Carien's International Adventures of 2012: Reda and Casa Zenga

Thursday was the day for another company visit. We went to Reda, another fabric manufacturer in Italy. This company was not as elite as the previous company because they were more focused on producing quantity rather than quality. It was interesting but I was stuck with the boring tour guide who didn’t tell us much whereas the other tour guide gave great explanations and the students of that group loved it. After the tour, we stopped by a restaurant for lunch. Madlen and I made our lunches in the morning so we got to soak up the sun for lunch. Originally, there was another park visit planned for the afternoon but after the negative feedback from the last park visit, we got to revise the program. Instead, we went to Casa Zenga, the original house which has been turned into an exhibition of one of e biggest fabric/fashion families in Biella and maybe in Italy too. It was surprisingly interesting to learn about the history of the company and the family and they had some very cool things in their exhibition. We all went out for supper at our favourite Italian restaurant for supper which was nice.

Fibers that were washed and dyed in this grey striped pattern to prime it.

The dried fibers. This was all 100% wool

Supply of dyed wool

Making thread from the fibers

Finished thread

Aligning the finished threads together before weaving

finished fabric. This factory only did menswear so the fabrics were all dark variations used for suits

Lots of rolls of fabric ready for shipping

Casa Zegna

The exhibition- touching all the raw ingredients. Below is the unwashed wool, in the middle is the washed wool and at the top is the combed wool.

The archive room full of books of fabrics made by Zegna over the years. The oldest dating back to the 1800's. These are still used for information by designers today