Covilhã located in the heart of Portugal, since the 19th century XII is a landmark of wool, with a special focus on evolutionary creativity. The António Estrela factory was built on top of a 17th century manufactory. In 1904 receives an award that honors and distinguishes this factory and why not say the city itself, which gave its recognition across borders, in this case on the other side of the Atlantic, at the Universal Exhibition in St. Louis, U.S.A.

Over the years, this factory has been recognized. Júlio Afonso receives the award for “Brillant Pen 1976”, attributed by Men's Fashion Writers International, whose main professional trait was the mastery of raw materials prepared and associated with a creativity recognized by the market itself by its peers.

For a few years now, Júlio Afonso's family has intensified its interest in customs and its talented craftsmen and the idea of ​​supporting them on the one hand and paying tribute to its founder on the other. In this sense Casa da Lagariça appears, in Castelo Novo, a boutique talent store, located in a historic village.

However, the permanent search to materialize the free and spontaneous creativity of all those who work on the joint project, was born the Hand Lab, which was decided to call New since it is a new space and which is now publicly known through this exhibition 100% wool, where they pay tribute to the work of Júlio Afonso and consecrate in common points of sustainability of creative and passionate technology.

The final objective is to share with all the people who have a great interest in all this and to motivate them to join this space of free and creative expression.

​To conclude, we hope with this to unite these points as Júlio Afonso once did and that Carrilho da Graça recently materialized in front of our factory António Estrela|Júlio Afonso.

​©2022 New Hand Lab