The Esi Foundation is launched to train the tailors of the future

The project is ready, the challenge is urgent, and the aims are crystal clear: the Esi Foundation – Italian Tailoring Excellence aims to be a new training school dedicated to Italian tailoring of the highest quality, to pass on this heritage to younger generations, offering concrete and fulfilling job opportunities and training skilled workers for authentic ‘Made in Italy’ companies, which are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit them.

The project stems from the experience and vision of Master Gaetano Aloisio, president of the World Federation of Master Tailors and former president of the National Academy of Tailors in Rome. The project will launch in the capital itself, before ideally expanding across the whole country, starting with the southern regions: “Exemplary ‘Made in Italy’ products are better known and appreciated abroad than in Italia,” explains Aloisio. “But it must not be merely a label; it needs to be nurtured. There is a shortage of the necessary skilled workers, for whom there is high demand, and this has, over time, led some companies to set up in-house academies. There are, of course, fashion schools, but they do not provide the training in excellence and specialisation required, and often come at a prohibitive cost. ‘I have in mind a free school that can offer opportunities to the younger generations, dedicated first and foremost to young Italians, and inclusive, with a special focus on marginalised groups – from people with disabilities to women fleeing difficult circumstances, to young people who see no prospects for the future.’

The Esi Foundation’s project also includes a virtual museum dedicated to Italian haute couture, “which will help raise awareness of this heritage, its history and its key figures,” continues Aloisio. ‘Craftsmanship should also be better taught in schools, because it is through knowledge that new and unexpected paths can open up.’