SUSTAINABILITY FOR l’Opificio

To represent a positive change through a sustainable production process. It is with this aim that l’Opificio has decided, together with other companies of the textile production chain, to join Slow Food in the creation of Slow Fiber.

Since its foundation, l’Opificio has shared in its corporate objectives, to be a company attentive to sustainability. Special attention to the environment and people, which is reflected both in the choice of raw materials and production methods, and on a concept of luxury goods intended as superior quality products and durable over time, far from the idea of "fast use".

Presented on September 23rd, 2022, during Salone del Gusto-Terra Madre, 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 ethic and culture of clothing and furnishing.

By becoming part of this network of virtuous companies, l’Opificio becomes a spokesman for the values defined in the Slow Fiber Manifesto, concretely committing itself every day to make them more and more real and becoming a promoter of positive change.
 

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.