Banco Lotto N.10

Why it matters: founded in 2003 by the Il Cerchio social cooperative, Banco Lotto N.10 is a working tailoring atelier inside the Giudecca Women’s Prison, where inmates learn dressmaking as a real trade and hand-cut and finish every garment sold. The little San Polo boutique near the Rialto Bridge sells the results: full-skirted, polka-dot 1950s-style dresses and jackets in silk shantung and fine wool, some from donated Fortuny and Bevilacqua fabric. Buying here funds training that many women carry into seamstress work after release. Ask the shop to help fit a dress to your size – most pieces run roughly 80-180 euros – and budget a few extra minutes to hear the story behind the workshop.