In the renovated Ratti archive, textile materials and digital innovation find a new space in which to co-exist on the more than 750 square metres added to the previous facility.
Walking through the aisles and browsing through the 600,000 fabrics, rather than leafing through the 15,000 volumes ranging from paper patterns to precious photographic books arranged along the 6 double shelves that extend for 20 metres, is a way to explore the world of fashion and design of the last 100 years.
In the renovated Ratti archive, traditional and new materials intermingle, crossing boundaries and being used in unexpected ways and, thanks to new technological advances, enabling designs to acquire an allure and to offer increasingly high-performance solutions. Weft and warp disappear leaving room for fabrics and prints that are the result of a tradition and a wealth of experience that are only to be found in Ratti. Thanks, then, to its complete digitisation, two styles and ways of utilising of this space can be preceived: on the one hand fabric as a finished product, the onging fruit of research, experimentation and investment, and on the other hand, fabric as a living and integral part with the world of fashion, design, architecture and art.
