Brendola, part 1: Volcar Spa, which is not really a spa

One perk of taking an Italian class offered on post is that toward the end of the series you get to go on two different field trips, locations voted on by the class. Our class voted on going to a goat farm to taste and buy cheese, and to a knitwear factory for a tour and some outlet shopping, followed by lunch. Yesterday was the first field trip, to the Volcar Spa knitwear factory in Brendola, about 20 minutes outside of Vicenza. I had exceptionally low expectations for this one, and I wound up having a really fantastic day!

We agreed to meet on post in the Commissary parking lot at 0900, and in order to do that I caught the 0815 bus from my house. One of my classmates saw me walking and gave me a lift, which was a nice way to start the day. After counting heads, organizing carpools, and determining the route, our caravan departed for the town of Brendola. For the most part it was an easy trip, but Italian traffic gave us some nerve-wracking moments and I was very glad to be a passenger. I realized the knitwear factory is fairly close to Le Pignole Winery, which is one of my favorites not only for the wine but for its great views of the hillside. Volcar is tucked into a residential area, near the end of a street that backs up onto a hill. Once we parked all the cars and gathered in the lot, our Italian instructor pointed out some castle ruins on the hill behind us and said we'd get a better view of it from our lunch spot.(This later proved to be true, and I'll have some scenic pictures in part 2 of this post.)

In Italy, a true outlet is not what we think of in the States, a block of maybe-discount fine goods and luxury stores in a remote location. While you can find these malls, they may not really have any good deals and often cater to tourists. Traditionally, an outlet is a room attached to a factory where you can buy the goods they produce at a discounted price. These might be prototypes, flawed items, or goods from a previous year. ANYWAY, Volcar subscribes to this way of thinking and we first walked into the shop. There was a ten Euro bin, a 20 Euro shelf, a 40 Euro shelf, three 30% discount racks, and some other racks with dresses and sweaters. We had a good time digging through the bins and poking through the clothing. Volcar produces clothing for such designers as Pucci, Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, Chloe, and more. The outlet isn't allowed to sell clothing with those labels on it, but when you purchase an item you can ask who designed it and they'll tell you. So really you can get designer items at steep discounts because they don't have the label. I tried on a cute dress that still had a Valentino label on it (oops) but even at the reduced price I decided I didn't want to splurge for it. I did, however, find a fantastic purple cashmere scarf. Score!

Once we'd had our fill of rummaging through the outlet clothes, we started our tour of the factory. Our guide spoke very good English and explained we were free to take pictures of the workers and supplies, but not of the clothing or designs. The reason for this is that some of the clothing currently in production are prototypes, or are part of 2015 and 2016 fall and spring lines, and haven't been released to the public yet. Our first glimpse was of some automated machines that I can only assume were doing the actual knitting. Behind that were some more machines with people manning them; these ladies were working on more complicated patterns. There were also spools and spools and spools and spools of thread everywhere, in just about every color imaginable. The factory wasn't as loud as I thought it might be, but it was still difficult to hear my tour guide for the first few minutes, as I got stuck in the back of the group because I stopped every couple of feet to take pictures.

Knitting

We got to go into one of the design shops and look at some of the designs in use, and I saw some cool sketches on the worktable. There were also dozens and dozens of patterns hanging from a rack, and a few sketchbooks, and another rack full of garments. Our guide pulled out a black and white knit Dior (I think) sweater that went down the runway, and showed us some of the special work done to fit it to the model. For example, the elbows were puckered and there were basically invisible darts around the bust. He showed us how the blacks and whites matched up to ensure continuity of the striping, and explained that was done by hand in a very time-consuming and painstaking manner. We also saw some impossible thin strands of shimmery, glimmery thread that don't really show up in normal lighting but are used to call attention to garment highlights under the runway lights. Later, we saw more thread samples, some of them experimental, with plasticky or wax paper feeling to it. (Apparently there's a young up-and-coming Japanese designer who is using those.) We saw thread with sequins already sewn in, too. As we continued our tour through the factory, our guide showed us a few more couture pieces, and the detail work was amazing. He was quite pleased to show us a few pictures of models going down the runway wearing their clothing, as well.

Runway clothing produced at Volcar.

The next stop on our tour was a workroom where they were apparently making a ballgown. I couldn't see much, but everybody else said it was beautiful. Moving on.

Attaching sleeve and collar to a sweater

Manual pressing for details

1 of 3 presses, all different

Our next stop was in the workroom where laborers (knitters? seamstresses?) were stitching together various components of garments. We got a close look of a lady attaching a sleeve and collar to a sweater. It was a round kind of machine with spokes on it, onto which the lady had to slide each individual stitch for the two pieces, and then stitch them together. There are two short videos on my Facebook page, if you want to check them out. I gained a new appreciation for handmade clothing here. From this stop we could also see a table full of people (three women and one man) sewing details onto pieces, and three more ladies ironing clothing. We turned a corner and had a brief stop to look at the industrial presses. Needless to say, it was quite warm in this corner of the factory! There were three big presses, and after each garment is ironed it goes to ladies who do the finishing detail presses before the clothes are bagged for shipping. Each piece goes in its own giant Ziploc-style bag. I know this is a little out of order, but I'm writing about it in the order we took the tour, not necessarily the order in which the clothes are made. After we looked at the presses, we saw a lady pulling sweaters onto these two cones that looked like upside-down mannequin legs. Well heck, for all I know that's what they were, but importantly, these mannequin legs lit up, like conical light boards, for someone to examine clothing for flaws. Each stitch is clearly illuminated, and every single garment is individually inspected for quality control purposes.

Mannequin legs! Just kidding, this is quality control at its finest

Here we took another stop to look at some clothing, including a GORGEOUS Oscar de la Renta dress that looks like it was embroidered on directly. We also saw a really neat sweater that looked like an old-school sweatshirt made of denim. It had a pocket-shape on the front, but no actual pocket, and had an ombre fade look to it. We learned this affect was achieved via an enzyme bath. Our guide also showed us a red sweater that was cableknit on the front and very plain on the back. It was designed by some young British dude who is experimenting with new styles in knitting - the bottom sections of the cableknit were sort of distressed - gaps with only horizontal threads, for example, to make it look hole-y. It's hard to describe and I couldn't take a picture, but it was a neat combination of what you might see on a traditional Irish wool sweater and urban underground streetwear. He also explained the packaging process to us, and showed us bins full of clothing ready to be sent out to distributors. The owner of the shop came out to say hello, our guide answered a few questions, and then we were off to the next part of the day's adventure...