Alpine brands and an exhibition: AlpTextyles’ Research Day in Lyon

On March 12, at the headquarters of the Région Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes in Lyon, Bellissimo took part in The Living Textile Heritage of the Alps, the Research Day of AlpTextyles dedicated to Alpine textile heritage. The European project explores the cultural, economic, and social value of Alpine textiles. Bellissimo contributed with a keynote speech on Alpine textile brand communication, as well as Threads from the Alps, a “living exhibition” designed to grow alongside the project. But let’s take it step by step.

AlpTextyles and the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes hosted The Living Textile Heritage of the Alps, a full day of talks, roundtables, and dialogue celebrating the results of the project’s first year of research. Topics ranged from market analysis to the mapping of production processes, from aesthetic research to historiographic studies. The program also featured model cases of SMEs and local initiatives promoting circularity within the textile industry.

The event is named after —and dedicated to— the living textile heritage of the Alps: an intangible heritage made up of practices and knowledge embedded in the everyday life of local communities, helping preserve centuries-old traditions rooted in the sustainable and circular use of resources.
The agenda included talks and working sessions with project partners, alongside representatives from European institutions, international organizations, and cultural associations — highlighting the project’s strong commitment to policy-making and dissemination at both local and community levels. Bellissimo contributed with a keynote on strategy and content in textile brand communication, offering an analysis of branding, visual languages, and narratives grounded in Alpine symbolism.

We also curated Threads from the Alps, a traveling narrative exhibition presenting the outcomes of the project’s first year of research. The exhibition is displayed on colored fabric-like banners that echo the project’s visual identity (you can see it here). Each banner, printed on a special eco-friendly material that simulates textile, is dedicated to one project partner. In this first phase, the themes include history, aesthetics, market behavior, and the mapping of the Alpine textile supply chain.

The exhibition will continue to evolve alongside the project, with new colored runners added over time, and will accompany future AlpTextyles events — keeping on to “intertwining cultures” together.

Published: Mar 19, 2024