Francesco Berati - Weaving Identity

Francesco Berati’s Weaving Identity is an artistic fashion project that excavates his origins through generations, tracing the cultural heritage of Elbasan—once the Roman city of Skampis, where the Via Egnatia meets the Shkumbin River. Combining childhood memories, family garments, and extensive research at the city's ethnographic museum, Berati reinterprets Elbasan’s traditional clothing using the taftingan technique. Inspired by the Xhube me Dragua, Sako, and traditional vests, he plays with embroidered motifs, altering dimensions to create monumental textile forms. His collection integrates old song lyrics, printed via silkscreen, onto tufted surfaces made with a tufting gun and natural brown sackcloth. Accompanied by mystical songs from composers like Mustafa Bodini and Isuf Myzyri, Rootsi transforms textile heritage into a contemporary dialogue, preserving and evolving tradition through materiality, relief, and storytelling.