This morning the group took the tram over toward the Sforseco Castello, and took a couple group photos before arriving at the Lineapelle presentation. Here we were introduced to the Lineapelle leather library. This is an open source leather collection accessible to the public to inspire Italian fashion designers. The room in which the presentation took place hosted this library of leathers, but the library is also completely digitalized and accessibke online!

We learned about Lineapelle’s place in the UNIC Concerie Italiane, a group representative of the Italian leather industry. UNIC represents around twenty percent of the global leather industry. They contain forty thousand companies, employing more than five hundred thousand workers! The industry has a turnover around fifty billion euros, but must import ninety percent of the materials that they use! After a showing of the many types of different leather, including tips on how to identify fake exotic leathers, the group was able to explore the collection.

Afterwards we walked back to the Castello for food at the Alpine festival! The food was delicious!

After lunch, the group took public transit to the Milan Fashion Library. The library hosts a massive collection of fashion magazines going back to the 18th century! They collect magazines, books, and other objects to use as references to past trends and publications dedicated to the fashion industry. The library has been around for just over a decade, but hosts a very large collection of over 70000 items!