textile

(Re)Searching for a sustainable fashion system – Interview

(segue in italiano) Thanx to the collaboration with Jen Ballie, who kindly accepted our invitation last year to our Openwear conference, I had the chance to get in touch with Kay Politowicz, professor of Textile Design, co-founder and Project Director for the Textiles Environment Design (TED) research group at Chelsea. For many years she was Director of Undergraduate Textile Design Course at Chelsea – and promoted a high-level of achievement of students working with specialist material processes in textiles: knit, weave, print, stitch – increasingly using digital processes and a wider variety of workshops – such as ceramics, wood, metal. In that role she became increasingly aware of the need to develop an environmental focus to curriculum developments within the subject and the opportunities that such a focus would reveal. In the last few years she moved to an entirely research-based and funded role and she believes it has been a great way to develop opportunities for externally funded practice-based

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From knitting machines to wearable technology in Florence

(segue in italiano) Last april I was in Florence with some friends and had the chance to meet Riccardo Marchesi, electronic engineering, managing director of Inntex and founder of Plug&Wear, an e-shop offering materials and components specifically targeted to creators of interactive fashion. He let us visit his lab, showed us experiments and prototypes around e-textiles, and here’s some bits about the long conversation we had. An electronic engineer in the fashion world. First involved in the business of knitting machines, then getting into innovative textiles, and now being passionate about wearables. Is there a connection among those three, a path that you are following, or is it only a matter of chances? Life is a matter of chance. You must be at the right time in the right place or you will miss the train. I moved my first steps in a family business going around the world trying to sell our knitting machines. At the beginning I was

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