‘The exhibition consists in an ‘Automatic Dressmaker’, a workshop environment in which made to measure garments can be manufactured. Guided by assistants, visitors can choose on the computer the models they prefer and which the ‘automatic dressmaker’ subsequently turns out. These results are achieved thanks to a computerized operating machine with virtually unlimited flexibility (the water jet cutting table is on show for the first time in Italy), to sophisticated computerized systems which speed up designing phases, and a communication network capable of instantly linking the design location with the manufacturing centre. But the ‘automatic dressmaker’ is more than just a technological breakthrough; above all, it is a probe that explores the difficulties and problems related to technological change, one of the important ways human coexisten-ce is transformed. It is an organizational invention which utilizes different sequences in passing from one work phase to another. Its aim is to render a better service to clients: the personalized cuts of the tailor, together with the lower costs and consistent quality standards of mass-produced garments. The ‘automatic dressmaker’ is able not only to abolish sizes, but also to favour mass production of garments, their supply to shops and management of unsold goods. In other words, it concerns, invests and modifies the entire system as it is today. Besides showing how a technological breakthrough operates, the exhibition also invites visitors to ponder over the problem of the machine itself (the parts of the ‘old’ system inserted in the ‘new’ one were, so to speak, uncomfortable) and over the more the general problem of a new organization and management of the system. In any event, the ‘automatic dressmaker’ – as we hope visitors will be able to realise for themselves – is a possible, realistic and effective machine with a rosy future.’