Partners from Prato, the Textile Centre and the Veneto met businesses in the Prato district last week in order to cement progress towards the construction of a programme of short run opportunities. TCoE representative Bill Macbeth spoke to around twenty local textile companies at the Textile Museum in Prato: short run slides (English) or short run slides (Italian). He provided a succinct summary of opportunities being created by TCBL by bringing designers and manufacturers together across Europe, including Via - the local pratoexpo site.
Individual meetings also took place with Trafi and Lottozero. Fabio Giusti, or Trafi, displays a range of designs utilising various dyeing and punch needle techniques.
Additionally, Slovenian partner eZavod identified further opportunities for collaboration.
A few of the possible short run opportunities under discussion include:
- An artisan designer in Yorkshire providing patterns to a short run producer in London with the transaction to be facilitated by the TCoE
- A British designer working with a specialist dyer and textile recycling house in Prato, Italy. This will be facilitated by the TCoE (UK) and Prato (Italy).
- A designer in Sicily working with a print producer in the Veneto, facilitated by UCV
- A group of designers around the Prato region working and collaborating in a shared space with access to business and textile support. This will be facilitated by Prato.
- DALi Sport is interested in producing textiles for helicopter pilots from material with fire-proof characteristics. This will be facilitated by eZavod in Slovenia.
Posted By
Richard Axe