#1 GHOSTS AT THE TABLE

EXCLUSIVE DAMASK TABLECLOTH

Design: WIM OPBROUCK
Production: VERILIN, Heule

Through his mother’s family, Wim Opbrouck descends from the famous Decavele flax family. He lives in a renovated flax hangar and his garden still has a retting pit. He was instantly motivated to design an exclusive damask tablecloth for Texture. Kortrijk has been a global centre of expensive snow white linen damasks since the 16th century. Texture has a world famous collection with many historical and figured napkins and tablecloths. A damask tablecloth was often manufactured for celebrations.

Wim says it is “fantastic that people still make the effort and take the time to immerse themselves in the skills of weaving correctly, in finishing the edges perfectly, in embroidering small details. Even though it is an old craft, it is also very contemporary." Trendy chefs such as Sergio Herman, for example, visit Verilin to spend an entire morning hunting for the perfect table linen, finding out which texture matches the interior of the restaurant or their dishes best, and so on.

11 GHOSTS AT THE TABLE

The design consists of 11 different personalities, or table guests, who engage in a dialogue with each other. At every feast the 11 ‘guests’ sit at the table. They tell tales going back to the 16th century, because even back then flax was processed in the Kortrijk area. The heads of these ‘table ghosts’, however, can only be seen in a particular light. Apparently, they are seen clearest in candle light.

82 NUMBERED PIECES

The exclusive tablecloths in Kortrijk damask linen could only be purchased at the occasion of the reopening of Texture in a limited, numbered edition of 82 pieces (referring to 1982, the founding year of the Flax museum). The cloths were made of 100% Belgian linen, measure 170 x 300 cm, jacquard woven and contained a unique edition number in red embroidery.