68
The Fabricaal approach is more about offering a
variety of products than trying to quickly sell
blankets. It is an approach informed by history.
Mantas Alentejanas, as they became more refined
over time, became iconic bedding made for special
gifts, such as for a wedding. But with Portugal’s
entrance into the EU and the arrival of the open
market, tastes changed, and people became more
interested in polyester bedding. “We had to find
a way to keep the manta alive, so the factory
started doing Mantas Alentejanas to put on the
floor, as rugs. And they were used as rugs, also
to survive, in a way. But they [lost] popularity;
it was very difficult to keep the big factories
open. So more or less in the ‘70s, before the
revolution, Mizette Nielsen, she gathered all the
looms of Reguengos de Monsaraz under one single
roof and bought the Fábrica Alentejana and put
all the looms that were used at homes, not at
really factories, and put all the people under
the same roof and that became Fábrica Alentejana
de Lantificios. So they gathered to survive. And
that’s the heritage that we manage now. Over
the last 25 years there was only one factory,
only 4 weavers that have been doing every Manta
Alentejana we know.”
The new Fabricaal owners are innovating while
holding strong to the heritage of the blankets
“And now we are bringing it out of the floor and
we are doing other stuff: we are doing beds, we
are doing ottomans, we are doing … mattress for
outside or for inside, we are doing tapestry wall
textile art...we are doing a lot of stuff because
we thought that could be interesting that the
Manta Alentejana gets other formats.”
