MALABO

The first artisanal upcycling studio, fully vertical and zero impact.

MALABO

We are Tiziana Lamonaca - production manager, and Federico Nistri - sales manager, and we have over twenty years of experience in the vintage clothing sector.

We have created Malabo, a brand born from a passion for vintage and a love for the environment.

With our experience in the industry, we have decided to reinvent ourselves to respond to the growing attention towards sustainability and the environment. The production side of Malabo is done in partnership with the team of Noell Maggini, an Italian stylist and designer, a prominent figure in the Italian Haute Couture sector.

We have built the first completely vertical artisanal upcycling laboratory, with zero impact.

We produce patchwork fabrics for home accessories and fashion collections, using entirely unsellable used garments and discontinued fabric stocks.

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OUR COLLECTIONS

Wear

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Pet

Home

Our clothing collection, created in close collaboration with fashion designers and emerging stylists

Our collection designed for all our furry friends

Our home collection created using the Upcycling Design method

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THE PRODUCTS

CLOTHES

DOG BEDS

PILLOWS

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PATCHPANELS

BY MALABO

At Malabo, we don't just produce complete clothing items or home decor products, we also create patch panels, both lined and unlined.

Patch panels are tailor-made fabrics in pure 100% cotton denim with standard dimensions of 100 x 140cm, either lined or unlined, depending on the client's needs.

Our patch panels can be used, for example, as a base for industrial or artisanal work, but they have countless applications, from coverings for furniture to bases for tailoring creations.

OUR BACKGROUND

Born and raised in Prato, we have embraced its unique art of fabric recycling, for which the city has been famous since the post-war period.

Indeed, Prato is considered the largest textile center in Europe and one of the most important hubs globally for yarn and wool fabric production.

There are approximately 2000 textile businesses in Prato, producing fabrics for clothing, furnishings, yarns for knitwear production, as well as specialized fabrics for industrial applications.

The textile district of Prato has always combined creativity with technological innovation, pioneering technical textiles suitable for industrial use. Prato has thus advanced significantly beyond traditional fiber uses, developing important technological advancements.

Within this context, given the increasing focus on green and eco-sustainability in recent years, we at Malabo have decided to reinvent ourselves: we have started producing reworked clothing items, Pet lines, and Home Design collections, thereby pushing the Prato textile industry even further forward.

Today, in a world that strongly emphasizes sustainability and Italian craftsmanship, Malabo aims to make its contribution.

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OUR SUPPLY CHAIN

Malabo leverages major storage sites across Europe to source used garments from urban collection that would otherwise be disposed of.

At the storage sites takes palce the process of selection and initial quality control of materials which will be used in Malabo's design and tailoring processes.

The selected materials are then retrieved by Malabo, which performs a second inspection and additional quality control.

Based on the selected materials and their characteristics, Malabo proceeds to determine the destination of each individual garment.

The material is finally processed in the lab, where the design phase takes place and where the products come to life.

The majority of textile waste (73%) is typically directed to landfills or incineration, causing serious damage to natural ecosystems

Malabo buys and uses only what it needs, thereby minimizing waste and production leftovers.

At Malabo, we start with the raw material and assess how best to enhance it in the product, not the other way around! This allows us to always use all available material and focus on the uniqueness of the pieces we produce.

Due to the uniqueness of Malabo's ideation and production process, the design phase is crucial. Here, each product is studied along with the Upcycling Design techniques that will be employed.

This process ensures that only the finest fabrics are used, guaranteeing the creation of garments and products that are not only unique but also of high quality and durability.

ZERO IMPACT

At Malabo, we dedicate ourselves to creating reworked products, not simply recycled ones. Recycling is a noble art that benefits and respects the environment; however, it it has environmental consequences and therefore cannot be defined as "zero impact."

While recycling transforms used materials into new raw materials, reworking (or upcycling) directly reinvents existing garments and fabrics. Recycling yarn or any recycled fabric requires numerous steps to be reusable: mechanical and chemical processes that consume energy and produce other highly polluting substances. It also takes tens of liters of water to recycle just one kilogram of fiber.

At Malabo, we do not recycle; we reinvent, deconstruct, and modify the natural state of products through exclusively artisanal processes within our laboratory. This allows us to breathe new life into worn-out raw materials without impacting the ecosystem.

We follow the philosophy of upcycling, which, in synergy with the most creative minds in fashion and home design, creates a new concept of sustainable production: Eco-Design.