Nicoletta: Do you want me to tell you the history since the beginning?  Really, Really beginning? 

Interviewer: First can you introduce yourself and then yes, any history yes, everything. 

N: Okay. So my name is Nicoletta Piazza. I was a.. I studied to be a fashion designer. I wanted to be a fashion designer since I was 11 years old. Fortunately, because, I mean I have clear ideas, no? Then I was in Polimoda and then I started [...] working as a freelancer. I worked for almost two years in a company and then I was a freelancer. 

Then after my first baby was born, I used to work a lot with India. So I thought that instead of being a freelancer traveling every week around Italy, I thought maybe it was easier to stay two months in Italy and two months in India with my baby. 

So, I started this business with India that I ran for maybe 15 years. I was in the middle between Italian clients and Indian suppliers, but also I did a lot of research for fabric applications, embroidery, like that. So I used to make very high [quality] products. Then along with my husband, we got a house on the top of the mountain and we restored all the Eneco building and we started producing organic food. So fashion and [organic production] was not really matching. I was kind of bipolar for many years, because maybe I had an appointment with Trussardi and then in the morning I left the house to go to Trussardi in a silk dress. And then when I went out of the house, I discovered that maybe the chickens were out of the fence. So I would have to take off the silk dress, get the chickens [...] like that. 

So after some years of this bipolarism I decided to quit. Before Covid we closed this buying office and I decided to stay in the house and be the farmer [...] in fact when I to my IED students I say like [...] “then, I was a farmer,” they laugh [...] and I say, no it’s better if you don’t laugh because after so many years of fashion design, you want to be a farmer. It’s necessary. [laughs] Then, with my [...] husband the things went like so-and-so. So me and two of my [...] children stayed one year in India in this [...] community in South of India. 

We lived there for one year. And there I was [...] a social worker. So when we came back, we decided to separate with my husband and I moved. I moved [for] one year away from the old house because I went to live with a friend, in a place in Verona where I didn’t know anyone, just this friend. But also, I didn’t know how to survive. In the beginning I was a cook [...]  I used to organize India dinners. So I was a cook, I was a farmer. So that was my [...] thing in that moment. 

But when I reached this place, [that is called] Cavaion, near Garda Lake, I heard about this priest who gives house to the people who don’t have houses, especially immigrants [...] that for them it is very difficult to have a rent, okay. For people to give them a rent even if they have work. I mean here, there is some racism. So I heard about this priest and I said “oh, I can help him do something, no?” 

So I called him and I said, “I am Nicoletta, do you remember me?” Because I met him once, once. I said “Now I [am] divorced, I came nearby. So you know I know how to do a lot of things. If you want, you can use me.” [laughs] And he said, “come tomorrow.”

N: “Okay, come tomorrow.” [laughs] So after three hours of speaking, speaking, like [explaining] I did this, this, farmer, jam, kombucha, fermented foods, like this. So after three hours I thought that this priest [would tell me], “ah, yes, help us to make jam or we can make kombucha together,” but after three hours, he said “Do you want to open a social tailor shop?” [laughing] I said [...] Okayyy, Okay! And this, like, suddenly, immediately all of the doors opened. You know when you feel that you are really in the right path, I don’t know, everything [...] happened like this. 

He had this place, it was like a stockroom. So we cleaned this space and we realized how big it was, because before it was full [...] and we restored [...] it. And we brought project[s] and we won every project, every project we brought we won. So, yeah, we started. The first way to start was that we won this project with the Veneto region. So we asked courses for [...] tailor, yeah, tailoring, courses for three months for fragile women, which are them [points]. 

N: Yeah, so we teach fragile women, we give another chance to fragile women to know a job and to re-enter in the work. So, some of them, because we made in one year we made three courses of three months, So from the first courses we already [...] found a job [for] people. Now we have also started to employ the girls here. So now we have five employees… very happy. And the as soon as we became … a lot of the machines, they gave us like a present and some other … I don’t know, everything arrived. And then also we have, because this priest [has] a lot of people who bring clothes, so we have the idea to make vintage markets to also have funds for the tailor shop. 

N: And then in Verona there is a big company, it’s called Quid, projetto quid, which is a branch of Calcedonia [...] Like a kind of branch of Calcedonia that they, they stared like us but of course with friends of Caledonia.

