Cangiari means “to change” in Calabrian dialect. It is an ethical fashion brand created by the Goel social cooperative, to challenge the 'ndrangheta and much more.
With a one-hundred-per-cent ethical supply chain, championing artisan craftsmanship and defending legality in Calabria, the Cangiari brand has breathed new life into the ancient tradition of weaving, taking it to catwalks around the world. It was selected by the Associazione per il disegno industriale (Adi) for the Index 2016 as one of the best design projects for social impact.
In the early 2000s, a group of social cooperatives gave rise to Goel, a redemption community that cares for the most vulnerable, conceived and promoted by Vincenzo Linarello, who embarked on a venture aimed at changing the employment situation in Calabria in a variety of ways and fields, convinced that the time had come to trigger a shift towards a more sustainable way of life.
"We want to convey an attitude towards doing, an awareness that observes the world and works to improve the quality of life for everyone," explains Linarello, President of the Goel Group. "To do this we must change course, try to alter the economic, social and exchange priorities that govern our daily lives. The stakes are the future and the economy of society as a whole: the challenge is to prove that not only is ethics right, but it works better. It generates returns and profits, and that result alone can delegitimise the mafia economy."
Within this path of renewal came an encounter with some young women who wanted to save the ancient tradition of hand weaving, by then under threat. This was the first step towards the creation of the Cangiari brand, which means "to change" in Calabrian dialect.
In Calabria, weaving has its roots in Magna Graecia, and until fifty years ago many Calabrian families owned a hand loom at home, producing a large part of their own fabrics. Today this artisan knowledge rests with a handful of elderly women, known as majistre. In their day, these were not simply weavers but the master craftswomen who programmed and set up all the hand looms in the area. A complex and sophisticated art: the looms contain up to 1,800 warp threads that must be passed through the "heddles" — loom components whose function is to raise and lower the threads to allow the shuttle to pass — in a precise mathematical order to produce a given pattern.
The majistre often could neither read nor write, and to remember these complex sequences — multiplied across each of the traditional patterns that each of them held in their own professional "archives" — they used mnemonic devices: chants whose verses concealed the mathematical order in which the 1,800 threads passed through the heddles of the loom. These lullabies had remained secret for centuries, handed down from mother to daughter and jealously guarded.
The group of young women who today produce Cangiari fabrics succeeded in transcribing them, thereby preserving a great heritage of textile technique of Greek and Byzantine origin.
These young women have restored or rebuilt ancient wooden hand looms, resumed weaving and have thus become a new generation of majistre. Cangiari fabrics are produced by combining the ancient technique of tradition with research and innovation, together with precious sartorial finishes, to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Weaving one linear metre of fabric (no wider than 70–80 centimetres) takes between three and six hours of work. The result is a precious and costly fabric that can only be positioned in a high-end market to be economically viable. For this reason, the Goel cooperative gave rise to Cangiari, the first ethical haute couture brand in Italy.
Ethics permeates every aspect. In the materials: it is the first high-end brand to use exclusively organic, certified Gots dyes and materials, for maximum respect for the ecosystem and the wellbeing of those who wear them. In the supply chain: entirely made in Italy and formed by the social cooperatives of the Goel Group, a social setting for the employment inclusion of disadvantaged people as well (and thanks to direct control of the entire supply chain, garments can be highly customised). In the brand's message: a refined lifestyle founded on Goel's values and on environmental and social sustainability.
"Cangiari is a message of ethical beauty. Ethics must not only be right but effective," states Linarello. "Within the project, the presence of women workers reaches 90 per cent and offers an important economic lesson to our land: ethics that embraces tradition while at the same time meeting innovation can be the future of the market."
At the helm of the Cangiari creative community is Maria Paola Pedetta, who has designed the most recent collections. Fluid, lightweight hand-woven fabrics paired with organza, silk and cotton. Black and white form the basis of the garments in the latest collection, with touches of blue and amaranth. Cangiari's creations have won over the prestigious international audience of the Arab fashion week in Dubai, thanks to their unique style and refined organic fabrics. A dream come true for the talented young women of Calabria and for Cangiari, which has become a best-practice model to emulate.