Cucilento
Upcycling and Regenerative Tailoring in Cilento
CuCilento is a project focused on sartorial creativity and ethical upcycling that originated in Cilento, transforming forgotten materials destined for the trash into unique, useful, and meaningful items. Discarded sails, olive-harvesting nets, agricultural sacks, tarps, upholstery fabrics, and other salvaged materials find new life through artisanal craftsmanship, becoming bags, accessories, storage pouches, backpacks, and other products designed to accompany everyday life. CuCilento is therefore not just a brand of handmade items, but a project that combines design, sustainability, local heritage, and social responsibility.
Founded in August 2022 from an idea by Sarah Khoudja, as part of the European “Empowering Women in Agrifood” program led by the Future Food Institute in Bologna, CuCilento is based on a clear vision: to regenerate what has been discarded, restoring value to both materials and people. At the heart of the project is, in fact, a community-based workshop that highlights the talent of local communities and promotes a people-centered economy, rooted in the local area and attentive to human relationships. Every creation stems from a conscious choice: not only to reduce waste, but to transform recovery into everyday beauty, into cherished memories, into a concrete gesture of respect for the environment.
For CuCilento, upcycling is much more than simple recycling. It is a creative and cultural process that elevates reclaimed materials, preserving their history and reinterpreting them in a new form. Every product is different from the next, because it carries the traces of the material from which it was born and the value of the craftsmanship that makes it unique. In this sense, CuCilento offers slow, conscious, and non-standardized fashion and design, where every stitch tells a story of ethical, aesthetic, and political choices.
fragment of true history. Responsibility, because the reuse of materials becomes a concrete commitment to the planet and to more mindful consumption patterns. Care, because at the heart of it all are people, actions, time, and the quality of craftsmanship. Identity, because CuCilento tells the story of Cilento through objects, transforming elements of the region’s agricultural, maritime, and everyday life into contemporary, functional products full of character.
Buy local products and support the Cilento Interno region!
What kind of experience does Cucilento offer?
Whether it’s learning to sew, mending with a touch of poetry, or creating objects from recycled materials, our experiences are spaces for connection and inspiration. We organize in-person, online, and custom activities: from “non-courses” for adults to educational workshops for children, to tailor-made workshops for organizations that want to prioritize creativity and sustainability. Every session is an invitation to slow down, experiment, and forge connections—with needle, thread, and a great deal of care.
CuCilento proves that even what is considered waste can become desirable, useful, and beautiful again when it meets creativity, skill, and a strong vision for the future.
Come discover this world
Who is Sarah?
My name is Sarah Emilie Khoudja, and in July 2021, at the age of forty, I left Brussels with my family. I left behind city life and my job as a project manager in the humanitarian sector to take a sabbatical year in the heart of Cilento, nestled within the National Park. The call of nature, of slowing down, of focusing on what truly matters, was strong.
But I soon realized it wouldn’t be just “a year.”
Life, with its quiet power, had guided us toward a deeper change. We had chosen—perhaps without fully realizing it—to stay.
Sarah chose Cilento to combine her love for craftsmanship with sustainability, creating an alternative for conscious consumption and supporting women’s empowerment.