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LABOR OF LOVE NOW YOU KNOW: Kasten is engaged in a partnership with a family handweaving business in Katmandu, Nepal, and some of the profits are donated to villagers there. "There's an intimacy to something that was made by hand. A difference you feel instead of see. I've spent my life in service to that." over a loom, repeating the awk- ward sweeping motion of throw- ing a shuttle and beating yarn into fabric. It's a total anachro- nism, something you'd expect to see performed by historical re-enactors. And yet Kasten's clients include icons in their re- spective fi elds, such as architect I.M. Pei and interior designer David Easton (if you've been to the Little Nell in Aspen, Colo., you've seen his work ). This is be- cause Kasten's work possesses a quality fast disappearing from many things today: soul. "There's a little test I do, where I show two fabrics to a cli- ent: one that was made by hand and a second one, identical to the first in every way except it was made by a machine. Know what happens?" Kasten grins, infusing his rugged, lined face with a mischievousness that is completely at odds with his 62 years. "Not a single person ever selects the machined piece! There's an intimacy to some- thing that was made by hand. A diff erence you feel instead of 32 JANUARY 15, 2012 see." He crosses his arms over a concave chest, a hallmark of more than four decades spent at the loom. "I've spent my life in service to that." Kasten seems to wear suc- cess as easily as his de facto uniform of khakis and a knit His work, for all its natural beauty and understanding of architectural concepts, is designed to fade into the background. sweater. When interior de- signer (and half sister to the president of France) Caroline Sarkozy searched far and wide for a particular shade of red linen to cover a pair of antique chairs and came up short, she turned to Kasten, in part due to his ability to understand that AA.COM/AMERICANWAY a client's vision is a high-wire act, with esotericism directly proportional to the level of difficulty. And, just as he had done for clients who had sent in rocks and tree bark for inspira- tion — or, on one memorable oc- casion, a FedExed orange peel covered in mold ("Nailing that green shade was key," he says) — he was able to deliver where others could not, supplying a vibrant crimson that brought out the unique structure of the chairs without detracting from the dining room in which they were eventually placed. The latter is the key to the second aspect of Kasten's mastery, and why only a handful of weavers in the world can rightfully be called his peers: His work, for all its natural beauty and under- standing of architectural con- cepts, is designed to fade into the background. "Running a business like this is impractical in almost every respect," Kasten says. "The cost of procuring supplies, be it cot- ton from Germany or silk from

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