Sustainable fashion and the CirculART project

Lanificio F.lli Cerruti takes part in the exhibition-event Cittadellarte

Since 13th October, at the Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte in Biella, there is “Arte al Centro”, the 22nd edition of the collection dedicated to exhibitions, seminars and meetings which feature artistic practices, installations, works of art and reflections on the transformation of social contexts, with a strong focus placed on current affairs. For this reason, the theme of this edition is concerned with “responsible social transformation” in art, and most importantly, in fashion.

Among the various exhibitions and projects at “Arte al centro”, Lanificio F.lli Cerruti is taking part in the artistic project CirculART, produced and curated by Cittadellarte.

The CirculART project

The fashion industry is a very influential power at a global level with regard to employment and economic and social choices. As is the case in many other sectors, it therefore cannot avoid questioning itself about the environmental impact and sustainability of its own choices and of its production processes. It could, rather, be one of the leading sectors in the impulse towards a change of thinking in the direction of more aware processes, and in the adoption of more sustainable materials.

It is, in fact, a business of $2.5 bn with over 75 m people employed in it. It must therefore have a crucial role in research for increased environmental sustainability, also because almost 20% of the waste water, at a global level, comes from the clothing industry. Changing the way in which we understand fashion, choosing more sustainable behaviours and consumer habits, all require a revolution in how “we think and how we relate to our clothing”. The CirculART project arose from the necessity of bringing the artistic side of fashion and the production and environmental sustainability demands in the production chain even closer together. As is often the case with art projects, this is intended to be an invitation to act, a stimulus to reflect on the environmental and social questions to which the fashion industry owes answers, with an overall view connected to the planet, to natural resources and to the world we want to leave to future generations.

Lanificio Cerruti and the choice for sustainable fashion

Lanificio F.lli Cerruti has chosen to supply its own fabrics for the project, thus entering into contact with a different aspect on how to understand fashion, at an artistic level, but most importantly closer to our planet and to the people who want to develop different behaviours in relation to their clothing.

Four artists are participating in the project: Laura Harrington, Silvia Giovanardi, Emanuele Marullo and Juan Manuel Gomez. In their installations and interpretations, they have decided to insert themselves “between the warp and the weft of the production cycle for clothing”, thereby making themselves a type of filter between the audience and the production chain. A filter which has the objective of illustrating the processes, of stimulating reflection and awareness of the how we dress ourselves and how we buy our clothes.

So then a truly artistic and unique dialogue between persons and the fashion industry is instigated, above all the industry which has chosen to ask itself about social and environmental questions it is involved in. The result – but principally the long-term goal – is to create a chain consisting of a sustainable and state-of-the-art production cycle based on recycled fibres, sustainable fabrics, and also clothes which are “multi-use” as those presented at Cittadellarte by the fashion designer Flavia La Rocca. Fashion and art commit themselves to creating a dialogue in order to stimulate more awareness in relation to our habits, but also in relation to the sector, with the aim of triggering “a completely thought-through and fascinating combination of sustainability, sensitivity and beauty.”