ETHICAL FASHION WITH AN ITALIAN TWIST

Women must weave their own health.

A simple thing like pink wool balls – Gomitolo Rosa – will become a new fundraising tool for many italian organizations involved in fighting brast cancer and for its prevention.

The intent is to meet the needs of two very different groups: the organizations’ need for funds and the wool growers’ need of making a profit (and not a loss) from their sheep wool. This last is a known issue in the textile industry. Since few years now both the Italian and the European legislation consider wool as a special refuse (before was already a byproduct) therefor cannot be left in the fields or burned. In Italy there are only a couple of projects trying to give back its value to local wool: the Consortium Arianne (see a previous post: b-origin italian wool for italian wholegarments) and Biella The Wool Company.

This last is a not-for-profit company created by a group of experts from small and medium wool companies from the Biella Textile District. It offers its services directly to wool growers on the entire wool production chain. The Company guarantees the full teachability of all its products, in full respect of people and environment.

Fundraising it is, beside the issue they fight for, the main concern for voluntary based organizations. In this case the idea was to give visibility and support to wool growers while creating a nonperishable fundraising good. The “Gomitolo Rosa” is all this. By selling wool balls, in all their public initiatives  the organizations want to encourage people to take advantage of the wool and make something out of it. Knitting, DIY and regaining the freedom on creating things with our hands, this is the push behind the support one can give to the fight against brast cancer by getting the “Gomitolo Rosa“.

All together a great example of how an excellence (Italian Wool) can turn into a solidarity tool. At the end a win win project for all people, organizations and companies involved.