How fashion and culture meet at Balli il Lanificio
Balli il Lanificio, a historic Italian wool mill founded in Prato in 1948, is launching Fabbrica di Cultura, a project designed to spread knowledge about the Italian textile industry in its many facets.
The exhibition, “Homage to Walter Albini,” takes place inside Il Fabbricone, the historic headquarters of the wool mill in the heart of Prato, from November 22 to November 30, 2024.
The exhibit is free and open to all, and it is a pop-up section of the larger one dedicated to the creative genius of Walter Albini, an Italian designer considered the father of ready-to-wear, running in parallel with the larger one inaugurated in March 204 at Museo del Tessuto in Prato.
It was conceived and co-curated for Balli by architect Filippo Boretti and features for the first time twelve original designs–owned by the Museum–imagined by the designer as costumes for the protagonists of Latina, a noir opera written in 1982 by the author and theater director Luca Ronconi but never actually staged. The costumes imagined by Albini, also remained unexpressed at the time, never sewn or worn, until today.
Starting from their elegant and timeless designs, the Balli style office used fabrics from its latest collection, and exclusively made five of those costumes.
They created a work of haute couture capable of bringing Albini’s designs to life according to Ronconi’s characters, though with an eye to modernity, almost as if they could be worn today, although respecting the shapes and volumes imagined by the designer.
The exhibition stems from Balli’s desire to be a spokesperson for cultural messages that can highlight craftsmanship, creativity, passion and experience, but also attention to detail, connection to the territory, and recovery of traditions, among other factors that characterize the company, and to raise awareness of a new dialogue on major cultural issues and focal aspects of the textile industry.
“The step taken by Balli seems natural. From manufacturing factory to culture factory. From a company, which for more than seventy years has been making textiles sold everywhere in the world, to a hub of initiatives capable of opening new dialogues with the community,” said Leonardo Raffaelli, managing director, Balli il Lanificio, underlined.
“Our exhibition dedicated to Albini, created in close collaboration with the Museo del Tessuto, marks the debut of a cultural program devised by Balli. Other events over time will follow,” he added.
Omaggio a Walter Albini
Balli Il Lanificio, Il Fabbricone – Via Bologna 106, Prato
November 22-30
Monday–Friday: 3PM to 7PM
Saturday–Sunday: 10AM to 7PM
READ ALSO:
link
.jpg "How quiet luxury changed dupe culture")