And now it’s a [...] big social company and they have a lot of work, also they have a lot of connections with big brands Dolce & Gabbana, with Kering, and with Calcedonia of course. So I met them and [...] I kept on saying, like, we are starting, I mean we have to consider us like a tailor shop. So one day they called me and said, “are you ready” and I said “yes, sure, I’m ready.” And everybody [here] was like, “who is this lady, we are not ready.!”

N: “Sure, sure, we are ready!” So we had the first order of 1500 pieces of a [headband]. Very difficult. Like a Nasa engineer. So they were like, “we can not do it, we can not do it!” We did it. 

And after we got 10,000 scrunchies. The first 10,000, we did it. The the second, 10,000 scrunchies, Now we got bags and also we got a work for packing [...] because they asked “do you have something for girls that [...] can not stay in the machine but that can pack.”

N: And I said “yes.” So we are now making also packing, and what else. And then we have these small jobs like [...] adjusting or we are not creating some creating some project that we want to make in some markets or that we want to sell too because we are near garda lake and its a very touristy place. So we want to make some work with these hotels or make agrotourism [...]. So, and another thing. 

And also we have this [shows sleeping bag]... we have projected, because this priest is known [to] give [housing] to people that don’t have house[s]. But sometimes there is a lot of problem of houses, there are not enough, Okay. And in Verona, even if Verona is a rich city, there are a lot of people that sleep outside. So, we have created this piece we called “Angelo.” And Angelo is like a house [...] is a jacket. Is a jacket that becomes a sleep [...] a sleeping bag. 

Of course it is all with Velcro tape because in [...] can you imagine in the street in the night you cannot handle the zipper. So it’s like this. So you can wear it during the day and in the night you close inside [...] like this.

And for this, we are [...] asking for [...] we are starting a crowdfunding with this platform that is called Ginger club funds [...] something like that. And so yeah. 

And also when you don’t wear it you wear it like this [shows it on the back] Because Goritex, this is Goritex, they gave us 6000 meters of fabric for free. And so yeah, we had this idea. And of course it’s not [...] it's not for them to stay in the streets. But of course we don’t have other chance. And another thing I want to tell you, that, apart from fabrics. Machines, [...] everything you see here, the best thing that came in this project are people. Because we have like 20 volunteers and [...] especially girls, that sounds like men but only when we have to [do more physically demanding work] 

N: The twenty women that come here and give a lot of time for the project is incredible. And every volunteer has [their own] I mean, I wanted that the people are happy, you know, every one of us. So for me it’s very important. Also the volunteer[s] understand which is the [...] field that they prefer. So some come here and help in stitching, some other[s] just in the vintage market, some other[s] just [...] cleaning. You know? Everything. 

N: Some other[s] teaching Italian. So, not even in my dream, the best dream of my life [...] I never thought to create something like this. 

What else do you want to know?

Interviewer: I’m just curious, how do you come into contact with these women? 

N: Through social assistance. [...] Through the priest, because of course the people that stay in the house of the priest are all of them [...] they are fragile families [...] so that and also with the social assistance of the communes [...] and also between them, maybe the immigrants maybe they [...] meet each other in Italian classes, so they speak. 

I: So how many years has this been operating? 

N: Not even one. Not even one! We started in July 2025. Incredible, no? 

And she’s our teacher. She also was a fragile woman that had [...] this skill of stitching, so she opened her own [...] tailor, [...] small tailor company. And she called that SOS, SOS women. Because she employed [also] other fragile women. But she is a little old, so she was tired. 

So when I met her, she was closing and she was sad because she had to close. Because also the invoice, like you have to have this program for the invoices [...] she was like, I’m so tired. So I said, “You come with us.” So now she’s very happy because she started her business but actually she’s here two days, so, soft. And she’s teaching us everything she knows. So it’s very good. 

N: And he is the only man. Solo, solo. I always say, “Ali, are you happy with us?” and he says, 

“Very happy.” 

I: That’s all that matters.

N: [...] He’s from Bangladesh and he was used to stitch[ing] [...] backpacks. Yeah, but then his company burned in a big fire in the center of Dhaka, and so he was without work. And so he decided to go [to] Libya and then Libya [...] came with aboat. And when he arrived here he stayed [...] you know it’s a long process [...] this immigrants [...] it’s so sad. So it was [...] one year and a half that was going through a “casa” [...] it’s in the center where they keep migrants and they stay like 4 or 5 in a room, [...] just they live. But in this process they cannot work [...] so it was one year and a half that he didn’t have [a] job. And at home he has kids [...] and so we met him and we said, “Okay, come.” 

He’s very happy, he works a lot.  Because he say like, “Oh, but in Bangladesh we work 16 hours a day. Here, 10 hours is nothing. I always have to say, “Go home, please, go home. Relax. No? Eat. 

I have to say. I[m] the owner. Drink! 

I: I guess I’m wondering how does the government support newly arrived immigrants? 

N: The government gives money to these cooperative[s]. Like the one we are [...] joined with this company. Because with the priest we are just an association. But to make this job, to pay the people [...] oh, [s]he’s the teacher, Italian teacher. Yeah [...] emotional Italian teacher. Because if now she understand[s] that we are speaking [...] that I am telling you the history of this place she [will] start crying. Yeah, she cry for everything. Yeah [laughs]. 

So when we make presentations she always comes [to] the presentation but if [I ask her] “where do you sit” [and she says] “ah, I’m sitting there.” Ah okay so [blocks face] I cannot see. Because otherwise also I cry, no, so I just [do] the presentation but I cannot see her in the face. Yeah, so, the government help[s] [to] give money to this cooperative that organize[s] this “casa.” 

N: So they take houses and they give [...] like to sleep and food. And it is a place they stay until all the papers [...] like [...] because they have papers for, how do you say, because they run away from war or they run away from [...] 

I: Like refugee papers. 

N: Refugee papers. So [...] or also sometimes they have nothing. But with these people of the cooperative help them to have papers to stay. It’s not enough anyway. It’s not, but it’s something. It’s not enough because you know Italy, in Italy we have a lot of problems, because we are there in the middle of the Mediterranean sea [motions upwards] and it’s there. Like in Lampedusa in Sicily, he arrived in Lampedusa, and then they spread all over Italy. 

I: So how many people are working here now? 

N: Okay, these are the people [employed] who are working. One, two, three, four, and five [...] who’s missing [...] and the fifth come only Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Okay, and then the others are [...] of the course, and then we have [...] two or three that are not employed yet but because this packing work is something that maybe we make just now and we are not proceeding after. So right now they have [...] occasional work. We have like a small contract of occasional work. That is something that to start they become […] a fixed worker, we will employ. Because occasional work you can just make for [sporadic periods], like you cannot make two months of occasional work, you just like [...] one week and maybe another one week [...] like this. 

I: So what are you most proud of about this collaborative? Or what brings you the most joy about this project? 

N: That we work with happiness. It’s like a family, yeah, and [...] we help each other and the group of people and the people are happy to come always, they don’t want to stay at home. So this makes me very proud of us. [...] And also we are good. Yeah, absolutely. We became very good. We make perfect jobs. Because they feel like [...] the work is there[s]. 

Like yesterday night Islana, is like [...] my assistant, let’s say. And she doesn’t sleep, when a new order comes she doesn’t sleep for two nights because she is thinking [...] like she [...] like it’s her job. Or we have to say “we have to improve we have to go faster, otherwise they don’t give us their job” 

I: It’s a team. 

N: It’s a team, absolutely, yes. 

I: It’s amazing it’s been less than a year. 

N: But you feel, no? You feel the good, yeah [...] the good air. 

I: Yes everyone was like “ciao, ciao!” when we entered. The energy is high, it’s beautiful. 

N: Si, si, thank you. 

I: Congratulations. It seems very successful and that it will continue to be. 

N: Thank you, yes I hope. 

I: Because how long does it take to do 10,000 scrunchies? 

N: Ali, how much time did it take us to do the last 10,000 scrunchies? Three weeks? Yeah, three weeks. 

I need to speak a moment to him [mechanic]. 

I: Absolutely, no problem. Thank you so much.
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This interview could not have been possible without the collaboration of the entire Ricucisogni team and for the invitation they extended to me to visit their shop and meet their employees. A special thanks to Nicoletta and to all those who helped share the Ricucisogni story.