From marble to fabric
Materiality, posthumanism, and sustainability in the Fili Pari case study
Abstract
This article explores the role of marble in contemporary fashion through a case study of the Italian brand Fili Pari and its patented material Mar/More®, developed using marble dust recovered from quarry waste. The article examines how the transposition of a material traditionally associated with monumentality and permanence can, within the context of fashion design, take on a sensory, relational, and posthuman significance. Through a theoretical approach that intertwines new materialism and posthuman thought, marble is interpreted not as a static object, but as an active agent of relationship and care, capable of co-producing experiences and meanings. Mar/More® thus becomes a device for hybridising geology and corporeality, in which stone, rendered flexible and wearable, redefines perceptions of the body and of sustainability. Fili Pari’s project demonstrates how fashion can function as a laboratory for ecological and symbolic experimentation, capable of regenerating the bonds between humans and matter through an aesthetic of cohabitation. Finally, the research offers a broader reflection on design as a practice of care and shared responsibility, oriented towards the construction of new ecologies of the sensible.
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