Achieving and ReTrieving Creativity through European fashion Cultural HERitage Inspiration Erasmus Project

Project Title

Achieving and ReTrieving Creativity through European fashion Cultural HERitage Inspiration

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Creativity and culture; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The European textile industry has always been keen to preserve representative examples of textile production of the past, either for creative or for educational purposes. Numerous collections of antique and exotic textiles, today preserved in museums, have come from the private collections of textile entrepreneurs or industrial institutes and schools. Many firms have also acquired whole archives or textile samples from other sources.

Over the last few decades, the economic crisis which has affected the European textile sector has resulted in the loss of many textile archives. Indeed the failure of businesses and the consequent closure of their warehouses has caused the loss of hundreds of textile samples and designs. In order to avoid breaking the line of continuity which joins past and future textile production – a fundamental feature of European excellence in the fashion sector – it is necessary for museums, cultural institutions and textile companies to protect our textile heritage.

The project objective is to both to contribute to the protection and exploitation of the fashion Cultural Heritage and organize and structure it in vocational training courses for the improvement of EU fashion designers (Fashion designers working in T&A Industries and young fashion designers). The purpose of the developed curricula is to train EU fashion designers to improve their designs and achieve an increased added value of their garments, by achieving precious knowledge about the past and current state of fashion. Work-based training ICT tools based on fashion cultural heritage is missing from European fashion industry which needs inspiration and learning from a glorious past in order to add value to its products and boost its competitiveness internationally. The platform created encompasses design skills, concentrating information and digitalized material from the Prato Textile Museum. More specifically, the results reached out by the project can be summarize as follows:

1. The enhancement of knowledge, skills and competences of fashion designers. This result is achieved taking into account the several people involved in the project, either during the multiplier events and in the different opportunities where the project was further disseminated.

2. The engagement of fashion industry personnel in the lifelong learning in a non-formal, business setting, based on experiential, work-based, problem-based and self-directed learning, and a learning outcomes approach. Many designers, students and young professionals have now the opportunity to further explore the ART-CHERIE platform and develop their skills in a continuous way.

3. The definition and development of a Curriculum for the VET as an European Standard, including a qualification framework. The curricula framework developed throughout the project duration is a self-learning curriculum (7 ECTs) focusing on the professional designers or students in their last year of their BA education. It represents about 80% of what would be required to conform with 7 ECTS. Moreover, partners also developed 2 training courses – womenswear and embroidery, freely accessible in the ART-CHERIE platform.

4. The establishment of a digital training platform, bringing together fashion designers across Europe, provide online training and facilitate dissemination of knowledge and sharing of experience. In a moment where Digitalization is key for the T&C sector, the ART-CHERIE platform is a good example of how T&C professionals can have free access to digitalized materials and information to further develop their own activities and creations. It is also important to mention that SMEs can benefit from this project by modernising their activities through the use of a high quality ICT Tool and being more inspired by the large Prato T&C heritage digitalized (not completely) in our platform.

5. The improvement and extension of high quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of fashion designers, operating within the entire spectrum of fashion industries. Both the curricula framework and the courses available in the ART-CHERIE platform constitute a good source of learning activities for T&C professionals. In terms of its content, it is important to mention that it has been managed by the entirely partnership, including the industry representatives (EURATEX and HCIA).

6. The achievement of an effective and tangible quality development of EU fashion industry’s competitiveness and internationalisation of their work and personnel.

The project involves 5 partners from 4 EU countries, all with a long established vocation on T&C productions and a significant tradition in design and creativity. Coherently with the nature of the project, the partnership is composed by Business Associations, T&C museum, organizations supporting T&C businesses, University and NGO active in ICT technological tools development.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 150311,97 Eur

Project Coordinator

EUROPEAN APPAREL AND TEXTILE CONFEDERATION & Country: BE

Project Partners

• GNOSI ANAPTIKSIAKI ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI ETAIRIA
• THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON
• HELLENIC CLOTHING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION
• FONDAZIONE MUSEO DEL TESSUTO DI PRATO