Path and modules
Innovation, Future Narratives
| Target | Age | Duration | Objectives |
|---|---|---|---|
| alumni & active community members; Labs & Gurus | all ages (25+) | 2 hours | Share interviewed profiles |
Introduction and context¶
The innovation path explores and maps the profiles of alumni & active community members surrounding the lab. This section contains the videos profiles of selected interviews. Together they create a repository of visions, learnings and thoughts coming from young women innovators, that the labs believe have exemplary and interesting routes to jobs.
Alice Zantedeschi and Francesca Pievani¶
Alice and Francesca are the founders of Fili Pari Srl Società Benefit, which is an innovative Fashion-Tech Startup that aims to support responsible fashion through textile innovation. The company designs pioneering materials and garments starting from a typical element of the Italian territory: marble.
"It wasn't always easy to be taken seriously, since we are two young women, but fortunately we met interlocutors who were able to recognize our value and, after an initial moment of amazement, helped us develop our idea"
Check the full profile done by Lottozero on the link below:
FILI PARI's Portrait by Lottozero FILI PARI Website
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech & Design | shemakes | Lottozero | Italian | Fashion Design |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| innovative materials | top female tech startup |
Beatriz Sandini¶
Beatriz has a background in Business Administration, Entrepreneurship & Textile Innovation with Fabricademy. She is currently working as a Designer and Concept Developer at TextileLab Amsterdam | Waag - in the cultural, innovation and educational sector. She is also an independent designer/entrepreneur at Cor Botanicals - fashion design / activism
"I think the most valid part of Fabricademy is that you learn as you go and make things. It also gave me this empowerment to do things that before I wouldn't dare to say I could. Really helping me to get the confidence to say: I can design, I can create a concept, a product, all from beginning to end by myself"
Check out Bea's final project for Fabricademy on the link below:
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| material research & education | Fabricademy alumna | TextileLab Amsterdam | brazilian | business management |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| teacher / educator | independent designer | |||
| social entrepreneur | independent innovator |
Bela Rofe¶
Bela Rofe, a 2019-2020 Fabricademy alumna at TextileLab Amsterdam Waag with an educational background in Anthropology, currently works as a freelance researcher, textile/biomaterial artist, and concept developer.
"As women in a very male-led world, we resort to reducing and suppressing intuition and I think that fabricademy allowed me to connect and explore my female intuiton (...) I didn't really have a rigid technique for building my final project my actual technique, part of the concept was listening to my intuition and putting wefts of fabric where it felt right, following a feeling"
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| art sustaibility | Fabricademy alumna | TextileLab Amsterdam | australian austrian | fashion |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| independent researcher | independent designer | |||
| (textile) artist | sustainability advocate | |||
| advocate for change | & heritage explorer |
Berglind Ósk Hlynsdóttir¶
Berglind Ósk also known as Boskbosk is an Icelandic fashion designer working with sustainability and traditional textile technique together with upcycling local textiles.
"It‘s great to be surrounded by creative powerful women in the same field as me"
Berglind Ósk / interview for Shemakes by The Icelandic Textile Center
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | TextileLab collaborator | The Icelandic Textile Center | Icelandic | BA in fashion design |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research on sustainable textile and recycling | working with traditional methods | innovative materials with sustainability |
Betiana Pavon¶
I think for me innovation comes when people with different backgrounds and knowledge but share a similar vision come together and produce something for the greater good for for humans but also for the planet
Born in Argentina, she began at an early age in the world of arts, thus, determining her solely vocation towards design. Throughout her professional training, she explored and ventured into various disciplines: architecture, interior design, photography, styling and art direction. She's currently living in Spain, where she graduated in the global Fabricademy program, at the Fab Lab Barcelona (IAAC).
Creator of the "Alaska Accessories" brand, her project is focused on revaluing and adapting the traditional millinery to a contemporary environment and wearers. In this context of communion between art and design, she has been winner and recognized in international competitions.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tech & craftsmanship accessories | Fabricademy alumna | FabTextiles | argentinian | hat and accessories |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| teacher / educator | independent artist | independent designer |
Camille Le Gal¶
Camille Le Gal started her career in the luxury sector. She became aware of the environmental crisis and launched Fairly made, a B2B solution helping brands on their sustainable sourcing, and impact evaluation. Camille had no textile education, she filled this gap thanks to her curiosity. She interviewed several experts and visited hundreds of factories.
