LANIFICIO SORDEVOLO: The POPular Fabrication

Project: The POPular Fabrication
Project Leader: Giampiero Arcese
Master Fabrics Innovation Design a.a.2020/21

Industry Project in collaboration with Lanificio di Sordevolo _ Damiano Perino, Owner

Industry brief

I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life. Jean Michel Basquiat

As Damiano Perino suggests: “Pop Art has exploded influencing lifestyle, changing music and fashion.” For this reason, the starting point of this project is the Movement that took shape in the USA and Great Britain and then took on different forms and interpretations. The principle from which Pop Art takes shape, relates to a departure from previous interpretations that, from realism to abstractionism, had pervaded art. The idea of ​​everyday life and the transformation of signs and objects belonging to mass culture, of pop to be precise, becomes the engine of the Movement. The connection between tradition and the interpretation of the future, between heritage and innovation, is central in tackling this project as well as many others inextricably linked to Made In Italy in a weaving of great tradition and quality such as the Lanificio di Sordevolo, the delicate balance among these elements is the key to producing a conscious and original planning.

The Lanificio di Sordevolo, founded by Commendatore Cesare Perino when in 1965 he took over the abandoned structures of the Lanifici Rivetti, has been operating for many years as an excellence in the wool sector, combining the search for particular and ultra-fine yarns, using wool alongside silk, viscose, with linen and cotton. The company operates in a complete cycle, from spinning, twisting, weaving, darning, dyeing, finishing.

In occasion of the visit to Lanificio Sordevolo, students had the opportunity to experience first-hand the production, processing and processes of the company that has also been working on sustainability for some time. The theme of heritage and the encounter with modernity expressed by the instances of Pop Art were even more important in a moment of social transition such as the current one. Students were asked to observe how Pop Art has evolved in fashion and how it could further evolve by interpreting it starting from its meaning.

Congratulations guys and thanks to Damiano Perino and the Lanificio di Sordevolo team for the time dedicated to them.