In 1700s Sardinia, marked by illiteracy, malaria and widespread poverty, Francesca Sanna Sulis stood out among all the women of that time with culture, economic opportunities, entrepreneurial abilities and pragmatism.. The daughter of a rich landowner, she was born in Muravera, a small village in the south of the region, and, if it were not for the foresight of Father Francesco Sulis and his extraordinary stubbornness, she would have ended up in a monastery. nuns or care for a large number of offspring. is connected throughout life with the fate of her husband. Instead, the young woman became one of the most famous stylists of the day. a strong and significant figure for asserting women’s rights against stereotypes. This is his story.
Born June 11, 1716, the girl soon lost her mother, who died of pneumonia. This mourning pushes her father, who later marries other women after outliving them all, to love her to the point where he teaches her the secrets of village life and directs her to manage the estates. When he was still a teenager, the family moved to Cagliari, where the man took over the upbringing of Francesca and her minor children, opening his rich library to them. Thus, a young woman’s days pass between reading, painting and embroidery. However, soon Francesca’s main occupation was sewing., who, together with her faithful friend, the maid Antonia, is pleased to present her own wardrobe and the wardrobe of her friends. When in 1734, at a reception in honor of the 18th birthday of her friend Clara, Francesca met the one who would become her husband a year later, Pietro Sanna Lecca, all the young ladies of marriage wear her creations: original colors, precious fabrics, but above all practical models. Men do not notice anything, and among the ladies of the party there is nothing but inspiration and the happy hand of Francesca.
With the same independent spirit On the day of the wedding, Francesca designs and sews the wedding dress herself.along with the guests. Despite the offers of the best tailors in the city, the young woman already has clear ideas about what she wants – not only for marriage, but also for life. Thanks to the profession of her husband, who after a few years is appointed lawyer of Savoy and therefore forced to stay away from home for most of the year, Francesca brings up her three children Raphael, Stanislao and Maria Michela in complete autonomy. survive, except for the girl. With the death of her father, she completely takes possession of her property and, encouraged and supported by her husband, decides to link the fate of her lands with her passion for fabrics and clothing..
Instructed to plant the precious silkworm crops, he realizes that the most profitable solution is to plant the entire supply chain in Sardinia. Using the valuable help of a few trusted employees, in 1750, at the age of 34, half a century before the Industrial Revolution, he moved all production to the site. Francesca already has the land, but she needs mulberries to feed the worms, she needs the threads they make, the hands that spin them, the looms that weave and turn them into cloth, the herbs that dye them, the seamstresses that sew them. these are also buyers who order stripes and clothes. In short, he wants everything and from now on, he does everything possible to get it.
Together with Antonia and her sister Lucia, she transforms her mother’s old home into a state-of-the-art weaving workshop. It selects workers one by one and produces excellent quality silk cloth. Luck is on his side, as the microclimate of the area allows the clumps to hatch 20 days earlier, resulting in the Sanna Sulis silk being ready for buyers with an advantage of almost a month. Stylistic creativity is added to the quality: the models, the colors he chooses and the craftsmanship are so unique that his fame crosses the borders of the island, reaching Europe and even Russia.where Catherine the Great invites her to court. Thanks to her prestigious position in the Kingdom, her husband facilitates the bureaucratic steps, but the excellent results of this completely local production are the result of her entrepreneurial abilities.
An astute observer, Francesca Sanna Sulis, who employs dozens of families, understands that those who work for her must be educated and therefore teaches his workers to read, write, do arithmetic, as well as the basics of botany and everything there is to know about silkworms. Learning from his father’s lesson, he realizes that having competent workers is a guarantee of higher quality, as it reduces the margin of error in products, encourages new ideas, and improves workers’ working conditions. In his profitable business, he will never use child labor, instead, he uses women who, after their first education, are equipped with a loom to be able to continue working at home even after marriage and children.. A kind of smartworking that improves the living conditions of many families and frees women from male dependence, teaching them the profile and necessary profession.
Jealous of her secrets, but careful not to trample on the interests of her competitors, Francesca is experienced enough to be able to develop precious friendships that will be very useful in business, for example, with the Lombard Count Giorgio Giulini, who was himself an entrepreneur. , which opens the doors of the richest Milanese nobility. Years pass, the fame of his company continues to grow, and with it the well-being of the people of Cagliari. After the death of her husband and sons, the elderly Francesca opens the doors of her house to the anti-monarchist revolutionaries of the time and turns her living room into a cultural center., preparing and encouraging what would go down in history as the uprising of the Sardinian Vespers on April 28, 1794, which forced Viceroy Vincenzo Balbiano and Savoy officials to flee Cagliari after refusing to grant the then Kingdom of Sardinia’s requests for greater autonomy. This event is known as “Sa die de sa Sardigna”, which is still celebrated today as the Day of the Sardinian People. A woman from a distant monarchical colony liberated herself and her people. It took several years for the men who took over her business when she died in 1810 to destroy what she had built in nearly a century of emancipation.
Source: Elle