Looming disaster: one of Switzerland’s last weaving mills faces closure
The Valposchiavo Weaving Mill, one of the last craft weaving businesses in Switzerland, is on its last legs – just as regional traditions are coming back into fashion and the sustainable development of textile production is growing in Europe.
“It makes no sense to keep on like this. We don’t want to prolong the agony of Valposchiavo Weaving Mill,” declare Adriana Zanoli and Kaspar Howald, two members of the committee which took over the reins of the cooperative in Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, in 2021 in an attempt to redress its fortunes. In January they gave up the attempt. This was a decision long pondered, though it has caused widespread dismay in the Italian-speaking Alpine valley.
“The trouble with the weaving mill is structural,” explains Howald, the chair of the group. “It’s too small to have a professional management concerned with producing the goods for sale and marketing them. Without that, however, there can be no growth and it will just keep teetering on the verge of closure.”
For years, in fact, the weaving mill has been in the red, and all its financial reserves, used to make up for deficits, are just about exhausted. To steer clear of bankruptcy, the committee has proposed to the members of the co-op to start closing down the business in stages. It looks like getting the Valposchiavo Weaving Mill back on its feet would take nothing short of a miracle.
‘Angels of the fireside’
The Valposchiavo Weaving Mill started as a cooperative in 1955 on the initiative of the Poschiavo branch of Pro Grigioni Italiano (PGI), the Italian-speaking community organisation in Graubünden.
It had two main goals. On the one hand, it was to do something about the issue of emigration. It would offer an alternative to young women who otherwise had to leave the valley to look for work in the German-speaking part of the country to the north. On the other hand, the PGI wanted to keep up the tradition of hand-weaving, which was slowly dying out. For that reason, as well as the workshop and the sales outlet, they opened a trade school. Since it was founded, this training arm has given some 20 apprentices the opportunity to qualify for the Swiss federal diploma in textile design.
In an interview published in the Almanacco del Grigioni italianoExternal link, Letizia Pedrussio-Gisep, who was head of the school for over 40 years, said that in addition to those stated aims, the weaving mill had a further goal: to keep the young women in the valley so they could marry local farmers, start a family and become “the angel of the fireside” who would weave during the long winters.
Despite all the efforts, the population drain to Swiss economic centres has never really stopped. But the textile art was preserved and promoted. Along with the TessandaExternal link in Val Müstair, Valposchiavo Weaving Mill is one of the last professional craft weaving firms in Switzerland. For upwards of 70 years it has promoted the local cultural heritage. It has produced niche products using natural materials such as silk, wool, cotton, cashmere, linen and hemp.
Flax-growing has a long tradition in Switzerland. According to the Historical Dictionary of SwitzerlandExternal link, the plant was cultivated in the Neolithic period. It was then spun and woven for linen production. With the decline in use of the fibres and the arrival of cotton, flax-growing quickly lost its importance in the 1950s. An initiative in Val MüstairExternal link is now reviving the flax-growing tradition. Since 2021, two local farmers have been sowing flax seeds, and in October 2023, the first flax fibres were harvested and spun into yarn.
After overcoming several crises and striking a balance between customer demand and profitability in small-scale production, the Valposchiavo Weaving Mill is now facing closure at the very moment when textile production in Europe and particularly in the Alpine region is enjoying a revival.
“This would be a terrible cultural loss,” says Cordula Seger, head of the Graubünden Institute for Cultural ResearchExternal link, who recalls that in 2023 hand-weaving was recognised as one of the living traditions of the cantonExternal link. “If we fail to keep up our traditions, we lose the connection to our history and our identity, breaking a precious link with our past that has existed from generation to generation.”
Diego Rinallo, associate professor of marketing at Emlyon Business School in France, points to another basic aspect. “This kind of traditional craft is a matter of manual skill and learning by doing, which would be almost impossible to document on paper,” he says. “This is know-how that could just disappear.”
Think global, act local?
Not far as the crow flies, the Tessanda in Santa MariaExternal link, Val Müstair, the oldest weaving mill in Switzerland, founded in 1928, has had its times of crisis too. Since 2019, with the help of a marketing expert from Zurich, it has embraced a change of strategy. Currently the Tessanda employs 18 people and to mark its upcoming centenary it is going to move into new premises designed by famous Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
The firm racked up another success in January, when its “Marius” barbecuing apron won a gold medal at the European Textile & Craft Awards 2024External link.
“Since 2000 there has been a growing awareness of the regional product, including in the textile sector,” says Rinallo, who heads the Lifestyle Research Center at Emlyon Business School. He believes that for some groups in society there is a paradigm shift going on in reaction to fast fashion and the throwaway culture.
“We’re seeing a greater demand for regional products,” Seger agrees. “Some people feel disoriented by globalisation and are trying to find themselves again, such as in their cultural heritage.”
According to Rinallo, anyone who buys a five-franc T-shirt has to be aware that they are contributing to a chain of human exploitation and environmental destruction. Yet craft products are not within the economic reach of every buyer. Marketing these requires identifying particular consumer segments mostly found in the major urban centres.
“The difference in price can be justified only by revealing the process of creation,” says Rinallo. “For example, the Tessanda apron comes with authentic stories of passion, tradition and age-old knowledge.” Besides, the origin of these products in the Alpine region evokes a very positive and reassuring feeling in people, associated with closeness to nature and wellbeing – and of cows grazing contentedly in lovely landscapes.
Refounding the textile industry
Those grazing herds were the inspiration for the AlpTextylesExternal link project, which aims to promote the cultural heritage of textiles in the Alps and revive the woollen business.
Started in November 2022 as an offshoot of the Interreg Alpine Space programme, the project gets European, federal and cantonal funding and brings together 12 partner organisations. Among these are trade associations, representing the textile industry, public-sector agencies, research centres, universities, museums and local governments in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, France and Slovenia.
“The Alpine cultural heritage has a key role in re-establishing the value chains in textiles, which were disrupted by globalisation,” explains Cassiano Luminati, head of the Polo Poschiavo, a local skills centre which facilitates development projects. “Currently, wool is classified as a ‘special waste’. The aim of AlpTextyles is to revive the woollen business, supporting existing structures, linking them in networks, promoting regional development, circularity, sustainability, innovation and preserving the intangible heritage.”
This project is holding out some hope of survival for the Valposchiavo Weaving Mill. “I often dream of our looms being involved in working for the great European fashion houses, in a perfect union of tradition and innovation,” sighs Adriana Zanoli.
But for a fragile business like the Valposchiavo Weaving Mill, time for dreaming is running out. Concrete practical solutions are needed in the short term. Otherwise the age-old harmonious dance between the weaver and the loom, characterised by rhythmic movements of bare feet on the treadles, vigorous strokes with the comb and quick movements of the shuttle between the threads of warp and weft is likely to come to an end in the Poschiavo Valley, this time for good.
Edited by Daniele Mariani. Adapted from Italian by Terence MacNamee/ts
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