In one of Switzerland’s last remaining weaving mills, a passionate leader is preserving a rare craft while nurturing the female artisans whose talent and dedication keep the clickety-clacking alive. 

It’s early in the morning when Konfekt arrives in the village of Santa Maria in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. A resident stands on a hill welcoming the day with a traditional alphorn as birds scatter from the pines. We’re here to meet Maya Repele, managing director of Tessanda, one of the country’s last remaining weaving mills. She’s waiting for us, artfully draped in a rose-coloured woven linen scarf, in the doorway of an old building in the heart of the village.