When we talk about fashion, the picture looks familiar: glossy runways, luxury collections, “sustainable” capsules. Shift the angle slightly, and a different reality comes into focus. That’s the choice Anna Fiscale made in 2013, in her twenties, when she founded Progetto Quid.
We are inside Quid’s production workshop in Verona. At a machine edging leather bags sits Bouchra, who arrived from Morocco with experience in fashion, none in leather goods, and no Italian. Here she has learned a new craft and built long-term relationships.
There is Giovanni, who at Quid has found what many look for: the chance to grow professionally without giving up his passions outside of work. And then there are faces, hands, smiles. Faces with complex stories. Hands moving confidently across the fabric. Smiles from people who, in that workshop, feel they truly belong.
What the system calls “waste” becomes a resource.
“Giving new life to people and fabrics” is not a slogan. It is how Quid operates.
Textile leftovers from other companies become high-quality raw material, available at lower cost. People pushed to the margins become trained professionals, with contracts and a horizon to work toward. The result is a supply chain that combines upcycling, design and ethically Made in Italy manufacturing – and, above all, a different idea of value: here, what the system discards is where everything starts.
Walking between the tall shelves of the fabric warehouse and the narrow aisles of the leather stockroom, it becomes clear that this is not just the story of a business model.
It is the story of a shift in perspective that changes everything it touches: the world of work, the fashion industry, and the lives of the people inside both.