The European Project Native Is Born

European alliance to support talented young designers into fashion markets

The driving forces behind Native are the Borås City Council in Sweden, the Prato City Council in Italy, the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych in Poland, and the Catalan Fashion Cluster (MODACC), all members of the European textile network ACTE.

Financed by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, ten young European designers will be selected in a competition and go on to join fashion sector SMEs in creative residents and executing their own collection.

Promote 10 talented young European designers into the fashion sector: this is the main goal of Native, an ambitious European project in four countries: Sweden, Italy, Spain, and Poland. The designers selected via the European contest Rebelpin that joined the project will be able to secure a creative residency and also exhibit their work at European stages. During residencies, young designers work creatively alongside selected textile companies to create innovative products. The creative collections will be exhibited at the end of the project, in five different European cities.

The project, led by the Borås City Council in Sweden, involves the participation of the Prato City Council in Italy, the Sztuk Pięknych Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, and the Catalan Fashion Cluster (MODACC), all members of the European textile network ACTE (Textile Collectivities Association), which encompasses around thirty European institutions and municipalities with strong ties to the fashion industry. NATIVE is co- financed by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.

The Native project (New Creative Trails) was created with the dual objective of developing the skills of designers working in the design industry sector and, at the same time, facilitating the integration of creative skills into SMEs in the fashion sector. The native project allows an exchange of talent and experience in Europe. One of the objectives is to foster intercultural enrichment both for designers but and companies, and to promote fashion as a true cultural value.

Native organises mentorship and creative residencies at fashion companies, artistic and cultural institutions, and associations connected with the design and fashion industries in Italy, Poland, Sweden, and Spain. The selected ten young designers will have the opportunity to benefit from them. The project activities are aimed at developing young designer’s abilities through mentoring and inspiration. During their residence, participants will develop innovative products in partnership with companies.

With this initiative, the project seeks to bring intercultural and intergenerational dialogue for greater understanding of cultural diversity among young designers, as well as strengthen networking and communication skills, increasing their opportunities to penetrate new markets.

The end of the project is scheduled 2021/2022, five exhibitions will be held in different European municipalities to display the results. The Grand finale will be in 2021/2022 exposing the work of the designers and celebrating the Rebelpin contest. All planning is flexible due to the situation with Covid-19.

http://acte.net/native/