The value of slow fashion
It is useless to deny it: everything produced has an impact in terms of pollution, waste production and water consumption. The fashion sector is responsible for around 10% of global CO2 emissions.
The causes? An in-depth study published in Nature clearly explains it: we are producing badly (that is, without taking into account the consequences of how we produce), but above all we’re producing too much.
The bad news is that hyper-production – a direct consequence of fast-fashion – is growing further: a recent UN report states that in the last twenty years global clothing production has doubled.
The good news instead comes from the European Union which has adopted its first strategy to combat hyper-production through a set of rules that can be summarized in a new precept: product life must be extended. The watchwords are recycling, repair and reuse, but most of all, responsible design and production. For the first time, Europe has put it in writing that the problem lies at the root: in order to produce less, products must be designed and manufactured to be durable, reliable and usable for a long time. Starting in 2030, those that meet these requirements will have a Community Digital Product Passport which will track them throughout their production cycle and will simplify repair or recycling.
The EU proposal also contains measures limiting the destruction of unsold garments and providing incentives (not just in fiscal terms) for brands that launch fewer collections on the market and produce them through sustainable supply chains.
It’s clear that in order to radically change the business model successfully, it’s also necessary to change purchasing habits: in short, consumption bulimia fueled by the perverse dynamics of fast-fashion must be replaced by the desire to establish lasting relationships with the things we buy. The cornerstone to an authentic change of perspective lies, therefore, in sharing intentions and assuming a common responsibility.
At Il Bisonte we’ve been ready for fifty years, and those who love our brand have always recognized the value of slow fashion.
Produce well
Skilled hands
To those who ask me why Il Bisonte is so adored in such a demanding country as Japan, I always answer that it’s because we share the same obsession for well-made things, the same uncompromising attention to every detail and the same awareness that quality takes time.
But words, as we know, have a very low specific weight. What gives them substance are facts. This is why we’ve created this issue of the Magazine as a journey that goes behind the scenes of our brand, to the roots of how we do business and how we think about and produce our bags and accessories.
A slow journey, just like all the processing phases every product of ours takes. A journey consisting of actions that are traced by our artisans’ hands. Skilled hands which are unique in the world; they preserve and hand down manufacturing traditions that have been used in Tuscany for thousands of years and have remained amazingly relevant over the centuries. A journey that leads to a few select products each season, to be purchased now and cherished forever.
Luigi Ceccon
CEO of Il Bisonte S.p.A.
Hurry slowly
Festina lente
This issue of our magazine takes its title (and much food for thought) from a great little book written by the Tuscan doctor and researcher Lamberto Maffei, former director of the CNR Institute of Neuroscience and president of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. His “Elogio della lentezza” (In Praise of Taking it Slow) is what we recommend reading to consciously address the complexity of our relationship with consumption. His lucid, critical and irreverent way of thinking helped us not feel so alone in deciding to take a different path.
The book opens with a description of myriad turtles carrying a large wind-filled sail on their backs. Some of these can be seen on the ceiling and walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, accompanied by an oxymoronic admonition: festina lente, which means to make haste slowly.
Perhaps this Latin motto – so loved by Cosimo I de’ Medici that it came to symbolize his model of government – can provide a worthwhile, fresh start, one that would allow ourselves time to ponder the most urgent questions about how we live, produce and consume today, like the ancients once did.
In a system that runs non-stop like the fashion world, there is room for slowness.
There is time for reflection.
There is a way to step away from this fast-paced culture.
Produce well
Skilled hands
To those who ask me why Il Bisonte is so adored in such a demanding country as Japan, I always answer that it’s because we share the same obsession for well-made things, the same uncompromising attention to every detail and the same awareness that quality takes time.
But words, as we know, have a very low specific weight. What gives them substance are facts. This is why we’ve created this issue of the Magazine as a journey that goes behind the scenes of our brand, to the roots of how we do business and how we think about and produce our bags and accessories.
