Craft Happening in Funchal: A Handmade Tribute to Armani.

Every year, the average European buys around 19 kilos of clothes — basically a suitcase full of “new collections” that often get worn once, maybe twice, before disappearing into the closet abyss. Fashion is beautiful, yes, but it also comes with a price: around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and enough water consumption to make even the most luxurious runway look a little less shiny.

That’s the messy backdrop against which ARTE.M – Artistic and Cultural Association of Madeira, together with Art Center Caravel and ARTHub Madeira, launched a new chapter. Back in 2023, the project ReColor Anti-Vogue already dared to question fast fashion.

Two years later, with the support of Creative Europe, we went further: Craft Happening in Funchal, a wild meeting of about 50 locals and six international crafters (from Poland, Ukraine, the UK and Italy), all teaming up with fashion designers to make something unforgettable.

Three Stages, One Collective Sculpture

The Happening wasn’t a catwalk. It was a three-act improvisation:

Synesthetic Textile Painting – led by Italian-British artist BSP and Ukrainian crafter Tetiana, where colours quite literally followed the rhythm of music. The point wasn’t just to give old fabrics a second life, but to sink into a meditative, art-therapeutic flow: painting without overthinking, letting the brush dance as the music played. What emerged felt like magic — fragments of fabric turned into landscapes of emotion, carrying both memory and renewal. Imagine a fabric rave, but slower, softer, and strangely healing.

Collaborative Embroidery – guided by Polish rebel Zofia Lisowska -Clandestina.art and Portuguese activist Joana Martins, founder of Artes d’Elfa. Needle by needle, poetry stitched itself into cloth. This stage carried more than just thread — it echoed the old Madeiran serões, the evening gatherings where people would exchange news, jokes, and of course a fair share of gossip, while dreaming about the future. It was cultural heritage revisited, but in a contemporary key: the hum of voices, the rhythm of stitches, and the collective act of turning conversation into fabric.

The Final Sculpture – brought to life by British designer Nathan Slate (who has dressed Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Naomi Campbell…) and Madeiran talent Diana Quintal, founder of D\Backyard, finalist at Portugal Fashion and already spotted by Vogue Italia.

The outcome? A sculpture born from scraps, textures and many hands. Not golden or polished, but alive — and carrying a special dedication. A Playful Tribute to Armani

This wasn’t about monuments or marble busts. Instead, we stitched, painted and embroidered our way into a piece that became both a sustainable manifesto and a tribute to Giorgio Armani. A wink and a bow: because even legends of fashion deserve a memory made not by machines, but by the collective rhythm of hands.

“This creation is both a tribute to individuality in fashion, as Armani understood it, and a reminder of the urgent challenges of the textile industry — waste, excess, and the need for a new way of looking at what we wear.”

Materials with History

Nothing brand new here. The fabrics came from our Craft Swap Party, organised with the Madeira Friends community, plus donations from participants and the second-hand shop Estimei. Every thread already lived another life before becoming part of the sculpture. Sustainability was not a slogan — it was literally in the seams.

Beyond the Object

Craft Happening was also about the community. About swapping clothes instead of buying more, about laughing while learning embroidery, about watching “trash” become art. It was about proving that fashion doesn’t always need a runway; sometimes it needs scissors, recycled textiles, and a lot of coffee.

And yes — about remembering that craft can be fun, political, and even glamorous, all at once.

What Comes Next

The final sculpture will be unveiled at the exhibition “Islands 2025. Memories”, opening on 24 October at Art Center Caravel in Funchal. From there, it will join the international collection of CraftWork4.0 All, as proof that art, craft and fashion can walk the same path — one that is creative, sustainable, and sometimes just a little bit cheeky.

Because memory, like craft, is stitched together. And sometimes the best way to honour fashion is with a needle, a brush, and fifty pairs of inspired hands.