Threads of Hope: the fashion show at the Aventine Hill

On Saturday, 13 September 2025, the second edition of the fashion show took place, the product of the ‘Fili di Speranza’ (Threads of Hope) project, born from the collaboration between the Thouret Foundation and the Terra e Missione Association. In front of an audience of more than a hundred people, including friends of the two associations, relatives of the models, journalists and fashion enthusiasts, the protagonists of the project walked the runway wearing clothes they had made during the course and clothes made by students from the school in Cameroon, who were connected online. The project proposes a partnership between two sewing centres: the one in Ladispoli promoted by Terra e Missione, thanks to the collaboration with the Confraternity of the Parish of Santa Maria del Rosario in Ladispoli and with the support of Caritas in Porto-Santa Rufina, and the one in Ngaoundal led by the Sisters of Charity of Ngaoundal and supported by the Thouret Foundation and the India Group. Both centres work to give women a future and the opportunity to pursue a profession. In Cameroon, in addition to a diploma, students receive a sewing machine at the end of the course so that they can make clothes and various items of clothing on their own, since the textile industry is still underdeveloped in the Adamua region where they are located.

The wonderful news this year was that among the models of the fashion show, was Beatrice, a volunteer who had just returned from Cameroon, where she had worked extensively and generously at the St Jeanne Antide Hospital in Ngaoundal. The joy that the experience had given her immediately prompted her to offer herself as a model to wear Cameroonian clothes. And it was a success! She seemed born to be a model! It was an afternoon of celebration, but above all of art, culture, exchange and friendship. To each of the participants, near and far, we send our best wishes, and to the teachers, our gratitude. We would like to provide a description of the fabrics used in Cameroon, known as Ndop fabrics. The history of Ndop fabrics is one of patience and hard work. A lot of hard work. Because it can take more than a month of work to produce a standard 15-metre-long strip of fabric from which clothes and accessories can be made. To create this particular fabric, characteristic of north-western Cameroon, which was originally used as currency due to its preciousness and was adopted by the leaders of the Bamileke tribes,

a particular skill is required, one that very few people now possess. (…) It all starts with strips of cotton fabric, generally 5 centimetres wide, which are sewn together to form larger pieces of fabric that become veritable “palettes”. Using a bamboo fork dipped in soot ink, the main outlines of the patterns are traced, which are then traced over with stitching. At this point, the canvas is first immersed in a neutral solution and then in a blue dye bath. Once the colour has been absorbed, the fabric is wrung out and exposed to the sun, whose heat oxidises the dye, giving the fabric its traditional indigo hue. The patiently traced designs and patterns appear when the stitching is removed.

(da I. Argentiero “La Difesa del Popolo, 15.09.2025)