With the upcycling of the most diverse materials, the ecological dresses walk the catwalk in Frasso Sabino (province of Rieti). An unmissable appointment. Every year the creativity of recycling designers shows how it is possible to look at what we would otherwise throw away as waste with different eyes.

The clothes parade through the streets of the small village under a clear sky, among the tables arranged for the occasion. In the jury, we observe them one by one to evaluate the complexity of the realization, the recycling of materials, the originality, the creative commitment. In the meantime, a special dinner cooked in a pot and without meat is served.

Thanks to Serena, Simona, the artists, the Frasso Sabino pro loco for their commitment to creating an important initiative to raise awareness on issues that are important to us, such as those of waste and more sustainable fashion.

13 are the dresses competing this year. We describe them one by one: they will amaze you for the often unusual materials for the creation of a runway dress!

Which would you have chosen? What do you think is the most ecological?

First place: Patria (Donata Claps)

It is a reproduction of the Ukrainian national costume created by the artist as an anti-war cry. Would you ever guess what it was made of? Patria is a dress that stands out as such, has no trace of waste, makes you forget about recycling and brings back to fashion.

Made with: disposable surgical masks, hospital gauze, plastic plates and bottles, garbage bags, plastic hay bale twine, umbrella cover, ears of corn.

Second place: Flapping of wings (Joy Fumi Akinseye, Sundus Saeed, Valentina Ferrari from Sartoria Sociale KORE)

Created by three designers and pattern makers from three different countries (Nigeria, Pakistan and Italy), the dress wants to convey at the same time the lightness of a butterfly’s flight and the threat of its extinction, with the hope that nature will regenerate itself.

Made with: garbage bags, kitchen filters, bubble wrap, plastic construction site net, clear plastic, dusting duvet, Coca-Cola bottles, electric cables.

Third Place: Opposites Attract (Vive e cattive Show)

Quattro colleghe hanno voluto riutilizzare i rifiuti prodotti durante il lavoro per creare un abito che richiamasse proprio la loro attività. “Il positivo e il negativo, il pieno e il vuoto che si completano alla perfezione, bianco e nero che rappresenta lo yin e lo yang, le forze opposte da cui tutto si origina”, così descrivono il vestito.

Realizzato con: film in resina di colore nero, scarto di stampa termica, impianto in pellicola litografica, polietilene espanso residuato da operazioni di imballaggio e confezionamento, carte di protezione lastre per stampa litografica, cartoncino di scarto derivato dalla fustellatura di scatole.

Four colleagues wanted to reuse the waste produced during work to create a dress that recalled their professional activity. “The positive and the negative, the fullness and the emptiness that complement each other perfectly, black and white representing yin and yang, the opposing forces from which everything originates”, so describe the dress.

Made with: black resin film, thermal printing waste, lithographic film plant, expanded polyethylene residual from packing and packaging operations, protection papers for lithographic printing plates, waste cardboard derived from the punching of boxes.

Short circuit (Simona Toma)

Inspired by the artist’s experience, who says of himself: “Being in short circuit requires the strength to dismantle, reshuffle and relaunch the self”.

Made with: corks, mosquito net, plastic straws, iron hanger.

Flames and weaving (School of arts and crafts Nicola Zabaglia – Monica Cosimi, teacher; Cristiana Pompei, teacher; Maftuna Halimova and Angelina Saura, students)

Students and teachers created a sculpture dress that recalled the flames of incinerators. The waste becomes a whole of intertwining in the fusion.

Made with: strips of photographic paper scraps, ribbons, nylon canvas scraps, plastic sticks, bottle caps, coffee capsules.

Tree (Valeria Zingaretti)

As the musical dress passes, the sounds of nature are heard. They come from the swaying of harmoniously inserted sticks to dress us with what nature itself offers.

Made with: waste woods collected on the beach, beige organza.

Controversial (Erika Petrozzi)

Created with medical waste, the artist wishes to make us reflect on the hope of life and rebirth, after a long period of suffering.

Made with: masks, drug capsules, fishing line.

Green hope (Andreina and Eleonora Amodeo)

Soft and wide, the dress is an invitation to build a future without waste with hope and common sense.

Made with: construction site cloth, masks and masks holders, coffee capsules.

CambiaMenti (Associazione Carta Bianca)*

The only men’s suit in the competition was created with the intention of making people reflect on the changes that man is bringing to the ecosystem, to modify mentality.

Made with: paper, mosquito nets, metal structure of disused umbrellas.

