«Mwhile they sew strips of fabric, they mend the tears in their lives. Our tailoring is also therapeutic from a symbolic point of view.” Paola Maraone, clinical psychologist and soul, tells it, together with Fernanda Muniz, head of tailoring, and Adriana Morandi, stylist, of Molce Atelier: a tailor’s shop, in fact, in which women victims of violence and abuse take their first steps towards economic independence through learning a trade. But also – and above all – where they can find listening and support, thanks to Psychological helpdesk managed by Maraone herself. A living and comfortable reality for those who have to put the pieces of themselves back together with needle, thread and courage, which will be told to the city of Milan next week during the fair Do the right thing!. Through stands and meetings (Sunday 24 March at 11am), but also with one free psychological help desk for women victims of violence, with access without an appointment.
Molce Atelier, the therapeutic tailoring at Do the right thing!
Inaugurated in 2021 thanks to a call from the School of Neighborhoodspromoted by the Municipality of Milan and the European Community, Molce helps women victims of abuse gain economic independence through free tailoring courses (the next one starts after Easter). Four seamstresses who have emerged from the violence work permanently at the atelier, two hired and two trainees.
Tailoring courses dedicated to victims of violence
Many of those who arrive for the courses, learn and leave, opening up what they choose to their classmates and staff. «None of them carry a label with their history» explains Maraone. «Some choose to share pieces of their lives with others and with us, others do not. But they all enter the network, and feel that they are united, in some way and profoundly, by what they have been through».
The space that welcomes them, in Milan, is intimate, warm, and like a nest. «Like a real home, the home that protects. While home is not the one from which, almost all of them, have fled, as victims of domestic violence.” Violence that can be physical, but also economic or psychological. «We are not strict in our access criteria to our courses, we do not only accept women taken care of by anti-violence centres. As a private entity, we can skip the formalities» says Maraone.
Molce Atelier: from “mólcere”, a word to be rediscovered
The atelier also organizes paid courses, open to all. “And more than once it has happened that just hanging out with them has helped women become aware of experiencing situations of mistreatment.” You don’t need bruises on your arms or a victim certificate to be welcomed by Molce. A name, that of this tailor’s shop, well chosen: from the word, obsolete but beautiful, mólcereor “soothe, mitigate pain, cure”.
«What I have understood, in these years of working alongside those who suffer or have suffered violence, is that the victims are not what you expect: at the moment I am following a university professor who was an autonomous and independent woman and who could not imagine becoming a victim.” You can’t imagine. Violence against women is transversal, it has no class or geographical origin preferences, but it nails its victims all in the same way.
The psychological help desk
A fundamental part of the service that Molce offers is the psychological help desk, which offers differentiated courses, short or very long. In which the most difficult step is always the first, assures Maraone. «To make the first phone call, to come to me the first time, takes a lot of courage. Then everything is easier.”
Garments that tell stories, and that stylists also like
The seamstresses of the atelier create garments from sustainable raw materials and equipped with speaking labels. Labels that allow those who purchase them to retrace the stories of redemption of the women who made them, and to feel part of the community that supports them in their choices of freedom. But in addition to this own production, Molce Atelier is also online with the network of tailors Ethicarei (with whom, for example, also works Alice Cooperativeof the Bollate prison), and who he has as clients Emporio Armani, Aspesi and Chloé. «Important orders which, over time, could greatly help our business and our women».
The other tailors that help women become (or return) independent
May tailoring and weaving become vehicle of emancipation for women it is an idea that takes shape in many places, in Italy and around the world. And always.
Sartoria Colori Vivi in Turin
A very beautiful and successful experience that is of the tailoring Vivid Colors of Turin, an artisan workshop, now a social enterprise, created to offer a concrete and qualified profession that cto allow migrant women in Italy to become autonomous and capable of choosing their own future. Today he realizes accessories and women’s clothing made to measure, and continues to tell the story of redemption of many women.
The EvaLab tailoring shop
It is focused onthe employment of women emerging from violence Tailoring workshop activated by the EVA Social Cooperative in an asset confiscated from organized crime in Casal di Principe. It offers training and employment to courageous women who lack economic independence. Born with the support of funding from the Campania Region, the laboratory works with social, environmental sustainability and promotion of legality objectivesof local development in a context of high socio-economic and cultural deprivation.
All the garments produced by EvaLab are handmade with precious fabrics that enhance, by innovating, the local tradition of the San Leucio silk factories and designed in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples.
The Le Costantine weaving workshop
But since the early twentieth century the weaving workshop has been an instrument of female autonomy and emancipation The Constantines. Today it is an excellence recognized throughout the world: it is the texture chosen by the Dior maison for the Cruise 2021 collection, presented in Piazza Duomo in Lecce in July 2020.
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