LABORATORIO DELLE NAZIONI AN ITALIAN – PAKISTAN BRIDGE
Per la collezione ss20 Stella Jean, per la sua nona missione, ha collaborato con l’incredibile realtà dell’Emerging Pakistan. Confrontandosi sul campo, con alcune eccezionali comunità di minoranze alcune delle quali a rischio di estinzione, fra queste la comunità Kalash, situata in una delle zone più remote al mondo, un valle isolata a 2000 m di altezza, nel distretto di Chitral, nella provincia di frontiera a nord-est del Pakistan, presso il confine con l’Afghanistan.
I Kalash sono un’antica popolazione, unica nel loro genere, per la quale il governo ha assegnato uno straordinario programma di salvaguardia, protezione e recupero. Stiamo parlando di una situazione che allo stato attuale conta solo circa tremila persone. Parlano una lingua ed hanno tradizioni uniche e non completamente decifrate.
La missione di Stella Jean si è concentrata sui loro speciali abiti ricamati magnificamente a mano. Una comunità così ricca di cultura, non può scomparire.
Per la prima volta nella storia le donne Kalash hanno ricamato i loro motivi tradizionali per un pubblico internazionale, attraverso il progetto: „Laboratorio delle Nazioni“. Questi ricami hanno lasciato per la prima volta le valli dei Kalash, per consentire al mondo di partecipare a questo percorso di Empowerment femminile.
Uno speciale ringraziamento a Karishma Ali; 22 anni, che partita dal suo villaggio: Karimabad, nonostante le difficoltà incontrate, è diventata una campionessa della Nazionale femminile di calcio. Ora questa guerriera, a più di tre mila metri di altezza, allena le ragazze, istruisce le madri ed ha fondato il Chitral Women’s Handicraft Center, dove sono stati prodotti parte dei ricami della collezione.
Una collaborazione multiculturale con le artigiane locali di Chitral, Gilgit ed Hunza, che hanno deciso di condividere ed unire al design italiano la loro tradizione centenaria, ed hanno realizzato per la collezione Stella Jean oltre 400mt di ricami tipici a mano in punto catenella. I capi ricamati sono stati successivamente assemblati dalle sarte italiane. Una cooperazione umana straordinaria, che ha permesso di realizzare un virtuale Laboratorio delle Nazioni in cui le competenze tradizionali artigianali Pakistane, si sono affiancate e combinate a quelle Italiane, e nonostante le migliaia di chilometri di distanza, decine di donne hanno lavorato unite, con lo scopo comune di prendersi cura e preservare un patrimonio culturale globale in via di estinzione. Quello dellamoda, quando intesa come attività culturale, è un ruolo fondamentale, nel creare considerevoli opportunità di lavoro dignitoso per donne e uomini in tutto il mondo.
For the SS20 collection, Stella Jean on her ninth mission, has worked with the reality of an Emerging Pakistan. She collaborated on the ground with some exceptional communities, some of which are at risk of extinction. This includes the Kalash people, located in one of the most remote areas of the world–an isolated valley at an altitude of 2000 meters in the Chitral region, on the border province in northeast Pakistan.
The Kalash are an ancient population who hold a unique heritage For this reason, the government has provided them with an extraordinary amount of safety, protection and recovery. We are talking about a geographical situation that is currently home to only about three thousand people; it is literally near extinction. They speak their own native language and have unique traditions, which so far have not been completely lost.
For the first time in history the Kalash women have embroidered their traditional motifs for an international audience through the project:
‘Laboratorio delle Nazioni ‘. These embroideries have left the Kalash valleys this very first time, to enable the world to partake in this women empowering path. Many thanks to Karishma Ali, a 22 year old woman who started from her very own vilage: Karimabad. And despite the thousands of difficulties she encountered, she persisted, and this warrior became a national women’s football champion. Now, here at more than three thousand feet, She coaches girls and trains mothers, in the Chitral Women’s Handicraft Center which she founded. This Center has produced part of the collection’s embroideries.
A multicultural collaboration with the local artisans of Chitral, Gilgit and Hunza has taken place. These artists made the decision to share and combine Italian design with their century old traditions, and have hand-emboidered over 400 meters of typical floral motifs in chain stitch for the Stella Jean collection.
The embroidered garments have been subsequently assembled by Italian artisan seamstresses. This is an extraordinary example of human cooperation, which was made possible by the creation of a virtual ‘Laboratory of Nations’, in which the traditional artisan skills of Pakistan, have joined and combined forces with those of Italy, to reflect the excellence of the Made in Italy and despite thousands of miles of distance, dozens of women have worked together, with the common goal of caring and preserving an endangered global cultural heritage. This is an acknowledgment of fashion’s potential, as a cultural activity, to provide significant opportunities for decent work for men and women around the world.
The DNA of the brand remains consistent in the STELLA JEAN X YOOX exclusive capsule collection. The artisans from the Chitral and Karighar project embroidered the poplin’s pockets, totally handcrafted in Pakistan, the artisans of Lazio, in Italy, have subsequently incorporated the items into the capsule. Multiculturalism applied to Fashion, understood as an instrument of international cooperation.
Through YOOXYGEN, its socially and environmentally responsible destination YOOX will introduce, for the first time in history, the work and traditions of this remote population to the international audience. A call to action to increase the awareness and empower these communities, which will lead to the creation of employment and self-sustainance, through the preservation and sharing of their knowledge. Stella Jean and YOOX have worked together with the artisans in their reality, for an ethical capsule that combines two excellences: the unique aesthetic of the communities of Kalash, Hunza, Gilgit and that of Italian design and workmanship and its artisans. A singular union, an extraordinary marriage: from Pakistan to the world.
Stella Jean’s project tells of the need for selfsufficency, an integrationist contamination, Principles in which the brand believes in and desires to share. Stella’s goal is, through an exchange of skills, strengthen the determination of these communities to keep them alive as well as reposition their extraordinary and mostly unknown positions on the map on a geographical, emotional and economic level . The promotion and adoption of this effort allows them to free themselves from a welfare policy and organize themselves into microenterprises; in so doing, they can build their own economic autonomy by preserving their own traditions while simultaneously gaining access to the global market. Preservation without conservatism: it is a story and a sharing of an exciting experience that anyone can live firsthand, through the clothes as well as the mission’s footage. This is fashion as a tool for information, dissemination and participation of every person who will make the responsible choice to open their borders, and immerse themselves into a piece of history…this extraordinary story.