Made in Dignity
by Ady Salvatierra
On March 8th, 2024 two of my fellow student researchers Fi Porco, Bella Lapp, and Professor Marini-Maio, one of the professors running the 2024 Fashion Mosaic, and I had the amazing opportunity of visiting the Sartoria San Vittore sewing workshop of Cooperativa Alice. Cooperativa Alice, located in Milan, Italy, is a sewing supplier organization that hires women in vulnerable positions. The Cooperative specifically works with incarcerated women, formerly incarcerated women, women facing extreme economic instability, and women who have experienced abuse. The cooperative’s purpose is to give opportunities and to lift up women who have been robbed of their dignity.
Cooperativa Alice (credit of Mosaic students).
A view of the working room at Cooperativa Alice (credit of Mosaic students).
While society typically undervalues seamstress jobs, Cooperativa actively works against this in order to give their workers 
the dignity they deserve for their hard work. Cooperativa Alice works for high-end Italian luxury brands such as Armani (see the picture on the right) and Chloe. The director Caterina Micolano assured us that they reject unethical commissions that don’t guarantee fair wages and flexible work practices. Their brand’s motto “behind every item is a human” is extremely representative of their values towards human sustainability, all to make certain that workers are valued as people and not just commodities.
The director of Cooperativa Alice, Caterina Micolano, stays true to the establishment’s core values of workers’ rights, and, in her words, “human sustainability.” It was astonishing to see in practice the establishment’s efforts to respect human capacity, to recognize the strenuous labor that goes into making products, and to cherish human dignity. I thought it was extremely powerful that they were offering a space of dignity for women who would typically be rejected and ignored. Regardless of the womens’ past mistakes or circumstances, the workers are now able to have economic stability and safety in their own lives. It was really a beautiful and reassuring moment that made me and my peers hopeful for a better future filled with empathy and respect for everyone.
In the picture, one of Cooperative Alice seamstresses at work (credit of Mosaic students).