Slow Food opens up to textiles: Slow Fiber is born

 The network of textile companies that represent the future with their sustainable production processes, aimed at creating beautiful, healthy, clean, fair and durable products

On September 23^rd, 2022, during Salone del Gusto-Terra Madre, the new Slow Fiber network will be presented, born from the meeting between Slow Food and some virtuous companies in the textile supply chain, which want to represent positive change through a sustainable production process , aimed at creating beautiful, healthy, clean, fair and durable products, because they respect the dignity of Man and Nature in its delicate balance.Slow Fiber aims to disseminate knowledge of the impact that textile products have on the environment, on the workers in the supply chain and on the health of consumers in order to spread a new ethics and culture of clothing and furnishing.Slow Fiber, within Slow Food, promotes and supports awareness campaigns through the testimony and direct participation of companies that operate daily in compliance with environmental and social sustainability.The strength of the Slow Fiber network lies in the companies and people involved, who every day not only act as spokespersons for the values ​​defined in the Manifesto (attached), but also work concretely to make them real and tangible. Through their daily work they demonstrate that it is possible to create textile products for dressing and furnishing that are not only beautiful, but healthy for those who use them, clean because the environmental impact of production processes is reduced as much as possible, fair because they respect rights and the dignity of the workers involved in their realization, enhancing their traditional skills and knowledge, durable and long lasting to extend their useful life, limit waste and the production of waste.

The Founders of the network are: Oscalito 1936, L’Opificio Serico, Manifattura Tessile di Nole, Maglificio Maggia, Pettinatura di Verrone, Lane Cardate, Quagliotti, Tintoria 2000, Tintoria Felli, Olcese Ferrari, Italfil, Remmert, Pattern, Holding Moda, F.lli Piacenza, Angelo Vasino.

Per info           Paola Bertoldo  – [email protected]  – tel. 011 9298670

Marie Nicole Romano  – [email protected]  – tel. 340 4982216

Il Manifesto

Slow Food has established itself by promoting the right to food pleasure, through the search, within this primary human need, for what is “good, clean and fair”.These essential concepts of pleasure and quality apply also to another primary need of the human being that distinguishes the latter from all living beings on Earth: that of dressing up and showing his personality through the clothes he wears. The house and its furnishings participate in the same function as clothing.In addition to food pleasure, therefore, aesthetic pleasure, protection and the pursuit of beauty and a better quality of life. Beauty is not just an individualistic affirmation of oneself, but it is a form of exercising the right to happiness that requires respect for the rights of others and the protection of the environment and nature that host us.Beauty is not only an aesthetic canon but must include substantial values: it is beautiful what is also healthy, clean, fair, durable, as characteristics of sustainability of the textile supply chain through which the product we use is made.

The frenetic progress of mankind has taken us beyond consumerism, transforming us into the society of waste: today it is estimated that over 150 billion pieces of clothing and accessories are produced every year, almost half of which remains unsold.

In the textile sector on the wave of the rapid success of fast fashion, the constant search for cost reduction through the lowering of product quality levels, environmental pollution, the exploitation of low-cost labor, has destroyed diversity, flattened consumption, fueled waste, hence losing traditions and, what is even more serious, the perception of quality, know-how and competence.

Consumerism cannot be eliminated; however, it is possible to change its course, combining aesthetics, ethics and quality of life, through more conscious production and consumption of healthy, clean, fair and durable products, capable of exciting because they are linked to fundamental values ​​such as tradition, quality, the transparency of the production chain that seems to have lost its meaning and that we want to promote. Only a growing demand for sustainable products (healthy, clean, fair and durable) can trigger a change in the industrial strategies of producers who are called to offer higher quality goods with less and more efficient use of resources, applying the principles of the circular economy.

A production and commercial model based on quality, circularity and dignity is still possible. In the same decades profoundly marked by the relocation of mass textile production to countries with low-cost labor and more permissive environmental laws, thousands of textile companies have instead remained faithful to their values ​​of a transparent, clean and fair supply chain, offering on the market durable and quality products that enhance the knowledge and skills of the territory, patiently developed and handed down from generation to generation.The change of production and consumption paradigm becomes increasingly urgent for the health of the human being and the planet that hosts us. It is essential that humankind uses his intelligence to return to harmony with nature. Producing and consuming better, in a healthier, cleaner, fairer and more durable way means making an increasing number of people enjoy quality, beauty and pleasure, while at the same time educating them to respect Mother Earth and all those who live there.