An effort against eco-unconsciousness since 2009 – the Third Paradise is the third phase of humanity, a balanced connection between artifice and nature to ensure the survival of humankind
Cittadellarte – the third paradise-centered cultural factory
Cittadellarte corresponds to the name that artist Michelangelo Pistoletto has given to his foundation, created in 1998 in a former wool factory in Biella, whose aim has always been to inspire and to produce a responsible change within the local and global society, through art, ideas and creative projects. They can be considered as a physical space, an idea, a vision, a project, a community, whose name embodies two specific meanings: the citadel one, that is a space in which art is protected and defended and the city one, tied with the idea of openness and connection with the world, which are both aligned with the foundation’s staples.
Besides, Fondazione Pistoletto is also a school-lab for artists, activists, entrepreneurs and institutional representatives dedicated to the study, the experimentation and the development of projects that involve every social field and combine creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, education, production, ecology, architecture, politics and spirituality in order to properly carry out the ‘third paradise’ symbol.
A triadic balance between opposites: Fondazione Pistoletto
The third paradise is a paradigm elaborated by Pistoletto that moves the foundation and aims to create a triadic balance between opposites. The artist defines it as the fusion between the first paradise, in which humans were completely integrated into nature and the second one, an artificial paradise made of artificial needs, products, comforts, pleasures and every other form of artifice created by human intelligence. Therefore, the Third Paradise represents the third phase of humanity, a balanced connection between artifice and nature, essential to contrast the irreversible natural world’s processes of decline caused by the second paradise and to ensure the survival of humankind.
Specifically, the symbol of the Third Paradise is made of three consecutive circles, the two external ones represent all the diversities and antinomies between nature and artifice, the central one is obtained by the compenetrating of the opposites circles and represents the generation of a new humanity, based on principles such as creation, sustainability, regeneration, circularity and harmony which are indeed the main pillars of Cittàdellarte and its projects.
Defining Fashion B.E.S.T.
Fashion B.E.S.T. – Better Ethical Sustainable Think-Tank – is an operative laboratory, created in 2009 by Cittadellarte and Michelangelo Pistoletto with Franca Sozzani, that, as its acronym suggests, focuses on the development of sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion industry, most specifically in the textile sector. It is the result of a contamination between art, which aspires to social responsibility, and the fashion industry, which looks for new ethical, responsible and sustainable models of development.
The intent of Fashion B.E.S.T.‘s platform becomes reality through several partnered companies, both international and local, which produce sustainable fabrics, yarns and accessories, including an exhibition open to the public at Cittadellarte. Another activity that Fashion B.E.S.T. has been making for the pursuit of sustainability is the four year-long project made in partnership with UNECE, aimed at the development of transparency and traceability standards of the textile sector. Thanks to this partnership, the specific and precise standards made by the institution UNECE for some fabrics, such as cotton and wool, are divulged by Fashion B.E.S.T. among several brands, such as Vivienne Westwood.
Besides, this lab can be considered as a reference point, a shelter for the collective of B.E.S.T. sustainable fashion designers and for its community, who come at the hub to develop their projects, to collaborate, to draw inspiration from the thoughts of Michelangelo Pistoletto and to get contaminated one another. Therefore, the scope of the members of the think-tank is to inspire, produce and propagate a responsible and circular vision of fashion, according to their own perspective, while being artistically transparent, ethical, innovative and integrative as reported on Fashion B.E.S.T. ‘s website.
Olga Pirazzi, head of the Fashion ‘Uffizio’ of Cittadellarte
What characterizes Fashion B.E.S.T. is its differentiated team and community, mostly composed by young personalities such as designers, photographers, painters, vintage experts, etc. who are led by Olga Pirazzi, head of the Fashion ‘Uffizio’ of Cittadellarte, who, after experiencing the fashion world for many years, in 2009 took a twist towards sustainability and joined Cittàdellarte.
Since then, Olga manages the connections among Fashion B.E.S.T.‘s stakeholders, she contributes to the creation of new projects for training, design, development, production, distribution of ideas and sustainable textile products and together with her team they pursue the goal of inspiring, producing and diffusing a responsible vision of fashion, combining ethics and aesthetics. «Having a diversified team is essential because the textile supply chain is one of the most complex and it’s made out of various steps, only by acknowledging and ‘touching’ them, it’s possible to gain results» explains Olga.
Disclosing sustainable messaging with the youth
The reason why Fashion B.E.S.T. puts a strong focus on young people, because fashion nowadays is undergoing significant changes, which makes it necessary to learn how to manage this new era. «One of the aims of our school is to disclose our ideas and our messages of sustainability to young people, because they are the future and they need to be prepared for the inevitable change that there will be on every level», adds Pirazzi.
Something peculiar about this sustainable fashion lab is that whoever is or has been part of it somehow has become some sort of ambassador of Fashion B.E.S.T. and its mission, as Olga points out: «we have always supported them in their journey and now they represent us and our message», she continues: «there is not much competition among young people, they really enjoy and are willing to collab and work on shared projects, as it happened with the capsule collection made for Yoox, that was signed with ‘B.E.S.T.’, the name of the collective. They also help each other, professionally speaking, it’s like a big family made by different members guided by the same scope».
