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Can an Iconic Italian Wool Survive a Changing Economy?


SOCI, Italy – For centuries, this verdant and secluded valley in central Tuscany has been known for its iconic “panno Casentino” or “Casentino fabric,” the famously durable and waterproof wool produced. here.

The fabric was popularized by 14th-century merchants and equally Florentine lords, 19th-century composers – Verdi and Puccini among them – and film stars known for their quintessential style. , Audrey Hepburn topped the list.

Its production has survived all the transformations of the Italian textile industry – from manual production to large-scale industrial production, from the Golden Age of “Made in Italy” to the decline in the direction of globalized fashion, cheaper and faster.

But now, the sole factory that makes finished fabrics from raw fabrics may be facing an overwhelming transition, as the instinct to preserve Italy’s small, niche producers resists. the urgency of the 21st century digital economy.

This summer, workers at the Manifattura del Casentino factory were told that they would soon be evicted from their factory, which was won in a 2018 auction by a real estate company owned by the company. major Italian web service provider, Aruba.

The owners of Aruba are from Soci, in the Casentino valley, and a few years ago they bought a large textile factory in northern Italy and turned it into a data center. However, that factory has long since closed.

Massimo Savelli, a 71-year co-owner of TACS, one of two local Casentino clothing manufacturers in Stia, a nearby village, said if the factory was forced to close, “It would be a pile of shit. ruins for the valley. “This fabric is unique all over the world. No one can do it like them.”

An Aruba spokesman said that the purchase of the plant in Soci has not yet been completed and that Aruba himself was aware of the possibility of deporting the workers only from the news reports. Aruba was ready to forgo buying the building, she added, under the right conditions.

However, workers and those who depend on fabrics remain stressed.

This is not the first time that their livelihoods and traditions have been threatened. Workers have come to their factory rescue twice in the past 50 years, investing their savings and unemployment benefits to keep the business running and keep the jobs they consider part of history.

Today, the fabric maker employs only 18 workers and ownership of the factory’s machinery, although not the premises, went into the hands of liquidators after the workers’ cooperative that ran the factory was demolished. production in 2011. So the workers started a new war. , seek help from local unions for forest evictions and involve regional and national authorities who may have the final say on a legal dispute.

“This fight is not just for these 18 jobs,” Alessandro Mugnai, a leader of the CGIL union from the nearby city of Arezzo, told workers at a recent meeting. “It was a battle of resistance. Because the factory is your work, but also a part of this community, like this canvas.”

The struggle to preserve local traditions is symbolic of the great challenges faced by small-scale producers with the skilled craftsmanship that has allowed Italian fashion houses to win. international reputation.

The origins of the heavy Casentino fabric have been lost over time. Wool was made in the valley in the days of the ancient Romans. The valley’s water is abundant, thanks to the presence of two different tributaries of the Arno, making the area particularly suitable for wool production.

“The water here is very pure,” says Francesca Filippi, a design contract professor at the University of Florence who has studied textiles from Casentino, the area where she has long lived and grew up.

Efforts to produce the fabric elsewhere were ranked second. “Nowhere are the results the same, duller color and sparser curls,” she says.

Originally, duffel was used to protect horses and was worn by cattle and sheep herders who lived on one of Tuscany’s highest plateaus. But then it caught the eye of merchants in Florence, a center of the 14th-century textile trade.

It was soon so prized that Renaissance guilds mandated that it be made only of local wool, and an archduke of the Medici banned its sale outside of the valley where it was produced.

Its dazzling duck-billed orange – stemming from a dyeing mistake – became fashionable with Florentine aristocrats, while women opted for the bright green used for coat linings.

In the 1800s, mechanical looms and other machines arrived in the valley. Two wool mills were built adjacent to two rivers, one in Stia and the other in Soci. At the peak of production, the factory employed nearly 850 workers.

The local fabric gained global attention when Audrey Hepburn wore an orange Casentino jacket in the 1961 classic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Givenchy used the fabric. this in previous collections.

Donatella Fani, a resident of Stia, who sits under the porch of the village, where the producers once dried and combed wool, said: “The fabric is truly a symbol of our valley. “This row of columns is built for that.”

For some families, Casentino fabrics are part of their heritage.

Andrea Fastoni, 51, started working for the factory when he was 19. His mother had worked at the factory before him, and his childhood memories are of dozens of acquaintances who worked in the factory, and of Ape cars, three Italians. -Commercial vehicle with wheels, packed with threads of spun material and fabric, with a zipper all around.

“Every garage in town has a loom or loom. The factory had a lot of work so it was distributed throughout the community,” he said. “Now it’s my generation’s turn, I can’t let the factory disappear.”

The combination of the unique natural environment and local skills handed down through generations, workers say, makes it impossible to move the factory.

“In these curls, there is a culture, a knowledge that generations have perfected,” said Roberto Malossi, 54, as he touched the orange cloth. commonly used for the region’s classic winter coats.

It is also thanks to these thick curls that the Casentino jacket is warm and waterproof without the need for additional insulation.

Mr. Malossi now owns Manifattura del Casentino. But he likes to call himself the factory’s “first worker,” because the employees treat them like family.

Mr. Malossi pointed to a precipice just outside the factory, where crystal-clear water flows from a centuries-old canal flowing down from the mountains.

“Today it is impossible to build another canal,” he said. “And we have millions of euros worth of pipes and tubes underground and around the walls to carry steam or gas. Nowadays nobody has the money to build such a system”.

It only adds to the frustration among workers that in recent months the company is recovering. After two disastrous years during the Covid-19 pandemic, their orders have tripled as chaotic supply chains and soaring shipping costs have prompted many Italian brands to turn to domestic production. .

Mr Savelli, a fabric producer in Stia, said business has grown by 20 to 30 per cent this year and shipments are ready for several international markets, including Asia.

Another local producer, Claudio Grisolini, is preparing to introduce a Casentino collection entirely made in Italy, from wool to spinning and final product, reversing the habit of buying wool from Australia or New Zealand lasted for centuries. If the factory closed, the project he had worked on for many years would be threatened, he said.

On a recent afternoon at the factory in Soci, workers examined a bright orange wool fabric that was moving slowly through a sturdy machine, running in elliptical circles, creating tiny curls on the fabric. fabric. That’s where time seems to stop.

“What we do is history; This factory has seen seven generations of workers,” said Antonella Ghini, 53, who has worked there for 18 years, crossing her arms during a union meeting. “I don’t want it to end with me.”



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