Lantoki, a new co-sewing space in Barcelona

With the rise of DIY (Do It Yourself), of co-working spaces and handmade production of all kinds of objects due to the financial crisis, has emerged a new concept: the co-sewing. This “new thing” is based on sharing, in the same workspace, equipment, specialized tools and infrastructure for the design and manufacture of clothing or accessories, promoting collabs and synergies between creative talents making their first steps into the world of fashion. Lantoki is one of these newly created spaces and is located in the heart of Barcelona. From ShBarcelona we want to know more about this space, let’s talk to them.

How did Lantoki came up and what we can find in this space?

Some time ago, a good friend of us told us about a place in Berlin where sewing machines were rented by the hour and where they taught you to sew your own clothes. This brought us to think about the idea of creating a place in which to put together the knowledge acquired in our fashion design studies in a professional way. The idea was to create a fully equipped facilities and offer everything that we had at our disposal to allow customers to develop their own ideas in an environment of creativity and interest in fashion and clothing.

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What exactly is a co -sewing space and how is it different from a co-working one?

The co-sewing is simply a co-working space focused on sewing items and clothing. It’s different because of the type of facilities as a co-sewing has those machines and tools that would help to create this kind of things. It works the same way, it is aimed to share both the space and the facilities while creating a professional network and relationships among users. In our case we have sewing machines, an ironing center, mannequins, production of patterns material, riveting and scissors, and a small basic range of haberdashery.

We have added to the concept the fact that who shares our spaces can sell in our store. A part of Lantoki is dedicated to sell and we give the possibility of selling and promoting the creations that are made in our workshop in order to put together all the phases in clothing design and production.

What kind of courses do you offer or you plan to teach at Lantoki?

Right now we are doing courses of sewing introduction, which will be held continuously. We also teach advanced sewing courses to teach tricks and techniques of sewing to people that is already used to the sewing machine. The courses are aimed to learn how to design clothes and also to make basic clothing alterations. We teach how to sew by hand, to hem your pants, to widen your clothes or to solve any kind of sewing problem… At the pattern making courses we will do some basic patterns like designing a skirt, shirts or pants. In addition we plan to carry out knitting courses, modeling courses, screen courses or fashion photography workshops. Such courses are designed to provide training to complement fashion knowledge. We are open to those professionals who want to use our space to teach courses related at this creative environment, and any proposal by students interested in a specific subject.

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What kind of professionals or students sign in your courses or use your facilities at Lantoki?

Our target is quite wide and we offer various types of services and products. A person can use our workshop to fix up his or her curtains, even an amateur designer can rent the space per months and produce a fashion collection there. Fashion and clothing attracts a large number of audiences, from those who are already on fashion industry to those that wants to learn how to do it. We perceived a very positive response from some old ladies but also from the young people that are doing fashion studies.

As we have a store within Lantoki, people come to buy but later they see our workshop and are very interested and amazed with the space. In the sewing introduction courses there are plenty of women interested in sewing as a hobby, and through the course they are able to realize they have their own ideas.

At your store you sell what is produced in the workshop, what was the public reaction to the designs coming out of Lantoki?

How we mentioned earlier, this is the idea. What would be better than selling at our store what is produced on the workshop? But we must point out that it doesn’t work exactly like this. It depends on the agreement that we and the “designer” have reached, as we want the clothes on the store follow a certain style in accordance with the philosophy of this space. But we are open to talk about every initiative that people bring to us.

Lantoki clothes are created by us and are designed and produced in our workshop exclusively. We are delighted to be working in the store while receiving customers and curious people valuable comments. We are also selling Cultto brand clothes, a brand born in Bilbao, with the same philosophy of Lantoki, handmade clothes done at the workshop.

Could you tell us anything about future activities, events, courses, or novelties that we will see at Lantoki in the coming months?

Besides the courses we have mentioned, we are already planning a big and proper opening event. We want to bring together all those friends who have helped us make this possible, people that we know but also unknown people, neighbors, pets and curious people to party with us at Lantoki. During Christmas we have planned some activities for children. Workshops for parents and children to spend time together and produce some handmade gifts.

We will announce all these activities on our website, blog and social networks:

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And finally, how the experience of opening a business like this in Barcelona has been for you?

We are very happy! The truth is that the hardest part has been finding the place and rebuild it. But at the same time that all this has been exhausting, it has been exciting. We opened few months ago but we feel that the district has given us a great welcome. Throughout the rebuilding process we have received great support from the neighbors. Everybody was curious about what was inside, especially the older ladies seemed very happy with a sewing workshop opening there. We all talked about how much they liked and what they did when they were younger. We have even received threads donations from a lady who used to embroid. The neighbors are happy to have such a place near their homes.

It is a very positive value to know that people are interested in this type of works and is really encouraging to us. Give us strength to keep going.