Fashion B.E.S.T. and education
Among the types of collaboration that Fashion B.E.S.T. has begun to grow its community and share their values and mission, there are workshops with international fashion schools, such as FIT. «We’ve made some workshops within our laboratories, to let the students acknowledge new fabrics, new technologies, new tinting processes and other innovations that aim to a sustainable future for fashion» explains Olga.
Three years ago, they also offered a bachelor course on Sustainable fashion, within their academy – Unidee. The course focuses on teaching students every part of the fashion world from a responsible and sustainable point of view, starting from eco-design.
Certainly, Fashion B.E.S.T. remains a still growing community, made of different figures (Fashion Designers, Artists, Testimonials, Special Partner Sponsor, Special Partner Brands, Companies, Institutional and Commercial Partners etc.) that is always open to welcome whoever shares their values and are willing to contribute to their mission, being this a necessity to guarantee a future for the fashion industry and not only.
Fashion B.E.S.T. latest projects
Throughout the years, Fashion B.E.S.T. ‘s achievements have been possible thanks to the several projects they were involved into and still are. For instance, recently they partnered with White Milano – WSM for the organization of a masterclass and a workshop to embrace sustainability topics and collective responsibility, on September 2022, they became members of the jury of the Sustainable Fashion Awards, in partnership with Camera Della Moda Nazionale Italiana. Michelangelo Pistoletto created a customized Third Paradise, symbol of the entire event, and giving out customized awards for the different categories; then they took part at Venice sustainable fashion forum with a speech given by Pistoletto, regarding the responsibility and the future of the fashion system and, finally, their latest project is the third edition of CirculART which will be showcased at Arte al Centro a Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto on June 2023.
CirculART
CirculART is a project based on the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle that is made in partnership with Fashion B.E.S.T and UNIDEE residency programs and it is guided by the curators’ team of the foundation. This initiative, which provides a new relationship between fashion and art, comes through thanks to the active participation of textile companies and a group (from four to six) of artists and fashion designers, who are meant to create installations by collaborating all together and combining different creative perspectives.
The young group of creatives of CircularART’s third edition is composed by Augustina Bottoni, Lucia Chain, Huge Sillytoe e Rebecca Sforzani; who, as a collective, are going to realize a work of art, using the textiles of the participating companies, focusing on the dialogue and the enhancement of the textile industry’s supply chain. «The scope of these creations is to display, to represent the difficulties, the challenges and sometimes the peculiarities and the opportunities that these companies, belonging to the textile industry, might face and have» explains Olga.
CirculART is a storytelling activity that aims to expand the reflection on sustainability, responsibility and the environmental impact within the textile supply chain, as well as other scenarios, by demonstrating that negative processes can have a different twist through innovative and creative solutions, as the Third Paradise theory claims.
In fact, the most challenging part for Fashion B.E.S.T, being a non-commercial group, remains raising awareness among the public by divulging their values through their projects, to sustain and accelerate a cultural change. «Brands and companies have started to do their part, now we have to reach the consumer with information to get closer to our objectives» says Olga.
Fashion B.E.S.T x Prototipo Studio
Fashion B.E.S.T partnered with Prototipo studio, Lampoon magazine’s retail store, to create a sweater as an embodiment of their shared values. «This collaboration started because, even if we are different realities with different dynamics, both Fashion B.E.S.T. and Prototipo aim to promote sustainability all around» explains Olga. After meetings and agreements, the collective B.E.S.T. realized the sweater by using a new Italian hemp yarn that Prototipo has been studying and experimenting on the Italian market for a while.
About the making of the sweater, Pirazzi says: ‘I must admit, it was a bit of a challenge, some technical developments are definitely still required but eventually, we managed to make the product by hand, it’s an artisanal piece’.
However, as everything that intends to be sustainable and socially responsible, after research, experimentation, effort and troubles, the handmade sweater with sustainable hemp fibers by Fashion B.E.S.T x Prototipo was created and it’s now available at Prototipo Studio, Via della Spiga, 30, 20121 Milano MI.
Olga Pirazzi’s piece of advice on how to be sustainable
Being sustainability the key to fashion and society’s survival, everyone should start making a move towards it, but some people may ask how. As a suggestion for sustainable fashion consumer wannabes, Olga says: ‘Be conscious and aware of what you are buying, through labels and QR codes you can understand what you are in front of, and question yourself the reason behind the prices, low prices don’t cover social and environmental dignity. Of course, a lot of divulging and promoting work has to be done but it’s not impossible to understand what is sustainable and what is not’. Lastly, she adds: ‘This transition on being conscious has happened already within the food industry, now it’s the turn of the fashion one. People need to understand that some things are damaging not only for the environment but for human’s health too’.
Cittàdellarte – Fashion B.E.S.T
Fashion B.E.S.T., which stands for a Better Ethical Sustainable Think–Tank, is an operative hub that was created in 2009 by Cittadellarte and Michelangelo Pistoletto with Franca Sozzani, with the aim to implement maestro Pistoletto’s ideas on sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion industry. Every project realized by Fashion B.E.S.T. revolves around the Third Paradise Pistoletto’s concept, which is based on values of sustainability, regeneration, circularity and harmony. This includes the collaboration made with Prototipo Studio to create a handmade sustainable hemp sweater, now available at Prototipo Studio, Via della Spiga, 30, 20121 Milano MI.
