Fashion enters into prisons

Female prisoners in Puglia will produce the prototypes designed by the students of the Accademia Italiana arte, moda and design of Florence.

The students of the Fashion Design program at the Accademia Italiana Florence have made an agreement with the no profit association Officina Creativa s.c.s., founded in Lecce by Luciana delle Donne. A cooperative program that for years has been active in projects aimed at recovering prison inmates according to the philosophy of the brand “madeincarcere” (made in prison) which offers a second chance, involving inmates in the production of small articles of clothing, accessories or packaging design for companies. Objects that are easily produced even behind bars, in particular in the detention centers of Lecce and Trani, pioneers in the project where tailoring laboratories have been set up where inmates are busy six hours per day, receiving regular retribution for their work. And here in the creative field of the future fashion designers who have grown up in the classrooms of the fashion school founded in Florence thirty years ago, an international institute with campuses also in Rome and Bangkok (www.accademiaitaliana.com), whose students have passed on to the inmates a collection of prototypes destined for on-line sales through the website www.madeincarcere.it, but also to the companies interested in ethical gadgets to personalize with their own logo to distribute at conferences. Among the proposals designed by the students of the Accademia Italiana a lace top bordered by brass and bijoux, damask trousse and travel bags. New life to materials and objects, all the objects manufactured are, in fact, produced using recycled materials, samples from old collections, warehouse leftovers and discarded fabrics, upgraded in this case by the creativity of the young designers and the dexterity of the inmates. Now in the works, thanks to this project, others involving other penitentiaries in Italy, including the one in Florence. [gallery link="file"]