A cross-border project launched in Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain is supporting a revival of the northern Mediterranean’s textile and clothing (T&C) industry. CreativeWear set up a network of hubs in which creative and T&C sectors co-develop sustainable, high-quality products that meet modern customer requirements. Businesses, non-profit and educational organisations are building on this flexible model to increase the share of new textiles and T&C innovation from Europe, while reducing the sector’s environmental impact.
- 13 January 2021
‘The CreativeWear project upholds creativity and social innovation as enabling forces for prosperity and well-being. Its unprecedented innovation landscape opens up new perspectives for the textile and clothing industry, in conjunction with artisans, creatives and artists at large.’
The CreativeWear model promotes creative collaboration, personalised design, and artisan and small-scale production using local resources. The project fosters community partnerships, innovation with regional resources and economic connections between local areas to ensure social and environmental sustainability. This blend is promoting entrepreneurship, skills and design heritage to generate new businesses and jobs in the northern Mediterranean region.
Fast fashion to smart fashion
CreativeWear aimed to reverse job, skill and cultural heritage losses from the long-standing crisis in the Mediterranean’s T&C sector and to address the environmental cost of ‘fast’ fashion and textiles.
The project built on a model from an earlier project, TCBL, which combined design, making and local labs with business pilots to develop innovative products and value chains.
Five CreativeWear hubs launched this approach, one each in Prato, Ljubljana, Valencia, Athens and Palermo. Participants included creative hubs, museums, fashion schools, design centres and volunteer organisations along with T&C industries to develop low-waste, low-pollution value chains for innovative textiles and clothing made in Europe.
Hubs each had a different and complementary focus, whether textile heritage, the circular economy, new materials and processes, artist-led innovation and business, or crowd-based business matchmaking.
Creative inclusion
Competitions, projects, training and networking supported participants to develop new products and business models. Events such as the ‘Art, Creativity and Innovation at T&C’ event in July 2017 and the VESTINO 2018 Festival in Palermo, explored solutions to industry issues and showcased collections, products and technical innovations.
The hubs collaborated to achieve their outcomes and to integrate into the Europe-wide TCBL network.
Seven new hubs started during the project, in France, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. They specialise in skills for innovative and traditional production, modern design processes or prototype support.
This model is being expanded to new hubs in the CreativeWear PLUS project and can be transferred to other countries and regions.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “CreativeWear” is EUR 2 178 716 , with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 1 851 909 through the “Interreg MED” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Research & Innovation”.