Aims to revitalize the Textile & Clothing (T&C) sector through a new attention to creativity, personalised design, and artisan and small-scale production for territorially specific value chains in customer-driven business models

1. CREATIVEWEAR
Creative Clothing for the Mediterranean Space
Paolo Guarnieri – Municipality of Prato

2. OBJECTIVES
CreativeWear Project revitalizes the crisis-ridden Textile & Clothing (T&C) sector through a
new attention to creativity, personalized design, artisan and small-scale production for
territorially specific value chains in customer-driven business models.
The Project aims both to recover and valorize the design heritage and “making” knowledge
of Mediterranean cultures and to bring new energy to creative clusters by reinforcing their
innovation capacity and integrating their activity into emergent transnational value chains.

3. PARTNERSHIP (6 Countries – 6 Regions)
LP1 Municipality of Prato (IT) – Lead Partner & TALIA Contact
1. Prato Textile Museum Foundation (IT)
2. University of Valencia (ES)
3. AITEX – Textile Research Institute (ES)
4. eZAVOD (SL)
5. ARCA CONSORTIUM (IT)
6. EURATEX – European Apparel and Textile Confederation (BE)
7. Allium zaposlitveni center (SL)
8. Hellenic Clothing Industry Association (GR)
9. Creative Thinking Development (GR)

4. APPROACH
CreativeWear extends the TCBL’s model of Business Labs to the MED space
1. Design Labs (ideation, conception)
2. Making Labs (materials, custom machines)
3. Place Labs (social, cultural and territorial factors)
are coupled to Businesses for innovative value chain scenarios (pilots)
CreativeWear tests the TCBL’s model on MED Pilots wherein
MED creative hubs (museums, creative hubs, fashion schools, design centres, volunteer centers, etc.)
cluster with
MED T&C enterprises (fashion, textiles, third parties etc)

5. CREATIVE SECTORS PRIORITIES
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1. Advertising and
marketing
2. Architecture
3. Crafts
4. Design: product,
graphic and fashion…
5. Film, TV, video,
radio, photography
6. IT, software and
computer services
7. Publishing
8. Museums, galleries
and libraries
9. Music, performing
and visual arts
10. Artists

6. T&C - EMERGING ISSUES
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1. Wool-knitting
2. Cotton
3. Natural fibers
4. Eco-friendly
production
5. Short runs
6. Made to measure
7. Technical textiles
8. Social
entrepreneurship
9. Self sufficiency (bio -
circular economy)
10. Valorisation T&C
Heritage and Archives

7. HUBS’ TRAITS & OBJECTIVES
Design Labs
design patterns, interaction between art & enterprises, training for heritage,
place of inspiration, digital archives
competition for designers, expressions of Interest
Make Labs
circular economy, product development & testing, inspiration
Place Labs
social entrepreneurship, prototype development,
tailoring knowledge, meeting place for stakeholders

8. HUBS’ SET-UP
Physical Space
• Co-working physical / identify community first (Slovenia)
• Creative Business Hub / Museum + Prato City library + local textile companies (Prato)
• Crowdfunding for cultural actions: initiating proposals from T&C and looking for creative
support / public spaces + CreZi physical space for crowdfunding platform (Palermo)
• Creative high-tech-lab in textile / AITEX facilities (Valencia)
• User driven / the city as a cluster – network (Athens)
Digital Space
• Facebook, other social networks, partner’s web sites (AITEX + Museum), CrowdWear
platform, links with existing platforms

9. HUBS’ COMMON FEATURES
Governance / Decision making
• Open model, bringing together different actors (creatives and T&C sector)
• Research centre vs community-driven
• Informal, decentralised, on the spot decision making vs formal institutional decisions
Shared values
• Ecology, Social-Community values, Creativity, openness, free expression, cooperation, privacy
respect