A slow journey, just like all the processing phases every product of ours takes. A journey consisting of actions that are traced by our artisans’ hands. Skilled hands which are unique in the world; they preserve and hand down manufacturing traditions that have been used in Tuscany for thousands of years and have remained amazingly relevant over the centuries. A journey that leads to a few select products each season, to be purchased now and cherished forever.
Luigi Ceccon
CEO of Il Bisonte S.p.A.
The value of slow fashion
It is useless to deny it: everything produced has an impact in terms of pollution, waste production and water consumption. The fashion sector is responsible for around 10% of global CO2 emissions.
The causes? An in-depth study published in Nature clearly explains it: we are producing badly (that is, without taking into account the consequences of how we produce), but above all we’re producing too much.
The bad news is that hyper-production – a direct consequence of fast-fashion – is growing further: a recent UN report states that in the last twenty years global clothing production has doubled.
The good news instead comes from the European Union which has adopted its first strategy to combat hyper-production through a set of rules that can be summarized in a new precept: product life must be extended. The watchwords are recycling, repair and reuse, but most of all, responsible design and production. For the first time, Europe has put it in writing that the problem lies at the root: in order to produce less, products must be designed and manufactured to be durable, reliable and usable for a long time. Starting in 2030, those that meet these requirements will have a Community Digital Product Passport which will track them throughout their production cycle and will simplify repair or recycling.
The EU proposal also contains measures limiting the destruction of unsold garments and providing incentives (not just in fiscal terms) for brands that launch fewer collections on the market and produce them through sustainable supply chains.
It’s clear that in order to radically change the business model successfully, it’s also necessary to change purchasing habits: in short, consumption bulimia fueled by the perverse dynamics of fast-fashion must be replaced by the desire to establish lasting relationships with the things we buy. The cornerstone to an authentic change of perspective lies, therefore, in sharing intentions and assuming a common responsibility.
At Il Bisonte we’ve been ready for fifty years, and those who love our brand have always recognized the value of slow fashion.
Hurry slowly
Festina lente
This issue of our magazine takes its title (and much food for thought) from a great little book written by the Tuscan doctor and researcher Lamberto Maffei, former director of the CNR Institute of Neuroscience and president of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. His “Elogio della lentezza” (In Praise of Taking it Slow) is what we recommend reading to consciously address the complexity of our relationship with consumption. His lucid, critical and irreverent way of thinking helped us not feel so alone in deciding to take a different path.
The book opens with a description of myriad turtles carrying a large wind-filled sail on their backs. Some of these can be seen on the ceiling and walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, accompanied by an oxymoronic admonition: festina lente, which means to make haste slowly.
Perhaps this Latin motto – so loved by Cosimo I de’ Medici that it came to symbolize his model of government – can provide a worthwhile, fresh start, one that would allow ourselves time to ponder the most urgent questions about how we live, produce and consume today, like the ancients once did.
In a system that runs non-stop like the fashion world, there is room for slowness.
There is time for reflection.
There is a way to step away from this fast-paced culture.
Tanning
Perfection takes time
If you ask Alberto, master tanner of Santa Croce sull’Arno, whether a leather piece is perfect or not, he is likely to answer: “I’ll tell you in twenty years.” In that area located halfway between Florence and Pisa, where leather tanning is a family business whose secrets are handed down from father to son, there is no room for haste. If the leather is perfect, it will tell you over time, through its ability to age beautifully.
Vegetable tanned cowhide, which has always been Il Bisonte’s choice material, and the bio-tanned cowhide that accompanies it in the new collections, also takes a long time to come into being: from when raw hides, preserved in salt, begin to be worked to when they are ready to be used, no less than 20 days pass, during which time they are washed and re-hydrated, passed through the barrels several times and treated with vegetable substances like tannin, and then left to air dry.
If you ask Alberto whether there are any shortcuts, he’ll look at you in disbelief, shrug and walk away.
Pattern
Travel instructions
Talk to plants. Or even better, write to them. They may not listen to you, let alone read your words, but surely the time you dedicate to talking will slow down your pace and allow you to take care of them properly and notice if they have any particular needs.
