Education4Fashion-Tech: Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Fashion in the Digital Era Erasmus Project

Project Title

Education4Fashion-Tech: Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Fashion in the Digital Era

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Research and innovation

Project Summary

The Education4Fashion-Tech project (2017-2020) aims to advance and boost the skills and knowledge of designers in the areas of smart textiles, wearables and digital manufacturing. The growing heterogeneous sector of fashion-tech has potential for socio-economic impact, and the changing innovation landscape requires the fashion industry to adapt and advance collaborative practices to boost its competitiveness. However, the skills and knowledge between the fashion and technology fields are not shared, regardless of the European market’s position to exploit the potential from smart textiles and wearables. The project enhanced the quality and relevance of the learning experience through an innovative approach to fashion-tech higher education by supporting innovation and creativity through a strategic partnership and inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. The novel approach enabled a breaking down of barriers between the communities of design and technology to build meaningful collaborations.

The partnership included three key countries (SE, IT, UK) by involving three leading fashion and design higher education institutions (HEI): Swedish School of Textiles – University of Borås, Politecnico di Milano and University of the Arts London – London College of Fashion. The diverse consortium, also involving relevant associations and an advisory board, aimed to ensure that the developed curriculum is informed by the industry´s practice and need for hybrid professionals. A Benchmarking Report was produced, laying the foundations for the development of the Fashion-Tech Tuning Document, by defining the state-of-the-art of didactic experiences of HEIs, research centres and industry, in Europe and globally. A Teacher’s Toolkit and Learning Units propose a modular approach to fashion-tech education, providing teachers with appropriate methods and tools, as well as content specific units. Complementary to the Tuning Document, the set of resources allow HEIs and involved teachers to develop interdisciplinary fashion-tech design curricula, supporting the production of hybrid professionals needed by the industry.

The Community Platform (https://www.e4ft.eu) serves as a central meeting point and a source of inspiration for those interested in the field. The final deliverable “Education for Fashion-Tech: Design and Technology for Future Fashion Creatives” provides a comprehensive reflection on the research conducted within the framework of the project to offer examples of didactic configurations, encourage further experimentations and transnational partnerships, as well as identify future scenarios of the fashion-tech field. A total of 298 learners, teachers and external experts and industry stakeholders participated directly in the project´s activities, including a variety of workshops and dissemination events. With a wide range of backgrounds, such as fashion and textile design, textile engineering, fashion innovation and entrepreneurship, interaction design and smart textiles, the participants were supported in the development of generic and subject-specific competences. The activities carried out included a fashion-tech hackathon, a workshop specifically aimed to train the trainers, and 3 intensive programmes focusing on digital manufacturing, wearables and smart textiles.

Dissemination events, including the project´s own and external events focusing on fashion-tech and development of education, have contributed to informing academia and industry of the developed resources and novel approach to merge fashion and technology in an MA curriculum. As a first of its kind, the proposed curriculum will engage academia and industry in the discussion of skill sets required by professionals active in the field, leading to concrete measures in the implementation of such curricula to contribute to industry growth and employability of designers. Other short- and long-term benefits and impact include the establishment of a transnational partnership committing to the development of the fashion-tech field, enhancing the quality of the knowledge and skills of participating learners and teachers, as well as supporting open and innovative practices in the digital era. The project ignited follow-up projects and collaborations, such as the FTAlliance – Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance project (https://fashiontechalliance.eu/) involving twelve partners across academia and industry.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 353846,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

HÖGSKOLAN I BORÅS & Country: SE

Project Partners

• POLITECNICO DI MILANO
• THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON