Textile - Expo Brussels 1935
The Italian wool industry had a special reason for participating in the Brussels Exhibition, because of the numerous and long-standing direct relations that exist between the wool industries and trade of the two countries.
The exhibiting firms, 14 in number, constituted a truly complete industrial section in terms of their size and the variety of products on display.
Wool was the first section in the vast Italian Fabrics pavilion. The decoration and layout of the section were designed in a sober tone, tending towards grey and very well suited to the type of products manufactured. Large windows, veiled with woollen cheesecloth, projected a warm, slightly golden light, which was reflected on the crystal of the numerous display cases.
Above, gigantic photographic reproductions stood out, representing the interiors of three spinning mills, a Roman countryside with a grazing herd; the statue of the Weaver of Schio, a bas-relief of Jacopo delia Quercia with Eve, who is condemned to work with wool. Alongside these large photographs were some indications: 750 wool firms with 1,000 factories and 80,000 workers; 100,000,000 kilos of raw materials consumed; 150 million metres produced annually, more than 70 million kilos of products spun. It was also recalled that the Italian wool industry is the oldest in the world and that it now exports everywhere.
In this pavilion, the work of the architects Eugenio Faludi and Gian Carlo Palanti, the various textile industries gave the full impression of a valued activity, as the linen, cotton, natural silk and clothing industries were also represented.
A high glass pavilion, similar to the huge window of a giant shop, enclosed the products of the artificial silk or "rayon" industry. Among other things, it showed a cut filament textile that can be used as a raw material. Artificially produced flocks can replace wool and cotton.
© Le Livre d'Or de l'Exposition Universelle de Bruxelles 1935