Arantza Vilas

PINAKI studios

Textile creator

©Michele Panzeri

©Sylvan Deleu

Innovation beyond the fold

Arantza specialises in pleating and biomaterial exploration for textiles
She is best known for her pleating and folding works
Collaborative projects include multi-layered pleated fabrics and folded electronics

Arantza Vilas is a textile artist and researcher best known for her pleating and folding techniques, which she uses to investigate transformation. How can materials compact, adapt and unfold? Her work is a way of thinking through systems of change, within a broader research practice that addresses material, narrative and time. The pandemic of 2020 marked a shift that prompted Arantza to reframe her process around circularity, intention and long-term relevance. Trained at Central Saint Martins with a Master’s in Textiles, she is regularly invited to contribute to costume design, with past collaborations including Michele Clapton (Game of Thrones), Phoebe de Gaye (The Musketeers) and Alexandra Byrne (Mary Queen of Scots). "Pleats and folds across any material have the ability to deliver extraordinary visual and structural effects," she says. Arantza's work blends craft and cross-disciplinary methods to rethink what textiles can be today and in the future.

Interview

©Michele Panzeri

©Arantza Vilas

What principles guide your sustainable design practice today?: I work with the Bio-Inspired Textiles framework's pillars of efficiency: recovery and longevity. These help me ask the right questions at every stage, such as what is necessary, what end of life options exist, and how can this last or transform over time.
How would you describe the spectrum of your collaborations?: My practice thrives on collaboration with costume designers and creatives like chocolatier Pol Contreras. Projects span edible surfaces, cocoa husk dyeing, folded electronics and research with Tilburg's Textile Museum and Lab, as well as The Robotics Living Lab at Manchester Metropolitan University. These partnerships inspire innovation and shared growth.
Where do your ideas tend to originate?: A deep rooted love of tinkering lies at the core of how I work. I begin by engaging directly with materials, folding, stitching, testing colour and volume on a small scale. These early experiments land on my wall or in my Books of Secrets and guide later decisions on form and direction.
How do you see the relationship between technology and materiality?: Technology like 3D printing allows me to explore precision and structure, but it is the material response that truly guides the process. I am interested in how digital techniques can learn from the craft, not to imitate or perfect it, but rather to reveal something unexpected.

Arantza Vilas is a master artisan: she began her career in 2005 and she started teaching in 2007