The Italian excellence is not only made of glossy images and commercials but, like any industry, behind there are those who realize those jewels that will be worn proudly by models, women and men around the world, and will color the windows of many fashion boutiques. In my passionate pursuit of Italian creativity to be disclosed in my blog I often run into the unique that can exist only in Italy. Why? a single phrase, “Love for one’s work” …

Reading this article I visited the past, my family, my father, my mother, tailors – men who were the first creative producers of children’s fashion then, craftsmen and pioneers, along with thousands of Italians, of what would become Made in Italy. Stefano Chiassai has really touched upon the cultural and historical heritage of which he recounts. I have met his parents, visited his workshop and as well as his stores, seen evolving projects. A unique DNA, whose code in the world that identifies it as Made in Italy.

Add that to this heritage there are only two things urgently needed to be done. That being by increasing brand protection and investment worldwide on the part of the institutions, because after all, it is an area that collects 60 billion euro. Alessandro Sicuro

the article by: STEFANO CHIASSAI

I love my country, in spite of everything I find that only certain things are possible in Italy, we have a quick thinking, cross-intuitive, we often find solutions unthinkable in other countries, where everything works perfectly (so they say).

But we Italians have something that others envy us (not the food or the art which nonetheless go it alone, without the need for comments), it is the vitality of our laboratories /craftsmen, those who work with needle and thread to create hand-sewn buttonhole, of those who still can – with great patience and time – to weave or merge small pieces of skin as if they were a mosaic. But I also think of those who take many hours for the high precision work, applying a stitch at a time to draw jackets and bags that are turned into true masterpieces or think of engineers and designers of fabrics, assembling cotton wool yarn with other innovative materials, make Italian fabrics real examples of uniqueness. Italy is made of this, and is built on the people behind the scenes, that day-to-day work in silence, of which no one knows the name but that have made the Made in Italy, no one knows that a rosette and Louis worked with his own hands to create exclusive items.

There are family stories that pass from hand to hand, from generation to generation, through men and women who make only a jacket or accessory. I’m not the first to say so but the beauty is always enclosed in a detail, in an invisible seam, embroidery made with patience, a print on the skin that occurs after an endless series of tests and trials.

• The “sartigiani” (tailor-craftsmen, as I call them) I work with every day, people are silent, humble, shy of living “healthy work”, away from the business plan of the brands for which they work, are women and men who they speak with their hands, with experience built in, with what for me is the real “technical expertise” through which we can realize stylistic virtuosity, that may seem unlikely … to then become the experiments that move the world of fashion.

What distinguishes us yet today is the Italian ability to know how to work with techniques that are unique and original that survive only in our country, not surprisingly many foreign brands in Italy to produce their collections, because only certain details made by Italians, can make a difference.

The workshops (I find it demeaning to call them so, I prefer to laboratories of Italian know-how), find solutions, solve problems, without them my creativity would not make sense, when we talk about Italian excellence, I immediately think of my craft and to the fact that the success of our fashion is largely from them, good Italian manufacture, because even in this case, only contamination between craftsmanship and global economy, allow us to remain unique.

Stefano Chiassai