A Special Lunch Break with Needle and Thread at State Street Bank

The employees of the American bank State Street Bank International GmbH – Milan Branch spent a special hour experiencing an activity that combined creativity and tailoring directly in their offices.... 

A tailoring experience outside the workshop…

On Wednesday, March 25, we packed embroidery needles, thread, pieces of fabric, and a household sewing machine and went to the headquarters of the American bank State Street near Central Station to share a tailoring and embroidery experience with some employees. We asked them to bring a garment they had in their closet to transform it and make it unique using simple but highly satisfying tailoring techniques. Some brought socks, others a T-shirt, but the goal was the same: to transform their garment with creativity and imagination into something personalized.

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Tailoring education in different contexts…

Over the years, Spazio 3R's educational offerings have become increasingly broad and progressively more specialized. In addition to sewing courses for women in vulnerable situations, workshops open to everyone have been added. These can be sewing activities for schools, but also, as in this case, for companies. The beauty of the tailoring profession is precisely this: it is a thread that connects all generations, and the activities can be designed to fit specific needs.

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Making something unique with just a few gestures...

State Street, for example, contacted us with a specific purpose: it wanted to provide its employees with a creative experience directly in the workplace. An opportunity to teach them how, with just a few simple gestures, it is possible to make something unique. Many of the participants did not know how to sew; perhaps they had seen their parents do it in the past, without ever trying it themselves. Together with Halima, our tailor, they discovered that only a few steps are needed to learn how to use a needle. Some personalized a fabric handkerchief with their initials, others decorated socks for their daughters, and still others created a coin purse for the office using leftover fabric scraps.

When the workshop ended and after having lunch together, everyone returned to their desks. But in the offices, along with the products that had been created, a practical awareness was born: regeneration is not an abstract concept, but the result of a concrete action that combines care for materials and relationships between people.