Is there any greater incentive than the dream of a better life? And is there any greater motivation than a better life for all?
Surely not. The dream becomes a vision and the vision becomes a concrete plan for the best possible future, a utopia. And even if it cannot be realised in its entirety, it can still serve as a guiding light and goal.
Because one thing is for sure: the path to a better future is much easier to follow if you come equipped with a good plan. And this is the path that Hodsoll McKenzie have chosen to take with their 2021 collection.
Utopia Collection 
Utopia Collection
Moving forward, the goal is to create solutions for environmental issues within the industry. Natural materials will be sourced responsibly and within the local region when possible. The production processes will strive to be environmentally friendly and innovative; also the designs shall honor their textile culture and history.
The fabrics are intended to enable users to design spaces that are in harmony with nature, not just aesthetically but intrinsically. These fabrics aim to help create an oasis that simultaneously promotes safety, health and invites people to dream of a better future.
After all, it is no coincidence that many a utopian novel is set on a desert island, as this landscape enables one to implement possible solutions on a small scale.
Many of the fabrics in the 2021 collection bear the names of real and fictional islands.
The Garden of Eden is as present as an animal that has paradise in its name. This collection represents Hodsoll McKenzie’s first steps towards sustainability. The journey is long, but what better reason to embark on an adventure towards the prospect of a better future?
FLOREANA
Floreana, an island in the south of the Galápagos archipelago, volcanic on one side and tropical on the other, some 1,000 kilometers from the mainland, was the scene of a grotesque sex-and-crime affair in 1934 among its first inhabitants – German dropouts who, according to legend, preferred to be naked and live in a corrugated iron hut.
In the collection, FLOREANA is an exquisite Belgian linen fabric, delicate, shimmering and of an understated two-tone color. A graphic foliage is embedded in a strong zig-zag stripe, a bit like lush tropical plants on a corrugated iron roof.
TERRA NOVA
Hardly any other name is as self-explanatory and therefore as popular for fictional places as Terra Nova – the new world. It contains a pioneering spirit, the joy of discovery and confidence in a better, richer and happier future. In the field of sustainable materials, the exceptionally undemanding hemp is a good alternative to cotton, and yet hemp is the oldest plant of mankind.
It requires hardly any work to cultivate, grows up to four meters high, pests do not like its scent, it needs comparatively little water, and in the crop rotation hemp has a positive effect on the yield of other plants.
The hemp quality TERRA NOVA has an aristocratic heaviness, yet remains particularly soft and flowing, and its used look due to the stonewashing process gives the upholstery its own coolness. Like linen, but even more sustainable.
BENSALEM
As early as 1627, Francis Bacon drew the picture of the city of Bensalem in his utopian novel Nova- Atlantis, whose energy is generated by wind, water and solar power and whose basic order is characterized by pacifism and humanism.
The jacquard fabric BENSALEM made of a linen-cotton blend, however, has a delicately contrasting and striped look. It was made in Italy in a GOTS-certified weaving mill.
BURDWOOD RE
Italy has been an important center of Europe’s textile tradition since as early as the 13th century, and has been a stronghold of innovation in the recycling of woolen fabrics since the 19th century.
In the recycled cashmere quality BURDWOOD with its striped design in earthy shades, innovative meets traditional and Italian know-how meets British understatement. An upholstery fabric that is both firm and soft, inspiring a wide range of uses.
SUPERB BIRD FLOWN
The basic fabric of SUPERB BIRD impresses with a particularly dry and natural linen feel, which is visually supported by the fine movement and flamé effect of natural linen.
And the promise of look-and-feel is kept, because SUPERB BIRD FLOWN is a GOTS-certified fabric and therefore free of toxins and produced in a socially responsible way.
ROSEVEAR
Three things come together in this article that would probably never have found each other otherwise: the medieval Boutis technique interpreted as a jacquard of linen and cotton, the arrangement of a print designed by Al Eklund in 1958 showing birdcages, and the legend of an opera singer who died in a shipwreck in 1784 and who is said to still eke out an existence as a ghost on the uninhabited island of Rosevear southwest of England.
ROSEVEAR is therefore a true conversation piece. But especially because this handcrafted quality with subtle two-tone coloring is made in a traditional Italian GOTS-certified weaving mill.
EDEN
Paradise interpreted as lush foliage that stands vividly in space through a two-colour interplay of background and foreground. The all-over motif was digitally printed with a GOTS-certified reactive ink onto a cotton base produced in the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) programme, which requires neither pre-treatment nor post-treatment.
This innovative technology from our traditional textile printer in the North of England is not only water and energy efficient, but also produces particularly high light fastness and durability results.
ANTILIA
Aristotle mentioned it, Christopher Columbus is said to have rested on it and no less than seven bishops and a few followers are said to have founded a new civilization on it. Its sand is interspersed with silver, they say. But the island of Antilia never existed.
The ANTILIA fabric, on the other hand, appears like a shimmering silver sand dune with its organic pattern. From cultivation to finished product, this item was traditionally produced in Belgium without the use of pesticides and with significant water savings compared to cotton. The result is a linen fabric as soft as a duvet and as resilient as a lightweight upholstery.
HOWLAND RE
Halfway from Hawaii to Australia lies the small island of Howland, whose little fame is mainly due to the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart who in 1937 wanted to be the first person to circumnavigate the world at its greatest extent. On Howland, she made a stopover – and remained lost forever.
In the collection, HOWLAND is one of the few items with synthetic content. A mixture of recycled cotton and recycled polyester combined with linen was the deciding factor. The result is a dense yet soft herringbone that looks natural in earthy tones and almost sporty and functional when you choose a bright color.