September 5, 2008 Fresh design on rehabilitation Play video

(NECN/ABC) - The famous catwalk in Milan is the center of the most beautiful fashion in the world and one of Italy's most important industries.

Well, there is another catwalk in Milan and the clothes are just as beautiful. But this is San Vittore prison, and the clothes were all made by convicts.

This sewing room could be any tailor's workshop. The inmates, who don't have to wear prison uniforms, are part of a training program that's turned out to be a model of rehabilitation. They have learned to make anything, including costumes for the famous La Scala Opera House.

Backed by a local cooperative that helps women behind bars, they are launching their OWN brand. 'Gatti Galleotti' - which means 'Jail Cats.' They're starting small, with a line of T shirts that show cats with 'San Vittore' across the bottom.

They're marketing these already through the co-op, along with aprons and other small things, easily sold as souvenirs.

But the goal is to produce their own line of high quality, boutique clothes -- just like THESE clothes in the fashionable Donna Ioannou boutique in Milan. Which were all, in fact, hand made by the convicts of San Vittore prison.

These clothes are Donna Ioannou's own design. But she has no doubt the convicts could produce a line of their own that would be just as good.

The target date for the launch of the prison's first-ever fashion line is next spring.

ABC's Hilary Brown reports.