*wordplay: it literally means ‘changes’ but in Italian sound like ‘change minds’

Rain of colours (Nadia Assogna)

1,710 discs cut one by one from thrown umbrellas to create 95 pom poms, hand-sewn to form flower petals on the bodice and skirt. Care and patience for a stunning result. “I would like no one to abandon broken umbrellas and any kind of waste on the street”, explains Nadia. “Do not leave waste on the street! It costs you nothing but the world gains in health”.

Made with: umbrellas of various colors and sizes now unusable collected over the years with the collaboration of friends and relatives, an old bra, wire frame, plastic and metal hoods.

The rebirth (Centro Antiviolenza Angelita from Rieti)

With this dress, the artists send a clear and strong message: “We must free the planet from the suffocation of plastic as well as every woman from all forms of violence”.

Made with: garbage bags, plastic bottles, cans, straws.

Relax (Laura Toma)

Laura was inspired by the film “Freakout” with its story full of magic, extraordinary and hateful characters, but with a great desire to improve the world and make others feel good. A meticulous interweaving of commonly used wraps and other scraps: you wouldn’t say it’s made with Easter egg cards!

Made with: Easter egg and snack wrapping, cushion lining, flower bouquet net, beer and plastic bottle caps, plastic bottles, rubber bands.

My footprint (Simona Malerba)

The intent of the dress is to lead us to reflect on the ecological footprint that each of us leaves on the planet through our choices. What we eat, the way we dress, our behaviors. Everything leaves an indelible mark.

Made with: scraps of bath sponge, bubble wrap and packaging scraps, plastic hooks made from shower curtains, toilet paper rolls, paper clips, a bunch of wheat and an olive leaf.

Here we wrote about the previous editions: find out the dresses of the past fashion shows!

Photos by: Gregorio Maria Mattei, Dress ECOde, Francesco Franceschi, Sara Gentili. Video by Dress ECOde.

La bellezza del riciclo e delle creazioni di Federica

Carta, punteruolo, ago, filo per salvare, con leggerezza, ciò che sembra ormai inutile: leggendo queste parole immaginiamo Federica Nassetti, creatrice del brand YUUY, nel suo laboratorio intenta a dare forma a quaderni, agende e album grazie all’arte della legatoria. Le chiediamo del suo progetto per raccontare a voi di YUUY, di cui ci siamo innamorati da subito, e per condividere con voi la sua meravigliosa visione del riciclo.

Federica raccoglie scarti sia industriali, sia prodotti quotidianamente nelle nostre case: “Cartoline, pacchi di biscotti, il cartone del latte, della panna o dei fagioli, vecchie cartine geografiche, locandine di concerti, la scatola del sale grosso, prove di stampa, il disegno di un bambino, campionari, il packaging di pasta, patatine e passata di pomodoro…. qualsiasi cosa! Tutto ciò che possa essere bucato e cucito. Ciascuno mi tiene da parte quello con cui ha a che fare tutti i giorni. Le tipografie mi tengono i ritagli di carta e gli avanzi di risme che non utilizzano più e i ragazzi conservano scatole di pasta, tonno, cereali e biscotti”.

Questa rete che Federica ha saputo creare per la raccolta di oggetti non più utili è molto bella. “Si è innescato un meccanismo meraviglioso, sempre più persone mi contattano dicendomi che tengono da parte materiali e ogni volta che partecipo ad un market ricevo sempre ‘regali’ da persone che arrivano con sacchettoni di scarti. Per contraccambiare regalo loro uno YUUY. Questa cosa mi emoziona sempre tantissimo…”.

Una volta nelle sue mani, ci racconta che diventano principalmente quaderni di qualsiasi dimensione, soprattutto a pagine bianche. “Sono nati poi col tempo agende, album e segnapacco (tag per i regali) e chissà cosa arriverà in futuro e con gli esperimenti”. La produzione infatti non è rigida, ma aperta all’ispirazione dell’autrice e in alcuni casi del cliente, in base alle forme, ai colori, alle caratteristiche degli scarti e alle aspettative di chi acquista. “Ogni oggetto recuperato viene preso in mano e a seconda di materiale, forma e dimensioni viene tagliato, riempito di pagine e rilegato: a ciascun notebook la sua rilegatura. Mi piace lasciare porte aperte alle richieste specifiche, quindi chiunque abbia un’esigenza o un’idea può scrivermi e possiamo trovare il modo di realizzarla! Ho realizzato notebook per un’associazione culturale che in occasione di un meeting internazionale voleva regalare ai partecipanti quaderni realizzati con le loro locandine. Ho collaborato con una ragazza che mi ha fatto realizzare quaderni con i tovaglioli e i cataloghi che realizza la sua azienda e capita spesso che mi inviino foto o ricordi per creare articoli con copertine speciali”. Più sotto trovate la galleria di foto delle bellissime creazioni.