“You should never hesitate to reach out to experts."
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sustainable sourcing | community member | makesense | french | luxury sector |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| teacher / educator | ||||
| indipendent innovator |
Denise Bonapace¶
Denise Bonapace is a designer who investigates the relationship between body and dress. To her fashion is a project language applied to the body and to the person. Her production is characterized by a design that sees the garment as an object, and the object as a garment. The body becomes a support for the communication of clothes, and the garment is a relational prosthesis that becomes part of the body.
She graduated in Industrial Design at the Politecnico di Milano. She is a consultant for a variety of fashion and furniture companies and has developed personal experimental projects in parallel. Since 2006 she has been teaching knitwear design at Politecnico di Milano, NABA and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
When you design a dress, you always design a relationship, even if the designer is not aware of it! The relationship between "dress" and "inhabitant" leads to communication, identity, attitude, behavior, state of mind.
Check her full profile done by Lottozero on the link below:
Denise Bonapace's Portrait by Lottozero Denise Bonapace's Website
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product and Fashion Design | shemakes | Lottozero | Italian | Industrial Design at the Politecnico di Milano |
| Sustainability |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professor of knitwear design at Politecnico di Milano, NABA and the Fashion Institute of Technology | Documentarian | Exhibitions around the world | independent designer |
Elena and Daria¶
Elena and Daria are two young female entrepreneurs. Daria is the co-founder of the brand OK KINO and co-founder of NAAM, and Elena is the co-founder of NAAM. They decided to embrace the path of entrepreneurship jointly since they share the same visions on sustainability and intelligence of their design. They decided to do so because they have the same vision towards the sustainability of the garments they offer, and in the creative process they develop towards achieving a unique piece of cloth.
Today, their products are show-cased in the most visited showroom from Chisinau - MODA, attracting customers with their concept which stands out from the crowd.
They try to combine the authenticity of their native country with the contemporary fashion to give an opportunity to get acquainted with the Moldovan culture. In each collection designers are trying to reveal this topic from a new minimalism perspective.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| design & management | shemakes | Ziphouse | Moldovan |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| knitwear entrepreneurs | knitwear entrepreneurs |
Eugenie Puzzuoli¶
She graduated from a business school and had no fashion background. This lack of knowledge allowed her to think outside the box. Reelle Paris’s bras do not have staples but rulers to self-adjust to everyone. At first, no supplier was convinced by it. She was right to insist: customers enjoy this ruler system, and Mood has extremely low return rates.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| design / management | community member | MakeSense | french | business |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Erika Schoberer¶
“to start and grow a business I’d say the key qualifications are a lot of ambition, the willingness to work and having fun doing it, dexterity, endurance, patience”
Erika’s Wollwerkstatt leads a wool manufacturing facility in Styria, Austria devoted to processing alpaca and sheep wool into a range of products like duvets, pillows, mattress covers, insoles and more, both from her own wool and that of others. This very successful business fills a gap in the market because it answers to the need of processing small amounts of local wool and makes use of lower quality wool that often is discarded.
A few years after Erika and her husband took over the family farm in 2011, the dental assistant decided to begin her own wool business, reconverting the cows stable into a wool workshop.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| manufacturer | shemakes | FarmLab | Austrian | dental medical assistant |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| wool duvets, felted products | wool manufacturer |
Gaia Segattini¶
Gaia Segattini is a fashion designer with over twenty years of experience. Since 2008 she has been writing about new craftsmanship and independent creativity on Condè Nast websites, like Glamour, Style and Vanity Fair. She is currently working on issues related to sustainability, Made in Italy and good entrepreneurship. She is the art director of the Weekendoit festival, which focuses on the sharing of artisanal techniques and the development of micro-entrepreneurship, and she is a strategic and merchandising consultant in the clothing sector for digital entrepreneurship.
