Majal Design School hosted From Cocoon to Cloth, a specialized masterclass focusing on silk spinning and felting and discussing Lebanon’s silk heritage. Led by textile artist and designer Rana Feghali, who boasts 20 years of research into silk, the hands-on workshop introduced participants to the history of silk, its place in Lebanese cultural heritage and its potential within contemporary textile design.
For Majal’s Textile Department, the workshop is part of an approach to textile education that connects traditional craft and cultural heritage with contemporary practice. By bringing practitioners with specialized knowledge into the classroom, the school gives students and participants the opportunity to learn techniques that are increasingly removed from everyday textile production.
Feghali brings more than a decade of experience working with silk in Italy. She lived for many years on Lake Como, the historic center of Italian silk production, where she gained first-hand experience of both traditional silk manufacturing and contemporary developments in the industry.
She also worked for several years as a designer with Marco Lagattolla, described as the only remaining producer of silk lace in Europe, creating handcrafted textiles for the luxury fashion industry.
Feghali’s own practice combines fine art and textile design, using traditional techniques within a contemporary artistic language. Her work has been exhibited in France, Italy and Austria.
In 2016, Feghali was selected from more than 500 international designers to present her work at Design After Design at the Triennale di Milano, an exhibition that brought together designers working across different fields and approaches to contemporary design.
At Majal, From Cocoon to Cloth places this experience within a Lebanese context, using silk as a starting point to explore the country’s textile history while considering how traditional materials and techniques can be unders