Fashion craftsmanship 4.0: learning experience about Industry 4.0 technologies for hybrid digital fashion-tech products, processes, and business model design

The European fashion craftsmanship sector is renowned worldwide for its excellence and competitive value in producing tangible and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in creative practices and material artifacts. However, the competition of mass production at lower costs and the increasing jobs digitalization threatens the survival of fashion craftsmanship knowledge. In this context, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies could become a trigger to transform fashion craftsmanship by hybridizing workflows via new tools, gestures, and creative acts. Due to a technological and socio-cultural divide between the old and future generations of fashion craftspeople, new educational models are necessary to update the skills and imagination of future fashion professionals towards the revival of crafts ICH while accounting for holistic multidimensional sustainability. Therefore, the paper presents an interdisciplinary challenge-based learning experience conducted at Politecnico di Milano and University of Borås, combining a design and business management methodological approach to deliver Fashion-Tech proofs of concepts (covering product, service, process, and business model innovations). Delivered proofs of concepts demonstrate the potential of I4.0 technologies to preserve cultural diversity and local heritage, improve multiple dimensions of sustainability, and empower creativity and connectivity between different stakeholders. New products, services, processes, and business ecosystems of hybrid fashion craftsmanship can contribute to interdisciplinary learning spaces where different users/stakeholders connect and engage in co-creation and co-learning activities. Besides, the developed educational model can be applied to training fashion craftspeople 4.0.