if the advert was reading my mind," she says. "I had spent nearly a decade trying to think of ways to sneak in the old, and here was the perfect opportunity. I could put this åkle into a cool product. I knew I had to find out more."

Opening the chest with Hilde

Mette responded to the advert, and a date was set to meet Hilde Hoff Nordskar, founder of Recouture, at her studio in Harestua. She packed the åkle into bags and brought them with her. There, she opened them up in front of Hilde, and together they worked out what could be used.

There were many pieces to choose from. They picked out the strongest åkle, then looked for upholstery fabrics to pair with each one and carry the rest of the chair. Finally, they chose the metal finishes for the HÅG Capisco that would best bring out the colours and details of the åkle.

"Hilde was so open and helpful from the very start," Mette says. "When I saw her work up at Harestua, I could tell straight away that she has a real eye for design. I was trusting her with things that mean a great deal to my family, and she treated every piece with care. Creating something new with Recouture is once in a lifetime."

Eventually they settled on three pieces. The first, a vibrant, ornate åkle with fine yellow stitching, paired beautifully with a pink wool fabric. The second, a floral ochre piece that had once covered a piano, had faded in places, which made finding the right section to use more difficult. The third has a more recent story to tell.

Mette wove it herself, on a course in Kolbotn where she was learning both how to weave åkle and the history behind it. One of her daughters was a newborn at the time, and Mette wove while the baby lay in her crib beneath the loom. That åkle now covers a HÅG Capisco chair, as a result of this collaboration.

"People think of åkle as something from the past," Mette says. "But mine will be a hundred years old one day too. I like that I'm part of the story."

Cutting the upholstery left remnants of each åkle. Mette was so pleased with the chairs that she commissioned Hilde to sew those remnants into jackets. Clothing is the core of Recouture's work, so nothing from the chest went to waste.

A fabric from the same ground

When Mette told us where her family's farm had been, the connection became clear. Every åkle Capisco in this collaboration, including Mette's, pairs the åkle with a sturdy Norwegian wool from Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik. Her grandmother's farm was in Gudbrandsdalen, the same valley as the mill. It was a happy coincidence, and one none of us had planned.

The choice of wool was deliberate. The story of these chairs has always been about preserving history and Norwegian culture, and the mill's wools are sturdy and long-lasting, made for a chair that will be used every day. Those same qualities are behind HÅG's long history with Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik, developing upholstery fabrics woven from Norwegian wool. You can read that story in The Journey of Norwegian Wool.

A question of preservation

Some would ask whether cutting into an old åkle is a kind of vandalism. A textile that survived generations folded in a chest becomes upholstery on a chair that will be sat on every day, and will wear. It was a question Mette took seriously. Before handing anything over, she looked into Recouture's work, and in Hilde she found a rare talent and someone who cares as much about preserving history as she does.

"Helping to restore, preserve, and give new life to a textile that carries a family's history is a responsibility I take seriously," Hilde told us when the collaboration launched. The chair is part of the answer too. The HÅG Capisco is built for a long life, and its core mechanism is made to last. When parts wear, they can be repaired or replaced, so the chair and the åkle on it can be looked after and kept in use for years to come.

Reflecting on the project after completion, Hilde continued;  “It has been an honour and a real joy to work on this project with Mette. When she first told me the story of her three daughters, I was very moved.

Over the years I have helped many people give new life to family textiles, but Mette’s story was special. What touched me most was learning that she had woven one of the åklær herself, and that her baby daughter used to sleep under it in her stroller. It’s beautiful to think that the same fabric is now part of a chair, carrying those memories with it.

I hope these chairs will be loved and used for many, many years. Perhaps these textiles would not have survived another generation tucked away in a chest. But now they are part of everyday life again, and so are the craftsmanship and the stories behind them.”

"They are unique," Mette says of her chairs. "Nobody else has chairs like these, because nobody else has our family's history. When I look at them, I see where we come from. I hope that one day my daughters will see it too."

Set into the HÅG Capisco, the åkle can go into her daughters' homes and stay in plain view, a daily reminder of their heritage and family history. In time, it may pass to their children too. How far it travels from there is up to the generations that inherit it.

About HÅG x Recouture

HÅG x Recouture brought together Recouture, a fashion design studio in Hadeland that restores and reinterprets Norwegian åkle, and the HÅG Capisco. The personal commission is now closed. You can still see the collaboration, including film and photography, on the campaign page, and read more about the history of åkle here.