Pao Collection Magazine -

We blind-test 21 towels. Egyptian cotton loses. A 1950s Irish linen tea towel wins, but only after its 40th wash. We deconstruct the tenugui —a thin, dyed cotton hand towel that never pills, never plumps, and dries in 11 minutes. “A good towel teaches you patience,” says Kyoto textile conservator Riku Taneda. “It does not absorb. It invites water to leave.” TOOL AS TEACHER | The Mortise Chisel Master carpenter Renzo Piano’s (no relation) guide to the one tool that cannot be rushed. “If you hear the wood cry, you are going too fast.”

In a Copenhagen loft, curator Elin Moos owns a Finn Juhl, a Børge Mogensen, and an anonymous 18th-century farmer’s stool. She refuses to own a sofa. “A catalog is a graveyard of desire,” she tells us. Her philosophy: Acquisition must be followed by a three-month “quarantine” during which the object is used daily, then rejected or kept based on wear alone. We photograph the stool’s saddle—dipped four centimeters by 270 years of a single family’s weight. *Towels, terry, and the Japanese tenugui . By Maya Indigo pao collection magazine

Issue 07: “The Tension of Touch” Spring/Summer 2026 | $35 USD We blind-test 21 towels

2. THE ANTI-CATALOG Why one Danish collector owns only three chairs. By Lars T. Hvid We deconstruct the tenugui —a thin, dyed cotton

— Solenne K. Aoyama , Editor-in-Chief The Language of Surfaces

Welcome back to the grain.