10. HUBS’ SCOPES AND ACTIONS
• Workshops, events, interactive exhibitions
• Co-working space
• New textile products
• Support self-made textile
• Increase creativity (children, artists, etc.)
• Safeguard traditional knowledge / heritage and revoke lost traditional T&C practices
• Develop new visual vocabularies and archives
• Relate to territory (designer – enterprise interaction)
• Dialogue between T&C and designers using platform
• New synergies between creativity, textile technologies and new materials
• Participate in concept, products, group tests
• Promote sustainability , innovation (social or technical)

11. HUBS’ CREATIVE SERVICES
• Provision of co-working space incl. exhibitions, performances
• Business acceleration / start-up support / Residence programmes for designers / artists
• Promotion, marketing facilities, collective branding
• Establish links between creative sector and public / access to open market
• Training on textile and entrepreneurial competencies
• Support prototype development / technical support
• Development of new projects
• Art – design competitions

12. HUBS’ SERVICES to T&C ENTERPRISES
• Knowledge collecting and distribution
• Support the creation of new products / Experimentation
• Innovative financing (crowdfunding)
• Cross-sectoral approach
• Promotion, communication, marketing, organisation of events
• International cooperation
• Training
• Development of new proposals
• Consultancy to exploit new ideas

13. HUBS’ NEEDS
Infrastructure needs
• Physical space, IT platforms and equipment, lab equipment, staff
Funding needs
• Social entrepreneurial support
• Public funding
• Private funding (direct market approach)
• Sponsoring
• Crowdfunding
• Charged service provision

14. HUB’S EXPECTED RESULTS
Tangible
• Workshops, Seminars, Training
• Exhibitions, fashion events
• Matchmaking & Designers / Artists / SMEs Networks
• Prototypes / Products
• Digital archives
• Permanent – sustainable services to creative actors and T&C industry
• Recommendations / guidelines to regional policies
Intangible
• Awareness
• New business models
• New lifestyles
• New policies
• Consumer values shift to eco-friendly and sustainable consumption

15. HUB’S EXPECTED IMPACT
• Contact with local / regional authorities
• Different approaches in the various regions
• Cultural cities

16. PILOTS’ FUNCTIONAL MODEL
Regional Policies
Academia
Government
Community
HUB Services
Local
TCBL labs
Joined
Businesses
T&C Creative Artists
Local Infrastructure

17. GLOBAL COOPERATION MODEL
Academia
Government
Society
T&C industry
Creatives
Artists
Local HUB
Design
Make
Place
TCBL
Labs
T&C
industry
Creatives
Artists
Other
HUBs

18. THE NETWORK OF HUBS
• The Social Hub (Slovenia)
• The Crowd Hub (Sicily)
• The Heritage Hub (Prato)
• The Technology Hub (Valencia)
• The Art Hub (Athens)

19. NEXT STEPS
Slovenia workshop (March 2017)
Evaluation Framework
Hubs Set-up – identification of
first cooperation ideas between
creatives and T&C industries
Activity (Responsible) Timetable Deliverables
1. Pilot coordination (ARCA) 11/2016 – 11/2018 • Pilot Activity Report
2. Pilot framework (HCIA) 11/2016 – 5/2018
• Pilot Framework and
Action Plans
3. Pilot exchange (eZavod) 3/2017 – 4/2018
• Workshops Report
(Slovenia, Valencia,
Athens)
4. Pilot Evaluation
(UniValencia)
1/2017 – 11/2018
• Evaluation framework
• Mid-term evaluation
• Final evaluation
5. Pilots (all partners) 3/2017 – 11/2018
• Pilot Phase 1 & 2
Reports

20. PROJECT EXPECTED RESULTS
Main project output Quantity
Creative entrepreneurs supported 75
T&C Industries served by creative
entrepreneurs
125 Enterprises
CreativeWear transnational
innovation cluster
1 Cluster

21. CONTACTS
Paolo Guarnieri
CreativeWear Lead Partner - Municipality of Prato (IT)
email: cmed@comune.prato.it