Sunday, October 30, as part of UNESCO Open Circuit and at the archive of Vitale Barberis Canonico, the curtain rose on "Return to Huddersfield" a short but intense theatrical piece resting on exquisitely textile themes. Among the intense smells and aromas of leather bindings, parchment papers, glues, fabrics, and precious woods was represented a story set in the English textile district during the year 1866, in many respects current.
The screenplay was the work of Danilo Craveia, archivist and scientific consultant of both "Fabbrica della Ruota" and the most important corporate textile archives such as Vitale Barberis Canonico, Loro Piana and Ermenegildo Zegna; the staging was performed by the company "Teatrando" whose main interpreter Paolo Zanone, in addition to being its artistic director, is simultaneously the protagonist of the Biella textile world.
From a melting pot so rich in textile expertise, creativity and style could only come out a technically detailed and rigorous text, but at the same time captivating and fun for non-experts. The story is set in the real Granville Mill of Paddock, and takes place in the form of a dialogue between the three main characters who represent as many roles and characters still traceable in the style offices of the wool mills. Mr. Jenkins the young assistant third in the hierarchy, very initiative-taking, innovative and casual to the point of verging on brazenness, Mr. Owen the real designer, tied to tradition and conservatism. Fulcrum character The person in charge of the collection, turns out to be Mr. Russell played by a Paolo Zanone committed to mediating the positions of his "unhinged subordinates", but also very attentive to the instances proposed by the modernity of the second nineteenth century between the birth of the American clothing industry and fashion in the meaning that George Simmel will give it.
From the conversation, extraordinarily rich in boutade but also in refined technical details, some elements seem to emerge that characterize the structure:
- The extremely technical dialogue highlights how the fashion of any era has its roots in "know-how" and in specialized action on the subject through the perfect knowledge of design techniques and the action of machinery on the product.
- The fundamental importance of the Company Archive, not only intended as a testimony of the past but as a source of inspiration and continuous re-elaboration towards the future.
- Balance and "Aurea Mediocritas", between innovative thrust and traditional conservatism.
- Ability to ride the new social needs deciphering their traits and anticipating their needs. In the play, Paolo Zanone predicts the advent of the future consumer society and the garment industry in the ferments in which his first aide sees only rebellious American colonies.
These same elements seem traceable in the great research-product efforts that the Biellese wool textile industry is implementing to face the post-pandemic market, rich in opportunities related to the PNR but also rich in pitfalls of the uncontrolled increase in raw materials. One of the districts, wrongly, considered among the most conservative of Italian industry differs from luxury clothing and tries to interpret many of the mainstream themes contained in today's social communications. The most attentive forecast mood boards foresee that fashion becomes less and less formal, more sustainable, comfortable, and modeled with fabrics with superior performances, suitable simultaneously for both smart working and urban travel on an electric bike or scooter.
In this direction, there are many Biellese luxury fabric brands that have implemented innovative research based on their Heritage. Without claiming to represent all the novelties on the market, by way of example it is interesting to highlight that at Loro Piana wools are coupled and laminated with graphene membranes, in Vitale Barberis Canonico the new Offlimits line aims to launch innovative blends of wool and recycled polymers in order to implement a process of hybridization between classicism and innovation.
Innovation also means Heritage to be preserved and guaranteed, and this is the initiative of Piacenza which, through Blockchain technology, certifies the ethics and transparency of all the production processes that its fabrics undergo. On the way of casual chic Reda, through the Rewoolution program, for some years now offers clothing between sports occasions and city occasions that exploits all the unparalleled technical characteristics of pure merino wool.
"We can try!" proclaims the chief designer of the style office in Huddersfield in 1866; "We can try!" Many Biellese wool mills seem to say with facts 155 years later.
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