The almost-dead, completely fruitless lemon tree that arrived at Orti Dipinti was reborn this way: it became a tree where grateful people could hang daily thank-you notes. The director of the plant neurobiology laboratory in Florence, Stefano Mancuso, confirms that it works, and we bet your psychotherapist would appreciate it too.
Giacomo recommends googling “Don José Carmen Garcia Martinez” and/or reading his book “El Hombre que Habla con las Plantas.” We can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to miraculously grow 1.5 meter-long beets, 5-meter-high corn stalks and 45 kg cabbage, but we bet the story of this wise Mexican farmer will enchant you, and your thumb might be a little greener.
Pattern
Travel instructions
If you ask Alberto, master tanner of Santa Croce sull’Arno, whether a leather piece is perfect or not, he is likely to answer: “I’ll tell you in twenty years.” In that area located halfway between Florence and Pisa, where leather tanning is a family business whose secrets are handed down from father to son, there is no room for haste. If the leather is perfect, it will tell you over time, through its ability to age beautifully.
Vegetable tanned cowhide, which has always been Il Bisonte’s choice material, and the bio-tanned cowhide that accompanies it in the new collections, also takes a long time to come into being: from when raw hides, preserved in salt, begin to be worked to when they are ready to be used, no less than 20 days pass, during which time they are washed and re-hydrated, passed through the barrels several times and treated with vegetable substances like tannin, and then left to air dry.
If you ask Alberto whether there are any shortcuts, he’ll look at you in disbelief, shrug and walk away.
Cutting
The secret lies in waiting
With new technologies, cutting is done in a matter of seconds. The blade descends on the piece of leather in the blink of an eye and, when it comes back up, all the pieces needed to construct the bag are already there, cut to perfection.
This lightning-fast movement, very precise in its swiftness, is actually the result of patient consideration and thoughtful strategy.
The wait, in this case, is called “placement” and consists of carefully and meticulously arranging each shape on a digital desk to be cut. The aim of the game, which is very similar to Tetris, is to arrange as many pieces of the bag as possible on the smallest leather surface necessary. In this game, the better the arranger is in turning and interlocking pieces, the better the machine is in reducing scraps.
The goal is to minimize leather waste (which Il Bisonte utilizes to restore vintage products or make small accessories).
Assemply
From bark to trunk
It just so happens that trees, whose bark provides the tannin powder used to tan leather, come back into play smack in the middle of the production process. This occurs when the design of a bag is especially structured (like with the new Maggio line). In these cases, an ancient tool is used to assemble the various components. This tool – a wooden frame – is irreplaceable due to its ability to mold leather much like a sculpture. Only one frame exists for each model and from its solid, precise shape, the bag will take on its unique form which will permanently and unmistakably define its lines.
The frames we use at Il Bisonte are handcrafted using beech wood, a majestic tree that grows extensively throughout our Tuscan woods. It is particularly suitable for this purpose not only because it is compact and has a regular grain, but also because it is particularly resistant to the hammer blows necessary to firmly bind the glue.
Assembly
From bark to trunk
It just so happens that trees, whose bark provides the tannin powder used to tan leather, come back into play smack in the middle of the production process. This occurs when the design of a bag is especially structured (like with the new Maggio line). In these cases, an ancient tool is used to assemble the various components. This tool – a wooden frame – is irreplaceable due to its ability to mold leather much like a sculpture. Only one frame exists for each model and from its solid, precise shape, the bag will take on its unique form which will permanently and unmistakably define its lines.
The frames we use at Il Bisonte are handcrafted using beech wood, a majestic tree that grows extensively throughout our Tuscan woods. It is particularly suitable for this purpose not only because it is compact and has a regular grain, but also because it is particularly resistant to the hammer blows necessary to firmly bind the glue.
