Weaving Prosperity: Opening Textile Factories to Art and People

For years, the fashion system has been questioning how to reduce its negative impact on the environment and society, clashing with the need for constant economic growth. Climate, humanitarian and health crises have fuelled the debate on the excessive centrality of GDP as a universal measure of prosperity, often pursued at the expense of environmental and human resources. This reflection prompts a redefinition of the concept of prosperity, no longer just economic, but as a virtuous relationship between people, space and resources, in line with a sustainable and desirable future. The contribution explores whether it is possible to imagine a future for fashion manufacturing in Italy, particularly in the textile sector, which promotes new models of relations between workplaces, people and products, thanks to art and processes of care, in a perspective of renewed prosperity. The investigation is based on three case studies: Bonotto, promoter of the “slow factory” that has brought artists and artworks inside the factory; Lanificio Paoletti, committed to the protection of the Alpago sheep and the enhancement of the territory through events such as La via della lana (The wool road); Lottozero, a creative hub for textile research and experimentation. The analysis reveals a reorganisation of Italian manufacturing, in which factories become places of living, learning and growth, capable of generating prosperity based on relations between people, spaces and objects.