Turmoil Continues for the Artisans Behind Italian Fashion

The small, family-run businesses hope a new government aid package will bring the relief that one in 2020 didn’t provide. They say their skills are at stake.

For Italy’s elaborate network of fashion artisans — the hands behind the embroideries, intricate knits, silk flowers and other fine work — the past year has been one of constant improvisation and recalibration for an uncertain future. “We’re really nervous because we don’t know how to move anymore,” said Camilla Calderoli, who designs and makes fine knitwear by hand at Bice & Berta, a specialty atelier founded 29 years ago by her mother, Marina Rizzini, in the northern Italian city of Bergamo. “We are now four people doing the job of 10, and we don’t count the hours.” Nearly a year ago, as the first coronavirus lockdown started to ease, artisans in shops like Ms. Calderoli’s came back to work, but client orders were down as much as 80 percent.