She was a professor of Design Methodology at Poliarte in Ancona and a business tutor for the 2017 edition of the "Botteghe Digitali", a format of Banca Ifis Impresa in Mestre. In 2018, she launched her sustainable knitwear brand Gaia Segattini Knotwear, in partnership with a company from Marche, the region where she lives.
There is really no need for abstract products that only satisfy our expressive needs
Check the full profile done by Lottozero on the link below:
GAIA's Portrait by Lottozero. GAIA's Website
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion design, entrepreneurship, education & sustainability | shemakes | Lottozero | Italian | Fashion Design |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journalist,educator & social entrepreneur | sustainability advocate | |||
| Independent designer & brand owner |
Iuliana Chiroșca¶
Iuliana Chiroșca is a millinery designer and creator. She has a degree in law, but 5 years ago she decided that she would try a new hobby - millinery creation. It evolved from a hobby to a successful business with a lot of effort and dedication. Now, her hats are appreciated locally as well as internationally. Iuliana’s goal is to create hats that reflect the style and fashion of every client..
Through the means of her creation, Iuliana wants to educate her clients towards seeing the beauty in everything and learn how to appreciate the hard work behind her hair accessories.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion Designer | Shemakes | Ziphouse | Moldovan | Law |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| millinery designer | fashion brand entrepreneur |
Jessica Diaz¶
Jessica is a biomaterial researcher, designer and architect. She graduated from IaaC (Master in Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) in 2017 and worked as a biolab assistant at Fab Textiles and Materials Lab in 2018-2020, researching and giving support to students on biologically grown materials. She forms part of the group Biobabes, a collective that was founded in 2015 who investigate and collaborate with living systems for design applications. She is currently working as an instructor and researcher in biomaterials, with an emphasis on myco-materials and has co-founded s_biotica, a biodesign & material research hub in Barcelona
"I think for me innovation comes when people with different backgrounds and knowledge but share a similar vision come together and produce something for the greater good for for humans but also for the planet"
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| material, technology | community member | FabTextiles | spanish | architecture |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jessica Stanley¶
Jessica Stanley is a Fabricademy alumna from 2018-19 at the TextileLab Amsterdam. She has a background education in Physics and now pursues her PhD in E-textiles at Nottingham Trent University Department of Engineering, in addition to her PhD research, Jessica also teaches undergraduate electronic engineering and coding.
"You have to choose between being friendly and perceived as incompetent or being assertive and perceived as bossy.”
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| electronics research & education | Fabricademy alumna | TextileLab Amsterdam | irish | physics |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| researcher in academia | designer | researcher in academia |
Lara Campos¶
Lara is a material researcher, textile artist and sustainable designer. Her practice blurs the boundaries between materials, technology and biology, proposing new perspectives on biocentric design, opening space for dialogue between human beings and other living beings. After graduating Fabricademy with the project “Begrounded”, she established collaborations for the funded projects Future Wardrobe and Remix El Barrio. She is currently working as an instructor and researcher in biomaterials and co-founded a biodesign & material research hub space in Barcelona called s_biotica.
“We should shift our mindset to conceive of ourselves as humans that are not alone; we are a system of beings and I think that's the inflection point we need to understand collaboration.”
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| material, technology | Fabricademy alumna | FabTextiles | argentinian | fashion design |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Laura Civetti¶
Laura Civetti is a Designer specialized in material innovation, computational design and additive manufacturing applied for the textile and fashion industry. Through the implementation of emerging technologies, she explores how to foster the relationship between materials, and body for a more sustainable and intelligent design. Laura has worked with firms such as Iris Van Herpen Atelier as Digital designer, at Noumena as Head of Fashion tech design and Reshape - design platform as Coordinator to seek emerging designers for future industries. Today, she opened her Design studio to work with worldwide companies interested in integrating digital design methodology and material innovation for new sustainable assets. Moreover, she is content author for School of WRÅDand Project manager at Materfad-Center of materials Barcelona.
"In the fashion industry there are two main actors that are playing a big role: material innovation and digitalization of the processes through computational design."
