Colour, Beauty and Character

Anniina Koivu: Stine, how would you describe your role at Kvadrat?
Stine Find Osther: I see my role as a translator – serving as a bridge between visionary designers and production and guiding ideas into beautiful, viable products. I’m also an advocate for beauty – a topic that is often dismissed. Yet beauty has shaped human life since time immemorial, as we have always adorned ourselves and our surroundings – it deserves more attention.

Do you have a ‘recipe’ for bringing beauty into textiles?
We often look for ‘microscopic tools’ – tiny interventions in the textile surface that create depth. For example, we might split and dye a yarn in two colours before recombining them. These details embody the personality of a designer. Take ‘Remix’ or ‘Serpentine’, both by Italian designer Giulio Ridolfo. He is incredibly skilled with complex colour combinations, so we needed a textile construction that brings this vision to life. If you think of ‘Remix’ as a textile viewed through a microscope, ‘Serpentine’ is that detail magnified.

You make something complex appear simple.
When something complex looks effortless, it’s nearly impossible to replicate. This subtlety becomes a kind of signature that protects the work.

How do you approach colour in textile development? Do you have a typical process or a set number of colours you aim for?
We take colour extremely seriously and devote a lot of time to it. Funnily, we don’t have actual rules. Instead, we rely on deep, accumulated knowledge. Usually, we start with a massive number of colour swatches – sometimes 500 to 1000. After that, it becomes a process of elimination. At first, it’s easy – some colours just don’t work with the structure or fibre; they might look off or inverted. Those go quickly. But as you get closer to the final selection, the decisions get much harder. Suddenly you’re down to five or ten beautiful blues, and you can only keep one or two. That’s when the colours start competing with each other. Finally, we step back and evaluate how they work as a group. Sometimes a strong orange and a strong blue both work on their own – but together, they clash. So we’ll tweak one, maybe darken or soften the orange to create harmony across the palette.

It must be very hard to maintain a focused eye.
We talk about the hues like they’re people. Every collection needs the slightly annoying uncle – you know, the one who talks a bit too much. Then there’s the grandma – the peacemaker holding the whole family together. It’s a bit of a personality game. You also need that one person who doesn’t really want to be at the family dinner table, the one who’s almost resisting the group. But that tension creates energy – it gives the others something to push against.

What do you see as the common ‘thread’ within a collection? For example, with ‘Vidar’, ‘Asator’ or ‘Helia’, all by fashion designer Raf Simons?
Raf’s textiles are luxurious and full of body. They are quite heavy, with a lot of material per square metre, which creates a sense of richness. At the same time, they’re never loose or fluffy, but crisp, refined and very intentional. We always develop each textile as if it were the only one in the world. Yet, once placed in the collection, it interacts with the others. Evolving naturally, each new textile continues the conversation begun by the first pieces.

Let’s talk about trends. Do you follow them – or avoid them?
Neither, really. We don’t pay attention to trends as such. We build our vision through ongoing dialogue with external creatives. They’re often ahead of their time. We take in those conversations like ingredients in a big soup – and from that, we form our own vision for the future. Since our industry moves slowly, it makes no sense for us to chase trends. We aim to create and follow our own contemporary, modern and timeless path.

How many creatives are you working with, at any given time?
We plan about three years ahead and manage 60 to 100 projects in various stages. We have a ‘family’ of about 25 external creatives and also draw from archives like Nanna Ditzel’s.

Your job sounds like a balancing act.
It is. We honour each creative’s voice while staying true to Kvadrat’s DNA: performance, innovation and beauty. We respect our heritage, but focus on the future. It’s about respecting the past but not getting stuck there.

That bridge between heritage and the contemporary is something that Kvadrat shares with Vitra.
Absolutely. There’s a shared ethos – an appreciation for heritage, quality and longevity. Even visually, there are parallels. Both Kvadrat and Vitra aren’t afraid of colour. There’s a diversity and a kind of collage of creativity in both universes. From my side, which is product development, our collaboration is a creative dialogue. We share conversations, ideas and sometimes even designers. We inspire each other. Vitra helps us understand how our textiles are used in real spaces, and that insight shapes future development.

What is Kvadrat most famous for?
Kvadrat is famous for its high-quality design textiles crafted with our distinct colour universes, visionary collaborations and commitment to innovation. Kvadrat is also very involved in contemporary art and design, and frequently teams up with international artists and designers on significant projects. This creative expression is an important part of who we are.

Can you tell us a bit more about production? Almost all of your production is based in Europe.
We’re fortunate to work with incredibly skilled suppliers across our product portfolio – partners who consistently go the extra mile during development. This close collaboration gives us the flexibility and responsiveness needed for on-the-spot innovation, enabling us to push the boundaries of textile design.

This level of attention allows you to offer a 10-year warranty on most of your textiles.
How do you approach sustainability, more broadly?
Through micro-innovation: what happens if we turn a dial just one degree lower – can we still achieve the same result? When you’re producing thousands of metres of fabric, even the smallest adjustments can lead to significant energy savings. Small, smart changes can have a big cumulative impact. Traditionally, we haven’t spoken much about these ongoing refinements: our instinct was to only share something once it was perfected. But then the world began to shift. Everyone began talking about sustainability, and we asked ourselves: how can we be part of that conversation when we’re still on a journey and don’t yet have all the answers?

That sounds like a significant turning point.
Yes, we realised that if we pause and wait, the gap between where we are now and the perfect solution might only grow wider. So we chose to never stop moving and commit to full transparency. We now clearly communicate why we make the decisions we do, even if they’re not perfect. For example, recycled wool is a huge topic for us, as wool is central to our work. We initially explored using recycled fashion waste, but it proved too risky when chemical testing revealed numerous banned substances. Without control over source materials, we had to pivot. Now, we use our own production waste to create ‘Re-wool 2’ and ‘Sabi’, transforming leftover fibres into new products. Sustainability often happens behind the scenes – it’s as much about process as it is about materials.

Final question – where do you see textiles going in the future?
I believe the way we make textiles will change radically, but how they look and feel will remain familiar. That’s because comfort, tactility and beauty are constant human needs.