Cos’è quindi YUUY?

“Un progetto di legatoria che lavora in maniera trasversale. Propone oggetti semplicissimi, rilegati a mano e che nascono da qualcosa di forse inaspettato: quello che gli altri buttano via. Colleziona quello che ci circonda con l’intento di non farlo sparire: raccoglie e dà una seconda forma agli oggetti nascosti nel quotidiano, quelli con cui viviamo, quelli che passano inosservati e che non vengono più considerati utili. Siamo circondati da miliardi di oggetti di ogni forma, colore e materiale, oggetti che nessuno vuole più, dimenticati in una cantina, con un ciclo di vita breve e che vengono sostituiti sempre più velocemente. YUUY è “diversamente pagine”, è un invito alla scrittura manuale, è un insieme di carta nella quale possiamo riconoscerci con un significato o con ironia”.

Un’idea che nasce per caso, come ci racconta Federica: “Ci fu un anno, non ricordo esattamente quale, in cui frequentai un workshop di legatoria tenuto da un’amica: pura curiosità e fascino. In quello stesso periodo lavoravo a Bologna per un’azienda che si occupava di stampa digitale e che produceva quindi tantissimo materiale strano e colorato. Mettere insieme i due mondi fu un attimo e cominciai a rilegare per me quaderni utilizzando gli scarti delle lavorazioni: calibrazioni colore, stampe crashate e campionature. Poi gli amici cominciarono a chiedermeli e mi spinsero a partecipare ad un mercatino. Non sapevo bene cosa portare, quali quaderni realizzare e cosa mi avrebbero chiesto le persone e quindi arrivai con tutto quello che serviva per rilegare quaderni sul momento a seconda delle richieste. Carta, punteruolo, ago, filo e materiali a caso per le copertine, portai di tutto, stampe, cartine, cartoline e i packaging di casa. Le persone li guardavano, non capivano, spiegavo loro, ridevano e fu incredibile! Da lì mi si aprì un mondo e cominciai a rilegare un po’ di tutto continuando a coinvolgere le persone non solo però nella realizzazione del loro notebook personalizzato ma anche nella raccolta del materiale per realizzarli!”.

Perché riciclare? Qual è la bellezza del riciclo?

Riciclare è come una dichiarazione di non passività  al nostro vivere quotidiano. Ci aiuta a prendere coscienza di quello che ‘muoviamo’ ogni giorno e ad ottimizzare le nostre abitudini. Riciclare significa avere attenzione anche per il materiale di scarto e farlo seriamente, come dovrebbe essere fatto, ci rende parte attiva e questo può fare la differenza. Per quanto riguarda il progetto YUUY c’è bisogno però di specificare una cosa, perché ‘riciclare per YUUY’ significa decidere di rimettere in circolazione oggetti con cui in fondo ci identifichiamo, significa cambiarne destinazione d’uso, darne di nuovo valore e farlo con leggerezza: da qui nasce ‘BE IRONIC&RECYCLE’.

Come possiamo contribuire ad alimentare la produzione di YUUY?

“È molto semplice: abbiate il pensiero di fare una scatola in cui mettere gli scarti. Quando credete di essere pronti mi scrivete e io se posso vengo personalmente (il che mi fa sempre un piacere gigante ma non è sempre possibile), altrimenti mando un corriere a ritirare il pacco. In cambio ovviamente vi spedirò uno YUUY!”.

Come trovare YUUY?

“Quando riesco partecipo a fiere e grandi market (Abilmente, Il mondo creativo, Matrioska, Factory Market, ecc.) e piano piano sto cominciando a presentarmi a realtà come i negozi (Friendly shop, Qui virgola, Lino’s&Co). Ovviamente sono presente sui social (Facebook e Instagram, nome Yuuy_books) e da lì al momento prendo i contatti per le spedizioni. Sto costruendo anche il sito internet con la sezione e-commerce, che sarà disponibile a breve”. 

ENGLISH – YUUY books: daily objects once unused become lightly, with irony, “differently pages”

The beauty of recycling and of Federica’s creations

Paper, awl, needle, thread to save lightly what now seems useless: reading these words we imagine Federica Nassetti, creator of the YUUY brand, in her studio intent on shaping notebooks, diaries and albums thanks to the art of bookbinding. We ask her about her project, to tell you about YUUY which we immediately fell in love with, and to share with you her wonderful vision of recycling.

