The Fascinate project presents this Thursday a proposal to internationalize textile companies through sustainability and digitalization
After eighteen months of market research, seminars, online workshops and dissemination sessions, the FASCINATE project reaches its final phase and has completed its duties; this Thursday, February 3, it presents in online format its proposal for European textile and fashion companies to improve their competitiveness and reach beyond their borders thanks to the design and manufacture of new, more environmentally friendly products, the implementation of more sustainable processes and digital transformation.
The European project FASCINATE (Sustainable Fashion Alliance for International Markets) belongs to the European COSME program, and is part of the "Clusters Go International" action, in which five specialized clusters from four different countries participate: Spain (Clúster Digital de Cataluña y Clúster Modacc), Portugal (Instituto tecnológico CITEVE), Denmark (Lifestyle&Design Cluster) and Bulgaria (Bulgarian Fashion Association).
How is the fashion industry evolving? Is it normal or ethical for products produced on the other side of the world to be worth 20% of similar products made in a nearby town? What are the elements that have led to the textile industry being outsourced to third countries? Is it possible to continue developing the prevailing fast-fashion model? Or are new models needed to minimize the effects on the planet? These are some of the questions Fascinate has been trying to answer since the project kicked off in late 2020.
To find the answers, the five project partner clusters started by assessing their own market. This detailed analysis of the fashion and textile sector in Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Bulgaria has allowed us to understand the vulnerabilities and threats faced by each country, as well as their strengths and opportunities in order to understand the internationalization capabilities of each one of them. Thus, through the particularities of each market, Fascinate has been able to obtain a more complete and realistic vision at the European level.
Once the diagnosis was made, several co-design workshops were held between companies in the country and experts in the sector to identify new trends in the sector, new value chains, methodologies, scenarios and tools to transform and improve the competitiveness of companies.
New ways of consuming clothing, use of blockchain or information platforms.
One of the conclusions of this work has been, for example, to identify new ways of consuming clothes, which go beyond buying a garment and throwing it away once used, and which call for the implementation of more comprehensive services where supplier and user establish a new collaborative relationship; the customer can rent the garment and, once used, initiate the recycling or reconversion process through rewards or discounts.
Other examples are the use of IoT and/or blockchain technology to monitor the origin of the parts and the entire production, certification and marketing cycle until it reaches home, providing relevant information on the origin and quality of the material used, the working conditions of the teams involved and the carbon footprint it represents, so that the sustainability of the product is reported with full transparency.
Or finally, informational and training platforms are also suggested for companies in the sector that want to improve or adapt their processes, making information more accessible, such as the technologies available on the market or ways to start the digital transformation process.
The U.S., Canada and Japan, the countries most prepared to host sustainable brands
Fascinate has also conducted an ambitious international market study to determine in which countries these proposals could be implemented, since not all countries and their markets are identical; they are not all prepared to absorb new products and proposals in the same way, their sectors do not have the same level of digitalization, and their societies do not have the same degree of environmental awareness nor do they equally share the principles of sustainability and circular economy that are beginning to predominate globally.
As a result of this study, Fascinate has been able to develop a strategy, a framework for collaboration, development and internationalization based on information of high quantitative and qualitative value that will enable European fashion companies to redesign their products and growth models, both for the European domestic market and for the U.S., Canadian and Japanese markets. These are the three countries that have excelled for their maturity in welcoming brands and products that base their processes on sustainability principles and contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of a sector as productive and resource-intensive as the fashion industry.
Thursday, February 3, presentation ceremony
FASCINATE and the five clusters that are part of the project -- the Catalan Fashion Cluster MODACC, the Bulgarian entity BFA- Bulgarian Fashion Association, el Clúster “Lifestyle & Design Cluster” of Denmark, the Cluster Têxtil Tecnológico e Moda de Portugal CITEVE y el Clúster Digital de Catalunya,-- invite all the companies of the fashion, textile and technology- digital sector to participate in the presentation of the internationalization strategy study, which includes a roadmap, financing tools and partnerships already signed, but also open to incorporate agents and partners worldwide. In addition to accessing information, during the event it will also be possible to establish the first contacts to ensure that the opportunities that FASCINATE can generate are extended over time in the coming years. This is a free conference that will be broadcast from 10:15 a.m. to 12 p.m. in online format and requires prior registration.