From September 13 to 15, thanks to economic contribution of European Union within the framework of ELM! Project - Local Excellence for international Markets, SAN LEUCIO textile art innovation took place at the monumental site of the Belvedere of San Leucio (Caserta), declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.

Unione lndustriali della Provincia di Caserta, the organizer of the event, is looking forward to future editions in Italy and abroad. SAN LEUCIO textile art innovation was a business to business event for international market of furnishing and clothing market.

This first demonstrative exhibition of 20 companies from Regione Campania was successfully attented by 200 international textile buyers, with 184 selected Italian and foreign operators came to San Leucio.

San Leucio’s silk represents a reference point for high-end interior design market: villas, palaces, embassies, big hotels, luxury liners. Nowadays, markets are France, Germany, United Kingdom, USA, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. These markets need to be consolidated, adding China and South America.

On September 13, some eighteenth-century restored looms and ancient weaving instruments were exhibited. It was the first nucleus of a Silk Museum which will be completed next year. Some skilled local weavers, while working on these wooden machines, explaned the working process of those machines.

A Foundation to permanently support San Leucio’s silk and manage the newly opened Silk Museum and organize new weavers’ training  is also proposed by the organizers. In the same halls of San Leucio, Giulio Bulfoni’s photos Fibre forti (strong fibres) were on exhibition; this photographer is able to match the concepts of both technique and humanity thanks to a unique evocative power.

During the party in the wonderful Cortile dei Serici (silk workers courtyard) of the Belvedere, important honour guests joined the operators and journalists to see the fashion exhibition by the Neapolitan stylist Bencivenga, whose models wore also San Leucio’s silk-made dresses.

A topical moment was the presentation of the origin trademark Silk Quality, whose logo was signed by six entrepreneurs of the area, during the evening. On September 14 in the evening, organizers and entrepreneurs cruised in the Gulf of Neaples to discuss and organize promotional and commercial businesses which will be effective in the next months.