Apriti Moda returns, a weekend to discover ateliers, companies, museums

There will also be a special visit to the exhibition "Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025" in the spaces of the Armani/Silos in Milan, dutiful in the year of the designer's passing, in the rich programme of the new edition of Apriti Moda, the event that since 2017, every fourth weekend of October, wants to "democratise" the places where fashion is created by making them accessible to the public.

Conceived by journalist Cinzia Sasso and now in its ninth edition, which will be held on 25 and 26 October, Apriti Moda has over time become a national event. While its inauguration included only the city of Milan, since 2020 it has extended its sphere of interest and participation to the whole of Italy. The number of participants is also on the increase, and they can book their favourite visits - always free of charge - by filling in a form on the organisation's website. Last year, in the first three hours of the opening of bookings for visits to the 107 fashion houses distributed in 69 Italian towns, the Apriti Moda website was visited by no less than 450,000 people, attracted by the possibility of seeing people, places and the 'know-how' at the origins of authentic Made in Italy, which is a manufacturing process, economic wealth, but also the country's historical and cultural heritage.

Global textile companies and workshops for artistic fabrics, tanneries, ateliers, theatrical tailors and archives of historic brands, from Missoni to Ferragamo, as well as museums (the most famous ones such as the Silk Museum in Como, but also hidden gems such as the Anita Belleschi Grifoni Tulle Museum in Panicale, in the province of Perugia), and opportunities to meet and see up close the work of those who strenuously defend what remains of ancient but endangered production, such as the gloves and buttons of Naples, the trimmings of Turin, and the coral jewellery of Trapani.

In addition to the past, however, there is also much future in the Apriti Moda meetings, for example in the one with Rifò Lab, which since 2017 has been producing recycled yarns in Prato, innovating the city's centuries-old tradition of textile circularity, but also with D'orica, which in the barchessa of a Venetian villa in Presina enhances the very ancient, but almost disappeared, local silk industry by incorporating the fibre into its jewellery.

Among the most interesting appointments at this edition are the openings, for the first time, of the Lavs atelier of Filippo Sorcinelli, couturier of ecclesiastical robes (Pope Leo XIV wore one of his creations for his first mass) and master perfumer, in Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna, and the atelier of Ettore Bilotta, creator of uniforms worn by the personnel of airlines such as Alitalia, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Kuwait Airways. Also not to be missed is a visit to Ilariusss, Ilaria Soncini's Milanese atelier where hats are created that are loved by many celebrities, from Margot Robbie to Beyoncé and Amal Clooney.