Components


Communication and management components

The two "classical" components, provided by the MED Programme and both coordinated by the Lead Partner Municipality of Prato, concern "Communication" for the effective and efficient dissemination and promotion of the projects' activities and results and "Management" that provide the organisational, financial and administrative structure to the project, whereas the other two components "Integrated Knowledge-base" and "Inspiring Lab Cluster for Innovation" concern the development and the implementation of the project real technical contents and activities.


Integrated knowledge-base component

The "Integrated Knowledge-base" component, coordinated by the Clothing Textile and Fiber Technological Development (CLOTEFI), aims to implement the assessment and sharing of the partners' T&A knowledge-base (know-how and creative heritage), by developing the contents and ICT platform of the T&A Mediterranean know-how and creative heritage integrated knowledge-base.

The first step concerns the elaboration of a joint comparative survey of experience and good practices of partners regarding the collection and valorisation of the T&A heritage finalized to know the partnership and in particular to understand the activities that every partner has carried out to the aim to valorise the textile heritage of its own territory (for instance: conservation of the archives, exhibitions, visits and laboratories analysing the T&A heritage, researches and innovation, contacts with the enterprises, contacts with schools and designers etc) and to develop a common methodology providing the standard on the collection and valorisation of the T&A heritage.

On this basis, a complex body of technical and non-technical knowledge from T&A museums and enterprises will be collected, assessed and shared through an on-line database developed according to European standards for the digital cataloguing and indexation of T&A heritage.

Most representative elements of the territorial T&A identity of the partners will be the object of a campaign of digital representation and identification, including most important aspects of tacit knowledge, structural composition and manufacturing processes by a selection and pooling of T&A items (such as patterns books and other typologies of technical documentation), representative of the identity features of each territory: a sample of about 200 items for each Textile Museum involved in the project (moreover the TEXMEDIN partnership will sign an agreement protocol for the expansion of the database to other European museums and T&A SMEs).

The integrated knowledge-base will be made available to young stylists, designers and enterprises to increase the attractiveness and value of the T&A products and creations by an Online digital T&A library providing the structured information on each material together with a Handbook for the use of stakeholders.


Inspiring Lab Cluster for Innovation Component

The "Inspiring Lab Cluster for Innovation" component, coordinated by the French Institute Textile Clothing (IFTH) aims to draw inspiration from the digital library developed by "Integrated Knowledge-base" Component to design and implement innovative measures to enhance the competitiveness of the partners by integrating R&D, fashion and design in their T&A clusters and by improving the interaction between designers, T&A museums, research centres and SMEs in the T&A sector.

This component will implement the Inspiring Lab Cluster, an innovative facility to exploit the T&A knowledge-base and train young designers & entrepreneurs. Inspiring Labs will have an enhanced focus on quality, design, innovation and technology to deliver high value-added T&A products.

It will provide a network platform using advanced tools such as 3D morphotypes, fast 2D & 3D CAD-based prototyping systems, characterisation of fabrics and evaluation of their behaviour, dynamic virtual collections over the Internet, etc.

Local stakeholders such as fashion and design schools (identified thanks to the Creation of a shared database), enterprises, artisans, industrial and trade associations will be involved to test and use the services offered by the Inspiring Labs.

In particular about 16 selected Designers will be trained with the aim to elaborate as many Product Prototypes (undergone also to industrial feasibility and reproducibility), using the TEXMEDIN T&A database as innovation and inspiration source. These designers' project works will participate to the TEXMEDIN Young Designers and Stylists Contest and presented to the public - during a dedicated exhibition - as direct result of Project activities.