Milan honours last woman to spin silk from mussels’ beards
AN ITALIAN woman who is renowned as the last person in the world able to spin a unique golden “sea silk” from the filaments of a giant mollusc is to be honoured at an awards ceremony in Milan’s La Scala opera house today.
Chiara Vigo single-handedly keeps alive the tradition of making an exquisite, shimmering golden thread out of natural fibres collected from large mussels that grow in the shallows off the coast of her native Sardinia.
The thread, known as “byssus”, is made from the secreted filaments of the Pinna nobilis mussel, a mollusc up to a foot in length that thrives in the island’s pristine, turquoise bays.
The 62-year-old will receive the Artisanal Laureate Award from Livia Firth, the wife of actor Colin Firth and a passionate advocate of sustainability in the fashion industry, at the first Green Carpet Fashion Awards in Milan Fashion Week.
The 11 awards have been touted as the Oscars of the sustainable fashion world and are organised by Mrs Firth, who is Italian, and Italy’s National Chamber of Fashion.
Ms Vigo harvests the world’s rarest thread from the sea, diving in shallow bays to find the filament, a protein that the molluscs secrete to attach themselves to rocks or the seabed.
She weaves her magic in a studio on the island of Sant’Antioco, off the south-western coast of Sardinia, using a spindle to tease out the thread and then soaking it in lemon juice to bring out a golden sheen.
Byssus, which is feather light, is said to have been known to the pharaohs of Egypt and the wealthy of ancient Greece and Rome. She describes it as being “sacred, the soul of the sea”.
“Byssus is the thread that connects man’s soul to water, and water’s soul to man,” she said. “It’s magical, you have the soul of the water in your hand. It’s so light you can’t feel it.”
She believes the golden thread is a potent symbol of Italian craftsmanship. “There is Italian soul in our textile.” Ms Vigo refuses to sell the sea silk, but gives woven items as good luck charms to women who are trying to conceive or to newborns. She learnt the skill from her grandmother, who in turn learnt it from her mother.
“We chose Chiara because she is the epitome of true artisanship,” Mrs Firth, the founder of Eco-Age, a consultancy that advises fashion brands how to increase their environmental sustainability, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“She is the guardian of techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation. She’s quite a character and she chants to the sea, almost like a shaman.”
She added: “In the last 20 years, with the advent of fast fashion, everything has become disposable. We have completely lost touch with where fashion comes from and who makes it.”
Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian model, will receive an Eco Laureate award in recognition of her promotion of environmental causes.
‘Byssus is the thread that connects man’s soul to water, and water’s soul to man. It’s magical, you have the soul of the water in your hand’