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| consultancy fashion tech | Fabricademy alumna | FabTextiles | italian | Industrial Design |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lisa Revol¶
Lisa Revol made an exchange in India. She was disappointed: local shops were invaded by fast fashion. She had her own clothes made by local designers. This was the starting point for Azaadi : she realized she could develop a brand working with Indian designers. Lisa did not know anything about clothes creation and production. Forming a complementary team had a significant impact on Azaadi’s success.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| design management | community member | Makesense | french | design management |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Magnea Einarsdóttir¶
Magnea Einarsdóttir is an Icelandic fashion designer working with Icelandic wool and local knitting factory using traditional methods in her design.
"I saw it as a challenge that I wanted to take on, to create something fresh and new out of this locally sourced material"
MAGNEA / interview for Shemakes by The Icelandic Textile Center
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | Memeber of the fashion design association of Iceland | The Icelandic Textile Center | Icelandic | BA Honors in Fashion Design with Knitwear & MA in Cultural Management |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching at the Iceland University of the Arts | working with traditional methods | Local material and production | Innovative direction in Icelandic industry |
Monika Reindl¶
"For us women farmers the work with wool became a pillar for the farm itself, we can work at home which allows us to do many other things on the side, and the collective gives a lot of strength, we can talk about everything when we work together and exchange suggestions.”
Monika is one of the 5 sheep farmers of Wollgenuss, a solo women's association dedicated to handcraft products from 100% sheep's wool. Wollgenuss (roughly translatable as “the fascinating delights of sheep wool”) processes handmade, natural sheep wool products from the province of Eastern Styria in Austria since 2004. In Edelsbach near Feldbach, they built the first Styrian sheep's wool yurt, where they also organise courses and workshops about felting.
Monika was educated in tourism and worked in museum management before starting working full-time as a sheep farmer with the Wollgenuss association, of which she has been the chair since its foundation. In this video for SheMakes, she talks about the current value of sheep wool in the region, her very own relation with it, and of the challenges of a women entrepreneur.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| craftsmanship & accessories | shemakes & Vulkanland association | FarmLab | Austrian | museum management and tourism |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| educator through workshops and seminars | artistic crafter | wool felted objects | wool manufacturer |
Rym Trabelsi¶
Rym Trabelsi realized consumers were more and more curious about food production and its impact. At the same time, there was no transparent information on clothes. She launched Clear Fashion, to inform consumers about brands’ actions. To her, entrepreneurship requires self-confidence: she did not know how to build a business but she knew she could learn. Makesense incubator helped her to solve her challenges and build a network.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| entrepreneur | community member | makesense | french |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sara Alvarez¶
Sara has a background in Telecom engineering. She is a Fabricademy alumna year 2020/2021. After graduating she started to apply technology in textiles and fashion working on Business dev. associate in e-textiles, fashion tech research, fashion tech teaching.
"When in fabricademy, I had the feeling of complete openness like, just come here, express yourself, we're not here to compete. We're just here to learn together. It was all very much more like having room to explore without pressure of achieving something."
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tech for fashion | Fabricademy alumna | TextileLab Amsterdam | spanish | electronics |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indipendent researcher | ||||
| sustainability advocate | ||||
| indipendent innovator |
Stephanie Santos¶
Stephanie has a background in Fashion design and took part in Fabricademy 2018/2019. She is the founder of of Stephanie Santos and works as a freelancer for Fashion 3D Apparel.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fashion tech 3D printed fashion | Fabricademy alumna | TextileLab Amsterdam | portuguese luxembourgeois | fashion design |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| independent designer | independent designer | |||
| wearable tech pioneer |
Zorina Don¶
Zorina is a fashion designer from Moldova. She graduated from the Technical University of Moldova, and worked as a quality control manager, at this stage she developed her managerial skills and learned from the team she was working with. She founded her brand MODDON, because of the need to create something different that would perfectly describe her style. She aims at creating garments that identify with minimalism, but at the same time highlight each person's individuality.
Currently, she is working for her brand, amongst which she actively participates at courses organized by ZIPHOUSE, pursuing the goal to develop her entrepreneurial skills and learn how to better conduct her business.
| Field of action | network | Lab link | nationality | background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| shemakes | Ziphouse | Moldovan | quality control manager |
| academia and research | culture & society | Art & performance | design & production | industry/tech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fashion entrepreneur | fashion entrepreneur |