Federica collects waste both industrial and produced daily in our homes: “Postcards, packs of biscuits, the carton of milk, cream or beans, old maps, concert posters, the big salt box, print tests, a child’s drawing, samples, the packaging of pasta, chips and tomato sauce … anything! Every object that can be pierced and sewn. Each one keeps me apart what he uses every day. The printers keep me paper scraps and scrap remnants that no longer use and the guys keep boxes of pasta, tuna, cereals and biscuits for me”.

This network that Federica has been able to create for the collection of objects no longer useful is very beautiful. “It has triggered a wonderful mechanism, more and more people contact me telling that they keep aside materials and every time I participate in a market I always receive ‘gifts’ from people who come with bags of waste. To reciprocate, I give them a YUUY. I’m always touched a lot by this thing…”.

Once in her hands, she tells us that they become mainly notebooks of any size, especially with blank pages. “Agendas, albums and gift tags were born over time, and who knows what will happen in the future with the experiments”. In fact, production is not rigid, but open to the inspiration of the author and in some cases of the customer, based on the shapes, colors, characteristics of the waste and the expectations of the buyer. “Each recovered object is taken in hand and depending on material, shape and size is cut, filled with pages and bound: each notebook has its own binding. I like to leave an open door to specific requests, so anyone with a need or an idea can write me and we can find a way to make it happen! Once I made notebooks for a cultural association that, during an international meeting, wanted to give to the participants notebooks made with their posters. I collaborated with a girl who made me make notebooks with napkins and catalogs produced by her company, and it often happens that I received photos or memories to create articles with special covers”. Below you will find the gallery of the wonderful creations.

What is YUUY?

“A bookbinding project that works transversely. It offers simple, hand-bound objects, that are born from something perhaps unexpected: what others throw away. It gathers what surrounds us with the purpose of not making it disappear: collects and gives a second form to the objects hidden in the everyday life, those with whom we live, those who go unnoticed and are no longer considered useful. We are surrounded by billions of objects of every shape, color and material, by objects that nobody wants anymore, forgotten in a basement, with a short life cycle and replaced faster and faster. YUUY is ‘differently pages’, it is an invitation to manual writing, it is a set of paper in which we can recognize ourselves with a meaning or with irony”.

An idea that was born by chance, as Federica tells us: “There was a year, I do not remember exactly which, when I attended a bookbinding workshop held by a friend: pure curiosity and charm. In that same period I was working in Bologna for a company that was involved in digital printing and that therefore produced a lot of strange and colourful material. Combining the two worlds together was in an instant and I began to bind notebooks for me using the scraps of the processing: color calibrations, crashed prints and samples. Then friends began to ask me for them and pushed me to participate in a market. I did not know exactly what to bring, what notebooks to do and what people would have asked me to do. And so I came up with everything I needed to bind notebooks then and there according to the requests. Paper, awl, needle, thread and random materials for covers, I brought anything: prints, maps, postcards and packaging from home. People looked at them, they did not understand, I explained, they laughed and it was incredible! From there, a new world opened and I began to bind a bit of everything, continuing to involve people not only in the creation of their personalised notebooks but also in the collection of the materials to create them!”.

Why recycling? What is the beauty of recycling?

Recycling is like a declaration of non-passivity to our daily living. It helps us to become aware of what we ‘move’ every day and to optimize our habits. Recycling means paying attention to the waste material and doing it seriously, as it should be done; it makes us an active part and this can make the difference. Regarding the YUUY project, however, we need to specify one thing, because ‘recycling for YUUY’ means deciding to put into circulation objects with which we identify ourselves deep down. It means changing their intended use, giving them new value and doing it lightly: hence ‘BE IRONIC & RECYCLE’ was born.

How we can help to feed the production of YUUY?

“It’s very simple: have the thought of making a box in which to put the waste! When you think you are ready, write me and if I can I will come personally (which is always a giant pleasure to me but it is not always possible), otherwise I send a courier to pick up the package. In exchange of course I will send you a YUUY!”.

How to find YUUY?

“When possible, I take part in trade shows and large markets (Abilmente, The creative world, Matryoshka, Factory Market, etc.) and slowly I’m starting to introduce myself to entities like shops (Friendly shop, Qui virgola, Lino’s & Co). Of course I’m on social media (Facebook and Instagram, Yuuy_books name) and from there I can be contacted for shipping. I am also building the website with the e-commerce section, which will be available soon”.