Page 13 - Ratti Group - Sustainability report

The birth of silk
The empress Hsi Ling Shih was sipping tea in the shade of a mulberry tree swarming with silkworms. A silkworm’s cocoon fell from the green leaves into the steaming cup. The empress watched, astounded, as the cocoon in the tea took on the appearance of a mass of threads. She took hold of the end of one, and the thread unravelled to an interminable length. So the legend recounts the origin of silk at the dawn of Chinese civilisation, three thousand years before Christ, along
with the inseparable link between the silkworm and its only food – mulberry leaves. A link that makes one forget the fruit of the tree – sweet and aromatic.
Museum of Art in New York, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Palazzo Reale and
the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (pavilion of contemporary art) in Milan. Blessed with a heightened proclivity for innovation and non-industrial research Antonio Ratti created, in Como, the foundation bearing his name. The foundation is fully dedicated to cultural and historical research in the world of textiles (a collection of ancient fabrics, themed exhibitions and fora), and to the promotion of the most talented visual artists. On the back of this initiative Antonio Ratti decided, in 1995, to finance, at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, a centre set up
to conserve, restore and catalogue
the textile collections owned by the museum. And so the Antonio Ratti Textile Center was established – it
is, today, one of the most significant centres open to the public inside an
art gallery. It is perfectly equipped for research and for the conservation of fabrics. November 1998 saw the opening of the Museo Tessile della Fondazione Antonio Ratti – subsequently renamed Museo Studio del Tessuto.
This museum houses the collection of antique fabrics that he collected with passion and foresight throughout the
whole of his life. The collection is now looked after, with the same passion, by his daughter Annie.
In 2017, Antonio Ratti’s distinctive journey between art and industry was recognised and honoured in Palazzo Te in Mantua in the exhibition “Fabric as art: Antonio Ratti: entrepreneur and patron”, curated by Lorenzo Benedetti, Annie Ratti and Maddalena Terrangi, and the fruit of cooperation between the Museo Civico of Palazzo Te and the Fondazione Antonio Ratti (Chapter 5, paragraph 5.5 “Bringing beauty to everyone“).
An art whose driving force is passion, starting from the meticulous attention to detail that derives from its strong Italian stamp, in a style that combines harmony and elegance. Creativity and technological innovation are the cornerstones that guide the company in es- tablishing its brand throughout the world.
Researching, studying and experimenting with new production techniques, new printing processes that support and promote the mark of quality that is then tangible on each and every fabric, and that bears witness to the happy marriage between Ratti and the great de- signers of the world who represent the Group’s principal external stakeholders.
Working for the client and with the client in a continuous dialogue that encourages one to raise one’s gaze toward the infinite horizons of the art of printing to open one’s mind to the most contemporary thinking. This is the modus operandi the Ratti Group uses to customise a product exclusively.
Finding inspiration in the classic to recreate a new language with evermore original tones that complement and permeate each other in a way that is totally natural. This is the Ratti Group’s goal: the conjugation of an intuition that springs from the original: “Experiencing silk is an art, today as it was yesterday”.
Beauty as a vocation has become, for the Ratti Group, a daily commitment that involves everyone who works in the business, which seeks to balance innovation and practicality, while always respecting the craftsmanship of its professionals, the protection of the environ- ment, and the values and principles on which it was founded.
1.3 Five faces of leadership
The Group’s activities
The Ratti Group is a leader in the creation and manufacture of printed, plain and yarn-dyed fabrics for clothing, ties, shirts, beachwear, underwear and furnishings, and in the produc- tion and worldwide distribution of accessories, for men and women, for major international fashion labels.
With a heritage that is closely linked to the manufacturing of silk, over time Ratti has perfect-
RATTI GROUP | SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017
11