Campagna Abiti Puliti is organising Sfashion Weekend to rethink the global fashion system. LifeGate will also take the stage to tell the story of La Perla workers on government-supported layoffs. Campagna Abiti Puliti is organising Sfashion Weekend to rethink the global fashion system. LifeGate will also take the stage to tell the story of La Perla workers on government-supported layoffs.
"How do you get dressed on a planet in crisis? That is the question that opens Sfashion Weekend, the festival on just transition in fashion, scheduled from 21 to 23 February 2025 at the mosso cultural centre in Milan. It is a pressing question that challenges not only consumers but the entire fashion system to rethink its practices in a global context of climate and social crisis," says Deborah Lucchetti, coordinator of Campagna Abiti Puliti, the Italian chapter of the international network Clean Clothes Campaign, which since 1989 has been fighting for the rights of workers across the global fashion system.
The festival is free and designed for anyone who wants to better understand the real impact of fashion: citizens, industry experts, businesses, institutions and young people. Through talks, performances, an exhibition and workshops, Sfashion Weekend in Milan aims to engage audiences not only intellectually, but also emotionally and physically, making the stories and consequences of exploitative dynamics tangible.
LifeGate will take the stage on Saturday 22 February at 4.30pm to moderate a conversation with the La Perla workers, the brand that has come to symbolise Made in Italy luxury in lingerie and corsetry, which has been going through a deep crisis for nearly two years due to ownership that brought the company to the brink of collapse (also on stage: David Cambioli, president of Altraqualità).
Three days of free admission that, beyond the talks, offer multisensory experiences "to foster a deeper understanding of the issues addressed. Through movement, artistic language and direct interaction, the performances make the often abstract and complex realities linked to exploitation in the textile supply chain and inequalities in the fashion system tangible," Lucchetti continues.
For example, German artist and educator Vivien Tauchmann, appearing in Milan for the first time, presents the participatory performance "Noi come l'altrə: apprendere dai gesti (Self-As-Other-Training: Textiles)", during which she recreates the daily activities of millions of textile workers, placing the body at the centre of a reflection on the dynamics of oppression. Similarly, "Giralamoda", a show produced by the association Trama Plaza, uses a combination of theatre, dance and cartomancy to raise awareness of the value of ethical and circular production, encouraging a new critical consciousness.
The opening talk (Friday 21/2 at 7pm) will feature prosecutor Paolo Storari, addressing the theme of justice in global value chains. Why has the focus on Italy become increasingly important? "Our country retains a significant manufacturing sector, with a high number of companies and employees, and plays a key role in the international fashion system, particularly in the luxury segment. Yet behind the celebrated Made in Italy label lie deep pockets of worker exploitation, violations of the law and contribution evasion," Lucchetti explains. "The recent cases of luxury brands placed under court-appointed administration by the Milan Tribunal for the exploitation of irregular and undocumented labour within their supply chains are a vivid illustration of this system."
To explore the fashion system from a different angle and overturn the mainstream narrative, the exhibition "Handmade: le lavoratrici della moda" will be on display, produced by the Dutch NGO Schone Kleren Campagne (a member of the international Clean Clothes Campaign network), giving visitors the opportunity to discover the dramatic stories of the people behind the clothes we wear every day. Because, as Lucchetti reminds us: "Made in Italy itself often conceals production carried out abroad, with the aim of keeping costs as low as possible. This translates into a reliance on weaker economies and underpaid workers, fuelling an endless race to the bottom."
Until a few years ago La Perla, a brand founded in 1954 by Bologna-based seamstress Ada Masotti, was a byword for luxury lingerie and beachwear, present with 150 stores worldwide and a bespoke service producing pieces worth thousands of euros. Keeping it all running were over 300 employees in Italy — across production, offices and stores — the majority of them women, working at the historic headquarters at via Mattei 10 in Bologna (and others at a facility in Portugal, now closed, as well as throughout the supply chain).
Until 2008 the company was run by the Masotti heirs, before passing through various foreign investment funds that weakened the brand. The most recent of these, London-based Tennor Holding BV owned by Lars Windhorst, brought La Perla to the brink of liquidation and recently reached an agreement with the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy for the sale of all assets to a single buyer. Since December 2023, hundreds of La Perla workers have been fighting for their jobs alongside trade unions. Three of them will take the stage with LifeGate to recount the long odyssey that has brought them to today: Stefania Prestopino, graphics designer for communications and e-commerce, Elena Castano, pattern maker, and Patrizia Bondanelli, from the layouts and consumption office.
Sisters in struggle, as they like to call themselves, they have demonstrated continuously from Bologna to Rome and continue to do so today during this delicate transitional phase, as Prestopino explains: "Until the very end, we are asking to have access to social safety nets to bridge us through to the completion of the sale, and not to be left without cover. Otherwise all our sacrifices, the months without pay, the tenacity of believing in this work, will have been in vain, and we will lose more colleagues along the way."
Winners of the Premio Tina Anselmi 2024, the La Perla workers have found support in one another, and today some of them collaborate through the association Unicheunite — to cover travel expenses, for example (La Perla's production is currently reduced to a minimum, on rotating shifts) — producing T-shirts sold through the Altraqualità network and working together to bring an exhibition to Bologna alongside photographers Matilde Piazzi and Nadia Del Frate, with whom a crowdfunding campaign to produce the exhibition is currently active.
An example of resistance and solidarity among workers who have not been able to take their rights for granted, and who continue to demand dignified work, for everyone.
All information is available on the Campagna Abiti Puliti website.
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