During Milan Design Week the Pecci Contemporary Art Museum presented a few project installations and products. The idea was to show the overall excellence for “Made in Prato” ( central Tuscany ) where style and environment are founding criteria.
Beside the presentation of a special Design Week issue of Eco Design ( magazine on sustainability, living, design and energy), OpificioJm and Rebecca guested John Malkovich who was there to present his new clothes collection Technobohemian and to give a preview of his new jewellery line, called Rebecca.
The ex-industrial space of the Pecci Museum was the prefect setting for different installations dedicated to the “0Km – zero kilometer” design, realized with the products present at OpificioJm
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Opificiojm
Situated in the middle of the historic centre of Prato and sheltered between the fourteenth century walls and the medieval battlements, there has been a new place to shop and it’s called OPIFICIOJm.
OPIFICIOJm brings together consumers and creative local Tuscan products. It is a place full of promise, based on craft and in harmony with the greatest traditions of our local culture
Sitting along the same path that the Medicean troops used to secretly pass through, OPIFICIOJm is named after the famous American actor and director John Malkovich who put down his roots in Prato and now designs his own clothing line Technobohemian.
Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia (768 meters), the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 meters, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo (818 meters). The River Bisenzio, a tributary of the Arno, flows through it.
Historically, Prato’s economy has been based on the textile industry. The renowned Datini archives are a significant collection of late medieval documents concerning economic and trade history, produced between 1363 and 1410. The Textile Museum also reflects this history.
Prato is also a centre of the slow food movement, with many local specialities, including cantucci, a type of biscotti, sold by local speciality bakers.
Since the late 1950s, the city has experienced significant immigration, firstly from southern Italy, then from other nationalities, the most notable being a large Chinese community which first arrived in the late 1980s. With more than 180,000 inhabitants, Prato is Tuscany’s second largest city and the third largest in Central Italy, after Rome and Florence
What was really interesting was the presence of the Prato Chamber or Commerce with their certification label Cardato Regenerated CO₂ Neutral: the first textile products certified “Zero Emission”, outcome of 21 Prato based companies engagement and creativity. The certification can be applied only to really produced fabrics that comply to the following criteria:
1) produced in the Prato Textile District
2) realized with at least 70% of recycled material (clothes or textile industry waste)
3) have cancelled their Carbon Footprint by purchasing Carbon Emission Credits from the Chamber of Commerce.
The estimate is that yearly some 20.000 tons of wool material is recycled in the area giving Prato almost a world wide monopoly in this field.