Stitching
YEAR OF EXPERIENCE, IN EVERY STICH
In order to sew a bag you need expert hands with years of training. Whether something is hand- or machine-stitched, sewing savoir faire cannot be improvised. Here too, it is time that makes all the difference. Time marked by years of loyalty a master artisan devotes to his company and time made up of careful attention to every detail. A tiny mistake is all it takes to have to redo everything. At Il Bisonte we hand sew – despite the excellence of modern machinery – what only hands know how to do. If a machine-sewn seam is normally more uniform, a hand-sewn seam is unmatched when it comes to durability, and offers each bag that touch of uniqueness. In the new collection we only use cotton threads which are not very elastic and therefore stronger, but also more difficult to work with than nylon threads. Beeswax is the trick to making the stitches go in smoother, and also serves to firmly fix each stitch in place.
Weaving and knots
Traditional actions
In 1930 a friend of Mondrian’s asked him to recommend a title for a small magazine that he wanted to publish. “STOP!” the great artist suggested, “because everything is going too fast.”
In creating our products, certain things require us to actually stop time, to forget the logic surrounding industrial production and just work like we once did. Weaving and knots are such things; they set the aesthetic tone and supervise the functionality of some of the most iconic models in the new collection.
We knot and attach by hand the tubular elements featured in the Snodo capsule collection and the woven pieces in the Fiaba line for the simplest of reasons: no machine can replace the patient care of an artisan’s hands.
We’ve known this since we started, and we conserve this knowledge like a precious treasure, aware that it’s precisely the reason each of our bags and small leather accessories is truly a unique piece.
Weaving and knots
Traditional actions
In 1930 a friend of Mondrian’s asked him to recommend a title for a small magazine that he wanted to publish. “STOP!” the great artist suggested, “because everything is going too fast.”
In creating our products, certain things require us to actually stop time, to forget the logic surrounding industrial production and just work like we once did. Weaving and knots are such things; they set the aesthetic tone and supervise the functionality of some of the most iconic models in the new collection.
We knot and attach by hand the tubular elements featured in the Snodo capsule collection and the woven pieces in the Fiaba line for the simplest of reasons: no machine can replace the patient care of an artisan’s hands.
We’ve known this since we started, and we conserve this knowledge like a precious treasure, aware that it’s precisely the reason each of our bags and small leather accessories is truly a unique piece.
Behind the scenes of the FW23 Collection
A collection Manifesto
Violet Iris, Pink Azalea, Cypress Green and Forest: the new colors featured in the FW23 Collection are all inspired by the flowers and plants found in Orti Dipinti, the community garden located in the center of Florence that we are committed to developing and that we wrote about in issue 0 of our Magazine. “Behind our stylistic choices – says Luigi Ceccon – is always who we are: a company deeply rooted in a land whose beauty never ceases to inspire us, a community of artisans who work leather like no one else in the world and a management team that is tenaciously committed to helping create a better future for people and the planet. Each of our bags is a manifesto of this commitment.”
Observing the new collection from behind the scenes allows us to go on a journey to discover the incredible craftsmanship behind each product, passionate attention to every detail and production processes that both value people’s talent and respect the environment.
Responsible design
Using functional elements as stylistic features and enhancing the natural texture of the leather means consciously choosing a responsible design which rejects what is useless and it’s precisely from this rejection that we gain the ability to imagine, as a whole, beauty and sustainability, tradition and innovation. This is the approach we’ve chosen – for the FW23 collection as well – to make a difference.
Keep reading and following us to find out more about the values that drive our free, independent style. Tell us how you too make a difference.
Write to bedifferent@ilbisonte.net
Responsible design
Using functional elements as stylistic features and enhancing the natural texture of the leather means consciously choosing a responsible design which rejects what is useless and it’s precisely from this rejection that we gain the ability to imagine, as a whole, beauty and sustainability, tradition and innovation. This is the approach we’ve chosen – for the FW23 collection as well – to make a difference.
Keep reading and following us to find out more about the values that drive our free, independent style. Tell us how you too make a difference.
Write to bedifferent@ilbisonte.net