Mantero is one of Italy’s most prestigious sllk houses and source of luxury fabrics for Europe’s top couture brands for over a century. Anne spent many wonderful days at the Mantero offices on the shores of Lake Como.

All Mantero fabrics for couture houses were exclusive and burned at the end of the season. Yes, dear readers. According to France Today, tens of thousands of meters of exquisite silk went up in flames every year.

No more. The philanthropic brains behind Paris’s philanthropic store Merci have persuaded the Mantero team to create ‘La Soie Sauvée des Flammes’ as another of their designer-off price collections that support women and children in Madagascar.

The philanthropic concept store Merci was launched by Bernard and Marie-France Cohen, who founded the luxury children’s stop Bonpoint. After paying the operating expenses all the profits from the Merci operation support philanthropic initiatives in Madagascar.

Merci gives back to the people of Madagascar, the same people who helped build Bonpoint, as the line was produced there for over 30 years. And since Bonpoint is all about children, Cohen knew that Merci would work to help the children of Madagascar. Her foundation gives seamstresses the knowhow, the material, and the machines that will in turn give them, the hope is, the abilities to reach self-sufficiency. “Children go with women,” she says. “If you want to help children, then you do something for the mothers.” via Full Frontal Fashion

In another initiative, the Merci project provides support and services to assist visually-impaired people in Madagascar.