ERASMUS+ KA220-VET - Cooperation partnerships in VET
FASHION UP looks at innovation in the craft tailoring sector by focusing on creativity and environmental sustainability. These themes, linked to those of the circular economy, are now a real trend for the fashion system, which is facing a deep evolution towards the respect for the environment and society. It is not to forget that the fashion industry is counted among those with the highest environmental impact. All its stages (design, production, distribution and sale) are moving towards the use of less polluting raw materials, the reduction of waste and the creation of durable garments, proposing a way to produce with proper/safe working conditions and fostering the conscious consumption. This scenario represents the background where the FASHION-UP's original training proposal is set.
The project's core is represented by the Fashion Upcycling, a tailoring technique, but also a green conception of fashion, which is well suited to artisanal creations, able to give a unique distinctiveness to the clothes made by its use. Thanks to the technical skills and creativity of their creators, through the upcycling process used or salvaged clothes can be converted in new original high-quality items with a new sustainable second life. This valid strategy to rethink waste/disused materials as well as to consume respecting environment can contribute to foster behavioral changes in future artisanal tailors who can become active agents of change and more attentive to such issues as saving resources, reducing energy use & waste.
After an initial research phase aimed at focusing the theoretical and technical-practical contents of the upcycling process (UpLeaF - Up-cycling Learning Framework), a reference framework will be outlined. It will be used as base to develop a real Training Program (UpTraK - Up-cycling Training Kit) for future artisan tailoring professionals, specialized in this technique. The Program, including proper training materials and practical indications for clothes upcycling, will be the result of partners’ collaboration and exchange from different background: training, artisanal tailoring, circular economy.
The Program will also provide a specific module on self-entrepreneurship to support the creation of micro-enterprises and artisan workshops that can distinguish themselves thanks to this very niche of processing. The action indeed also targets people with fewer opportunities, particularly women, to open new employment prospects for them, both in terms of self-employment and job insertion/re-insertion in sector companies.
In each partner country (Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Poland), a Pilot Course based on this professionalizing Program will be organized for ten participants, whose creations will be paraded in Florence at the project’s ending and collected in a Fashion Catalogue, describing the stylistic and environmentally sustainable choices behind each dress.
Follow the project and the world of Fashion Upcycling from the FASHION-UP WEBSITE! News, insights and training resources developed during the project will be freely downloadable from there!
Applicant
- OMA, Osservatorio Mestieri d’Arte, Firenze (IT)
European Partners
- Centro Machiavelli, (IT)
- CEP – Circular Economy Portugal (PT)
- MODE - Move & Develop Foundation (PL)
- Zespol Szkol Nr 5 im. M. T.Hubera (PL)
- Politistikos Syllogos Atsipopoulou “ O Agios Elftherios” (GR)
- EELI -European Education & Learning Institute (GR)
Project n. 2023-1-IT01-KA220-VET-000150761 - CUP G11B23000470006