Spaces for Fashion

The current society is a multicentric society where brands and expertise are multiplying on an international scale. Despite this, there is no doubt that fashion -specifically haute couture-still speaks Italian. 

Many iconic fashion houses are Italian, many brands whose names reverberate in history to an imperishable echo of style and elegance are Italian, numerous fashion capitals are Italian, and also Pitti Uomo in Florence and the Milan Fashion Week are Italian. 

There are places where fashion tells its own story. Yet, there are also remote places, far from the gaze of the world, where fashion is sculpted and nurtured. These are places that are not in the spotlight, ordinary places without the glitter and gloss of the runways where fashion is displayed. There are secluded places where ancient handicraft traditions silently weave the myth of that miracle called “Made in Italy.” 

Biella is one of these places. 

Biella is a city in northern Italy located at the foot of the Alps. It is the heart of the luxury wool textile supply chain. It is the place where the yarns that make up the finest Italian luxury garments are manufactured to this day. 

This history may not be known to the general public. Yet, it is witnessed by the immense industrial archaeologies that have dotted the course of the river Cervo and other streams of glacial origin which have powered the water frames of Biella’s proto-industry and textile industry for centuries.

Today, the woolen mills of the Biella area are for the most part still vibrantly active and partly abandoned. Sometimes they are the object of regeneration projects and turned into cultural places. These woolen mills hold within their walls real gems of cultural innovation, social commitment and artistic experimentation. This is the case of the Trombetta woolen mill hosting the foundation of Michelangelo Pistoletto, an artist with a unique international career and recognition whose name recurs from the Louvre in Paris to the Tate in London. 

Right here, in Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Cittadellarte, thanks to the support of the European community, a group of farsighted players aims to give rise to a new museum center to become a treasure chest of memory and a research and innovation driving force located in one of the places of origin of Italian haute couture. 

The goal of Spaces for Fashion, the competition by Cittadellarte, is to create a place about wool, fabric and even fashion right where fashion is born. Moreover, it aims at paying tribute to history, the vitality of industry and the beauty of the art of wool and projecting into the future one of the world’s most popular and beloved concepts: the made in Italy.

YAC thanks the designers who will take on this challenge.