Women in Milan jail want a break -- into fashion

Sixty year old Paola Mazzini is no celebrity designer. But after more than a decade in jail, the drugs convict and a dozen fellow prisoners are looking to break into the world of glamour by launching their own clothing brand.

 

The inmates at Milan's San Vittore prison have learned tailoring skills from a local cooperative that aims to help women behind bars, and have already made costumes for theatre and television as well as flowing dresses and long-sleeved shirts for small shops.

 

Having transformed the stereotype of the jailbird sewing sacks, they are now going it alone.

 

"I didn't know how to do this before," said Mazzini, who is due to leave jail next year. She carefully snipped across a drape of soft white cloth for a shirt. "Now I'm dedicating myself to tailoring."

 

The rows of clothes and cardboard cut-outs hanging from the walls at San Vittore could be part of any tailor's workshop. Only the occasional entrance of a prison guard sets the workplace apart.

 

The scheme aims partly to help women acquire skills for life outside prison, but their work has also already been used in costumes for Milan's La Scala opera house and small accessories for soccer team Inter Milan.

 

One of the prisoners' clients even has a boutique on Milan's exclusive Montenapoleone street, and they have mounted a prison fashion show where guards and an invited audience watched models strutting past in their designs.

 

"Next time, we will present clothes from our brand," said Alessandro Brevi, head of the Milan-based Cooperativa Alice, which runs the project and has as operated for some 15 years in the city's jails.

 

So far, the inmates' only independent venture has been a line of T-shirts under the 'Jail Cats' brand with a motif of cats or prison bars, sold in libraries or at the cooperative's headquarters.

 

The new line has the backing of Italian designer Anna Molinari of Blumarine and will be named later this year.

 

"First we need to have a name, eventually we will work with Anna Molinari to see what will our collection will be. We hope we will be able to market it by next spring, even before if possible," Brevi said.

 

"We are thinking of a small collection of clothes. We will work mainly on women's clothes."

 

With Italy's clothing and textile sector only just rebounding from a beating by global rivals, the launch of a new brand will be a challenge.

 

"The problem is distribution," Brevi said, adding that he would like the cooperative to have a shop although it is working on a Web site to sell its products.

 

For the inmates, some of whom also have chores in the prison kitchen, the launch is an exciting prospect.

 

"It's a joy that we can do it," said 23 year-old Fedua from Morocco. "The launch of the brand is important -- it will show what we are capable of."

 

 

"Sewing machines used to scare me. I've learned how to make shirts, trousers, dresses. I prefer making shorts, as they're easy," she said. She hopes to make a wedding dress one day.