Developing a Fashion-Tech Educational model. Hybridizing design, engineering, and business management education

Background scientific research: A radical transformation has invested the textile, apparel, and fashion sector due to the encounter with technologies from ICT, biotechnology, and biochemistry and propelling the industry toward a 4.0 industrial revolution (Bertola and Teunissen, 2018). New offered products and services, professional activities, and the skill set of fashion employees need combined design, technical and business-related skills (Kalbaska and Cantoni, 2019). The convergence between design, technology, and business management in the activities within the fashion companies is reflected by the necessity for designers to expand their connective rules and abilities among different stakeholders and implement their understanding of technologies and engineering knowledge (Sun and Zhao, 2018). Research (Fashion-Tech Benchmarking Report, 2018) states the fragmented Fashion-tech sector searching for normalization, standardization, and shared language and knowledge among different organizations (HEIs, companies, and research centers) to define Fashion-Tech. Due to its constantly changing nature, updated educational curricula and models should be set up to fill existing and upcoming skills gaps (Fashion-Tech MA Curriculum, 2018; Kalbaska and Cantoni, 2019; Edu4Fashion Tech Design Tuning Document, 2018; Lee, 2020; Colombi and Teunissen, 2020;). Besides, continuous improvements and updates of the training curricula are needed to face the increasingly complex roles of designers (Oxman, 2016; Cross, 2000). An attempt to boost the dialogue between technology, design,and business management among actors with different disciplinary and industrial applicative sectors is run in the project Fashion-tech Alliance (2021; Colombi, Teunissen and Vellesalu, 2020; Teunissen and Danjoux, 2021), an Erasmus+ knowledge educational alliance that aims to support innovation and creativity through partnerships and interdisciplinary approaches, to enhance the quality and relevance of students’ knowledge and skills, to test and release open and innovative educational practices that will boost students’ employability and innovation potential. Taking care of future fashion-tech talents means taking care of the future development of the fashion-tech industry, applying technology for a responsible innovation toward an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable change (Rinaldi, 2019). Research issue to be addressed: This study proposes an overview of the issues related to the needs of hybridizing fashion, technology, and management disciplines in educational curricula toward an integrated, interdisciplinary and international educational model focused on the convergence between the creativity of design and fashion, the technological aspects of engineering and the managerial and planning attitudes from business disciplines toward an advanced fashion-tech design education. The paper aims to describe (i) the process used to co-design a new educational model for fashion-tech future talents developed by the joint discussion among different HEIS (Politecnico di Milano - School of Design; ESTIA École Supérieure Des Technologies Industrielles Avancées; Högskolan I Borås; University of the Arts London - London College of Fashion; Technische Universiteit Delft); (ii) the guidelines and approaches of the educational model allowing the cooperation and collaboration among different disciplines (design, fashion design, design and engineering, engineering and business management); and (iii) the emerging areas and topics where the integration of fashion design and technology show to be essential to investigate the limits and opportunities of the enhanced technology and Design dialogues toward a hybridized creative and engineering thinking. Methodology used: The definition of the Fashion-tech educational model was theoretically elaborated through the combination of both empirical and desktop research. In particular, the results gained from the Focus Groups were used to define an integrated curriculum model blending industry competencies and academic knowledge of the Fashion-Tech sector. Besides, desk research focused on innovative pedagogical models such as challenge-based learning (Nichols et al., 2016), Flipped Classrooms (Berrett, 2012), and Social Learning (Bandura, 1997). From this premises, an instructional co-design process was designed by the participating HEIs, following a participatory decision-making methodology based on quick consensus discussions, to reach an agreed definition of the fashion-tech format/educational model to be tested through three Fashion-tech learning experiences. Achieved and expected results: The paper will present the format/educational model in a list of guidelines that include insights and feedback from the HEIs and Companies perspectives’ and encourage the in-depth cooperation, interconnected thinking, and iterative interdisciplinary processing: flexibility, convergent education from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary learning, common glossary definition, companies involvement, interaction and engagement, real-world challenges, personalized learning, and openness. The limitation set by the actual academic rules will be discussed. Furthermore, the paper will reflect on convergency topics where fashion design and technology require significant attention to hybridize skills to enhance collaboration and innovation among designers and engineers. In particular, limitation and opportunities will be discussed in light of the possible innovation in the merged creative/engineering approach in these Fashion-tech areas: digital fashion, spanning from virtual modeling toward augmented reality and artificial intelligence, bio-based/biodegradable materials and chemical processes, circular design/engineering, smart textiles, and digital/connected wearables. Describing the areas from the two opposite perspectives at various stages of the design process (research, development, testing/prototyping), we will highlight how to increase interdisciplinarity approaches and learning experiences. This paper is expected to inform different audiences such as researchers, academics, trainers, and practitioners toward possible new converging educational methodologies and interdisciplinary educational programs.