Lister - Sartoria Sociale

Thursday,30th January we were at Lister. Lister is a social tailoring that uses recycled materials to give them a second life and create new objects and gadgets with them. Lister is located on a hill in San Giovanni, a district of Trieste and on that hill, some years ago there was an hospital to help people with mental illness. Thanks to psychiatrist Basaglia the mental hospital was closed and these patients changed their habits, they started living in society. Lister was founded in 2009. 

We interviewed a girl who works there who through our questions gave us great insight knowledge.

Here's the transcript of the interview.

A-What was the original idea?

B- The original idea was to give people, who were once

hospitalized inside of the mental hospital, the chance to have something to do which was

creative and that made it possible to be together with other people and have relationships and

these other connections that otherwise it would be hard for them since before they were not

able to do anything because they were interned in the hospital.

A-Which are the main material used here?

B-We use mostly the fabric coming from umbrellas, the PVC banners,the denim fabric coming

from the trousers, also the fox leather, and the fabric of any kind coming from clothing,

accessories such as ties and shirts and this fabrics.

A-Is Lister a local company?

B-Yes, it was born here. The reason why we are trying to keep it alive is because it's very

important and it connects all the local community because people coming here and in their

clothing and their materials make possible to create connections between all them.

A-Lister helps the kids that have a difficult situation...

B-We work mostly with adults because one of our main aim is to include people coming from

disadvantaged areas to the working reality so with kids, what we do sometimes are mostly

workshops.

A-Is LISTER eco-sustainable?

B-Yes because We try to be as that as possible. We try to upcycle all the materials. We try to

be as ecosustainable as possible.

A-Who was the founder?

B-The founder were three people because at the beginning, there

were different laboratories. When they started connecting with each other and starting

organizing different events all together, then the idea of make it as a cooperative was born.

These three people are Carla, who is one of our colleagues, Pino, who was our man who was

working here during the art laboratories.

Poman who was working here during the art laboratories, another or more.

A-How many people work here?

B-We are nine people as employees and more, six people, more or less, who are here with

the internships or other projects for including them in our reality.

A-What is the thing that you sell most?

B-We sell mostly our backpacks because they are very representative

of our work and the fact that everything is the same from outside, but very different from the

inside.

A-What is the thing that you fabric the most?

B-We make mostly the small products that are the fastest things that

we can make and also the things that we can. We are able to make using the scrubs of the

backpacks that are the ones that we sell the most.

A-What are the different jobs here?

B-There are not very segmented roles here because everybody makes most of the things.

But for sure, there are some people who already worked in the field of the tailoring for many

years. So teach us to make many different things, and they are the ones who product the most.