On September 23rd, 2022, during Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, was presented the new Slow Fiber network, born from the meeting between Slow Food Italia and some virtuous companies in the textile supply chain. The goal is to represent positive change through a sustainable production process, aimed at creating beautiful, healthy, clean, fair and durable products, because they respect the dignity of Man and Nature in its delicate balance.

Slow Fiber is a network of companies and individuals that was born from the reality of Slow Food Italia and follows their same ethical principles. Slow Fiber aims to disseminate knowledge of the impact that textile products have on the environment, on the workers in the supply chain and on the health of consumers in order to spread a new ethics and culture of clothing and furnishing.

Slow Fiber, promotes and supports awareness campaigns through the testimony and direct participation of companies that operate daily in compliance with environmental and social sustainability.

Slow Fiber, within Slow Food Italia, promotes and supports awareness campaigns through the testimony and direct participation of companies that operate daily in compliance with environmental and social sustainability. The strength of the Slow Fiber network lies in the companies and people involved, who every day act as spokespersons for the values defined in the Manifesto, and also work concretely to achieve real and tangible results and translate the values of this project into concrete actions. Through their daily work they demonstrate that the main goal of the Slow Fiber network is to create textile products for dressing and furnishing that are not only beautiful, but also:

• healthy for those who use them;
• clean because the environmental impact of production processes is reduced as much as possible;
• fair because they respect rights and the dignity of the workers involved in their realization, enhancing their traditional skills and knowledge;
• durable and long lasting to extend their useful life, limit waste and the production of waste.

In the last years the textile sector saw a significant rise on the wave of success of fast fashion. The constant search for cost reduction through the lowering of product quality levels, the environmental pollution and the exploitation of low-cost labor destroyed diversity, flattened consumption and fueled massive waste. In this scenario, secular traditions and, more seriously, the perception of quality, know-how and competence are starting to fade and are at risk of being lost to the fast-paced production that consumerism requires.  However consumerism itself cannot be eliminated, it is still possible to change its course: combining aesthetics, ethics and quality of life.

Through a more conscious production and consumption of healthy, clean, fair and durable products, Slow Fiber companies design textile products that are capable of exciting. They are linked to fundamental values such as tradition, quality and the transparency of the production chain: all values that seemed to have lost their meaning, which we are trying to carefully conserve, restore and promote.

Only a growing demand for sustainable products (healthy, clean, fair and durable) can trigger a change in the industrial strategies of producers who are called to offer higher quality goods with less and more efficient use of resources, applying the principles of the circular economy.

Manifattura Tessile DINOLE®, together with the Slow Fiber network is committed to change the old paradigms of industrial textile production. Even in the fast fashion era, a production and commercial model based on quality, circularity and dignity is still possible.The past decades have been profoundly marked by the relocation of mass textile production from their country of origin to countries with low-cost manual labor and much more permissive environmental laws.

Despite this disheartening trend, thousands of textile companies have instead remained faithful to their values of a transparent, clean and fair supply chain. These companies still continue offering to the market durable and high-quality products, and they also have a big impact on their local community: their ethical production process allows the workers to remain in touch with their traditions, thus enhancing and nurturing the knowledge and skills of the territory, patiently developed and handed down from generation to generation.