The three-year international European project FashionTEX came to an end with the FashionTEX Festival held in Riga on 30 September and 1 October. The project aimed to advance digital fashion education and promote the integration of new, future-oriented and sustainability-focused skills into fashion design studies. The two-day festival brought together young fashion designers and educators from 11 European higher education institutions, international experts and guests from abroad, as well as more than 300 visitors, including students from art and design schools in Liepāja, Rēzekne and Riga.
The festival took place at the Riga Makerspace prototyping workshop of the Art Academy of Latvia and at the LED Unit virtual production studio. The programme included discussions, an exhibition, presentations and a fashion show combining the traditional physical fashion show format with a digital visual environment.
The highlight of the festival was a physical and digital fashion show presenting 24 works by young designers, created during the two-week international FashionTEX residency at Riga Makerspace in September this year. Physical garments were presented alongside their digital versions and solutions created in virtual environments. At the LED Unit virtual production studio, a large LED screen created digital environments around the garments, while tracking technologies connected the models and physical garments with the virtual space. In this way, the digital environment became an integral part of the fashion show and its visual storytelling.
FashionTEX Festival Conference
An important part of the festival was the two-day conference “Digitalisation and Sustainability in Fashion: Benefits & Challenges”, focusing on the relationship between digitalisation and sustainability in the fashion industry, digital design, 3D technologies, virtual prototyping and the digitisation of fashion cultural heritage. The conference was also available via live stream.
Festival speakers included Ann Claes, Uwe Bodenschatz and Maarit Kalmakurki, who explored the potential of digitalisation in researching and interpreting fashion heritage. Panel discussions featured Isabelle Udo, Isabelle Palumbo, Sara Orfali, Frank de Rooij, Piret Puppart, Agita Klauss, Katerina Skarabelova and Irena Sabari Skugor. On the second day of the festival, the discussion “Digitalisation and Sustainability in Academia” brought together Ann Claes, Maarit Kalmakurki, Adele Parker, Dorette Bardos and Antonio Lo Presti.
Festival visitors also had the opportunity to explore the new laboratories at Riga Makerspace and the technologies used in the development of the students’ works.
FashionTEX Festival Awards
Two FashionTEX awards were presented at the end of the festival. An international expert jury evaluated the students’ works in six categories: 3D printing and laser cutting, CLO3D animation, CLO3D textures, digital creative direction, knitting and physical execution. Particular emphasis was placed on the combination of digital innovation, creative ideas and craftsmanship.
The Experts’ Award went to Han Nguyen, a student at Koefia Academy in Rome, while the Audience Award was presented to Letīcija Orlova, a Master’s student in Fashion Design at the Art Academy of Latvia. Fashion Design student Sofija Estella Donga also represented the Art Academy of Latvia at the festival. The exhibition also featured works by participants of the previous FashionTEX cycle, including garments by LMA Fashion Design students Artūrs Skurstenis and Paula Vēvere, previously presented at the FashionTEX fashion show in Amsterdam.
The digital works of the award winners will be presented during Riga Fashion Week, taking place in Riga from 20 to 24 October.
Advancing Digital Fashion Education
The FashionTEX Festival in Riga marked the conclusion of the three-year project, bringing together partner higher education institutions, students, educators, and experts in fashion and digital technologies. The international collaborative environment created through the project demonstrated how digital tools can complement traditional fashion design skills and expand opportunities for fashion development, visualisation and presentation.
For the Art Academy of Latvia, FashionTEX provided an opportunity to strengthen international cooperation in fashion and textile education, develop Riga Makerspace as an international environment for creative and technological experimentation, and enable LMA students to work alongside young designers and experts from across Europe. The festival in Riga was also supported by Amsterdam-based Future Front Row, which contributed expertise in digital fashion and virtual production and supported the implementation of digital solutions developed during the second stage of the FashionTEX project.
Special thanks for the successful implementation of the project go to Jānis Gailītis, FashionTEX Project Manager at LMA, and Fashion Design lecturers Agnese Narņicka, Indra Miklāva, Māra Binde and Ilona Pavloviča.
More information about the project and its activities is available on the FashionTEX website.
FashionTEX is an international project supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme. Its aim was to advance digital fashion education and promote the integration of future-oriented and sustainability-focused skills into the study programmes of European fashion higher education institutions. Project No. CREA-CULT-2023-COOP, No. 101127950.
Riga Makerspace prototyping workshop
Riga Makerspace is located in a historic building at Aristīda Briāna Street 13, designed by architect Roberts Augusts Pflūgs in 1880. It was once a laundry, a thread factory, and the Riga Light Industry Technical School. With funding from the EU funds attracted by the Ministry of Culture, the building has undergone an extensive reconstruction, transforming it into a significant centre for Latvia's creative industries, entrepreneurship, and education.
The Ministry of Culture invested approximately 12 million euros in the project, with nearly half of that amount, almost 6 million euros, coming from the European Regional Development Fund. The project was implemented by the SJSC “State Real Estate”. The project was developed by the firm Arhitektu birojs Krasts Ltd., and the construction work was carried out by the general partnership P un S Būvniecība.
Riga Makerspace is one of five projects implemented under the EU fund program to promote the revitalization of the city of Riga by ensuring the effective socio-economic use of the territory.
Information prepared by:
Laura Ozola
Art Academy of Latvia
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