Genoa feting homegrown creation, jeans

(ANSA) - GENOA, SEP 2 - The northwestern port city of Genoa is feting its most famous creation and gift to the clothing and style world, denim jeans, with a raft of events in its first celebration of the native fabric over the next five days.
    Genova Jeans will see shows, concerts, guided tours, exhibitions and workshops.
    Organizers donned at least one piece of denim as they addressed a press conference on Thursday.
    The included Mayor Marco Bucci, organizing committee chair Manuela Arata, Diesel creative director Andrea Rosso and another executive from another historic Italian jeans company, Alberto Candiani.
    Diesel and Candiani are the main partners of the event.
    Denim was originally created for the sails of Genoese boats and was then adopted by the dock workers, before catching on worldwide.
    "This is the beginning of a story," said Mayor Bucci, "and it will become an annual event.
    "We want to recount the tradition of Genoa, but also launch messages, from that of jeans as a transversal instrument and messenger of peace to that of a textile industry that must become ever more eco-sustainable".
    One of the main shows, in the university library, will be Jeans, From The Origins To The Myth.
    Other exhibits have been set up in the market at Piazza Statuto and the Risorgimento Museum, where artist Ian Berry portrays Garibaldi with a denim shirt on.
    The Diocesan Museum will show "the fabric of passions" while the Doge's Palace will exhibit the Diesel archives and the Metellino gallery near the marina will show ArteJeans.
    In the historic centre, in via Pré, via Del Campo and the Ghetto, dubbed Genoa's Carnaby Street for the occasion, there will be store exhibits, temporary shops and artistic installations.
    The extravaganza has cost some 800,000 euros, a sum that has drawn some criticism by critics who say it is exorbitant.
    In protest, regional centre-left councillor Ferruccio Sansa launched a "jeans strike".
    The row briefly caused 13 artists to say they were withdrawing some works from the ArteJeans show, only to change their minds.
    (ANSA).