Recalibrating fashion education in light of emerging fashion-tech

“The industry is quite old fashioned so to say, and with every step in the value chain there is an opportunity to leverage technology and digital to improve processes. So that’s something we understand as fashion tech, that we can use technology and digital in every step of our value chain from design to selling, B2B and end consumer, and make that more efficient and better and sustainable.” (PVH, 29 June 2020)

“Covid-19 will completely re-shape and re-focus the Fashion and as consequence the Fashion-Tech market, curricula and employability profiles” – Eng.D. Enrico Cozzoni (PhD), (Grado Zero June 2020).

In light of COVID-19, devastating impacts to the fashion industry have forced businesses to accelerate, change and evaluate options to transform and respond to many challenges and difficulties. It is acknowledged that fashion-tech is operating in the context of a rapidly changing landscape for both the world, and fashion business and jobs. The integration between fashion and tech sectors has enabled a systemic shift in the fashion industry towards new business models, revenue streams, and improved sustainability and circularity. Fashion-tech when integrated across the full breadth of the supply chain leverages data is creating smarter and more sustainable products and services. In larger companies, fashion-tech incubators and start-ups are leading digital processes and upskilling, influencing and infiltrating within the business. The fashion designer having 3D design skills has become essential for current and future fashion-tech jobs. Finally, the focus on technical innovations for textiles and product development is directly linked to sustainable production and consumption. This paper is presenting the first outcomes of FT Alliance, an Erasmus + 3-year academia-industries partnership (2020-2023) aimed to facilitate the exchange, flow of knowledge and co-creation within the Fashion-Tech sector and universities to boost students’ employability and innovation potential. The project consortium comprised twelve partners from six countries: 5 fashion, design and engineering Higher Education institutions, 2 large fashion and apparel enterprise, 5 SMEs representing the Fashion-Tech ecosystem and the different supply chain segment and 1 Research Technology Organisation. Grappling with the concerns and global impact on the health, safety and vulnerability of employees and job stability, HEI partners worked in collaboration with industry partners to codesign different focus groups to discuss the future of Fashion-Tech. This paper shares research findings of these focus groups, outlining an integrated and embedded approach for interactions of HEIs with industry, guidelines on new pedagogical approaches and outlining future job roles.