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High Fashion Inside a Milan Prison

September 08, 2008 1:56 PM

By HILARY BROWN, ABC News, Milan

Think of Milan and you think of fashion, high fashion -- at least that’s what you do if you’re female. You think of the famous catwalk where the most beautiful clothes in the world are shown on the world’s most beautiful women.   

But there’s another catwalk in Milan  where  the fashions are almost as lovely. It’s in San Vittore prison, and the clothes are all made by convicts.

The inmates -- all women -- are part of a training program that’s turned out to be a model of rehabilitation. They have learned to sew anything, including costumes for the famous La Scala Opera House. Once a year, the prison organizes a fashion show of its creations, with professional models strutting up and down the ramp.   

"We have learned to make anything and everything," Gabriella Piedi tells me as she handstitches a perfect hem on a bias-cut silk skirt. She’s doing time for  drug dealing. "You work all day, and you know it’s giving you a future."   

Half a dozen other convicts are bent over sewing machines, pressing seams or marking and cutting cloth, in a bright, sunlit room that could be any tailor’s workshop. Most of the convicts are serving prison terms of five years or more.

But after this type of training, any jailbreak they might have in mind is not against the law. They want to break into the world of fashion.

Backed by a local cooperative that helps women behind bars, they are now launching their own label called 'Gatti Galleotti,' which means "jail cats." 

They’re starting small, with a line of aprons, shirts and other small things that can be easily sold as souvenirs...by the cooperative.

But their goal is to produce their own line of high-quality, boutique clothes under the Gatti Galleotti label. Already they have a contract with a fashionable  shop in Milan, making exquisite, handmade suits, blouses, dresses and lingerie.

"The whole collection is made by them, from the jackets to the underwear," says Donna Ioannou, the shop’s owner, as she takes me through rack after rack of clothes made in the finest silks, wools and cottons. The clothes are all of her own design, but she has no doubt that the convicts would be perfectly capable of designing and producing a line of their own that would be just as good.

"I’m sure they could do that," she says. "I think it’s inspirational for them to do what they are doing."

The convicts hope to be able to launch the prison’s first-ever fashion line within a year. "We’re going to try," says Paola Mazzini, a middle-aged woman who has been an inmate of San Vittore prison for 10 years. "We’ll give it our best."   

And their best is really very good. I bought one of their pieces myself, and it’s been quite a hit.

Watch Hilary Brown's piece for more about Gatti Galleotti.

September 8, 2008 in Hilary Brown | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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