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“We’ve created fashion and knitwear that nobody ever thought of before”. Carpi, our city, has been a point of reference for the textile industry in Italy and all over the world. In the industrial district of Carpi, the manufacturing history is presented from the sixteenth century. In those times Carpi traded straw hats and semi-finished products. In the seventies of the twentieth century the economic life of Carpi was governed by agricultural and craft work, every family of Carpi had a knitting machine and almost all the women worked there. Carpi during the 90’s had about 3500 companies in the textile industry, nevertheless there are very few left today. Unfortunately Carpi has lost its importance in this field because there are few outstanding companies, like Liu Jo and Denny Rose. During the 60’s our city was known as the city of knitwear, now instead as the city of wine. Nowadays in Italy there are other areas that have taken the place of Carpi, for example Veneto, Tuscany, Campania and Marche. In fact Naples today is considered as important as Carpi during the 90’s. The only accessory industry left here is Ulisse Fashion Arts Details, which tries to keep the name of this city high. But why was this company born? Recently we had the opportunity to visit this industry and there we could listen to Ulisse Enrico Ferrari himself telling about the story of his own company. Ulisse was fired when he was only twenty-four in 1984, so the following year he decided to open a new company. The first order were shoulder pads and from this point the sales increased. Today the company has 13 employees plus some trusted collaborators that have been working with them for forty years. For this reason Ulisse forms part of small and medium-sized enterprises (10-49 employees , see static image number one). In this section of the article we want to share some relevant data. During our visit to the company we found out how they invested the money and cohesion funds. Carpi’s fashion broke into overseas markets was the goal that Ulisse wanted to achieve. They registered for a European call to access the funds needed to invest in the expansion of the company abroad with direction, in particular, towards USA, GERMANY and FRANCE. The monitored public cost amounts to €16.810,09 while private resources are equal to €48.022. The funds received and the private ones have been mainly used in the international fairs. Ulisse participated in several fairs: two of the most important are the "Munich fabric start" fair in Munich, where they participated in 2017 and "Mont Fashion" fair in Paris in 2022. What can we notice comparing them? We can say that with fewer visitors they received proportionately more requests for sampling than with a larger number of them; this means that people liked them more and became more "famous" (see the dynamic image). Additionally, these investments have been useful in order to improve the relationship of the company with young people. However, with this funding they have not expanded their sector: the main one remains that of fashion because often those who sought collaboration had ulterior motives and therefore they did not accept the offers. Thanks to the funds, the objectives set have been achieved, although not completely because of the pandemic. In knitting there was a fall above the national average and a rapid rebound since some companies (only 1/4) have recovered the levels of 2019. District of Carpi in the year of the covid (2020) has had a variation of the percentage of the -22.6 while in 2021 there has been a resumption of the percentage of the turnover of +21.3 . With note difference from 2019 to 2021 of -6.1 . Exports in 2022 in the province of Modena fell below average (municipality of Carpi data’s). "Crises serve to innovate oneself", Ulisse Enrico Ferrari. The observatory of the textile field apparel in the district of Carpi has characterised some general aspects; they can be divided into critical aspects and qualifying aspects. The first ones discuss the strong downsizing of the manufacturing base, which is a very big problem as we said before and this also affects Ulissse because they have lost customers. The other critical aspect is about the low propensity to export, but this is not a problem of the Ulisse industry, in fact Ulisse has no competition, all other companies try to copy it, but with bad results. The second ones are focused on the high creative capacity, the quality of production, which is 100% made in Italy (the 100% made in Italy production continues to characterise micro and small enterprises and knitwear. The companies composed of 1 to 9 employees who produce made in Italy are 94.7%, the companies from 10 to 49 employees are 77.6%, finally the companies from 50 and over employees are 24.8%, see the static images number one). For this reason the role of micro and small enterprises is very important in the supply chain and finally the attraction of external customers to the district for the production of quality knitwear and knitted fabrics. These are all qualities that can be attributed to the company. All the accessories are the fruit of the creativity of the employees. During the last years, as the observatory of the textile noticed the industries of this field share a goal, which is try to use eco sustainable products, the company has already started a sustainable policy and uses green and recycled materials; their first act of eco-sustainability was in 2007 when they built a depot powered by photovoltaic panels. The final undertakings that have received a request for the use of eco-friendly materials are in Italy 26.5% and abroad 32.1%; while the subcontractors are in Italy 26.1% and abroad 30.3% (see the static images number one). Thanks to the visit to Ulisse’s company we had the possibility to have the answers to our questions. In conclusion, like Ulisse said to us, "Our motto is to continue to believe and continue to invest in this dream and never give up"; we learned a lot about the importance of following your dreams.
