Twelve partner organisations from six Alpine countries participate in the project to develop collaborative solutions, aiming to relocate environmentally sustainable textile value chains. These pilot solutions must be replicable, attentive and sensitive to "Made in the Alps" cultural and natural resources.

The project includes:

• developing tools to help cultural institutions document, revitalise and protect intangible heritage and craftsmanship;
• developing a matchmaking platform that matches SMEs with textile value chains in Alpine areas;
• orientation guides with environmentally sustainable solutions for businesses, raising awareness of sustainability and circularity;
• political strategy and governance documents to revitalise sustainable textile processes in Europe, in the action plans of the Alpine Macro-Regional Strategy (EUSALP) and the policies of regional authorities;
• creating innovative and immersive courses (MOOC and Metaverse) to raise awareness and build contemporary skills on the Alpine textile heritage.

This innovative project favours a multilevel strategic collaboration between agricultural, industrial and cultural policies. It generates knowledge by promoting consumers' growth and awareness of the cultural values of "Made in the Alps" textiles and their "green" manufacturing; it supports cross-border cooperation by facilitating joint action on a more efficient, resilient and resource-sensitive scale.

AlpTextyles will develop collaborative solutions to accelerate the relocation of sustainable and circular Alpine textile value chains, sensitive to natural and cultural resources and able to capture consumers' desire for a sustainable lifestyle.

The Alps have a rich textile heritage with specific aesthetics and know-how based on circularity and a focus on local resources (e.g. wool, linen, dye-works). Now that consumers are critical of products from globalised value chains and increasingly seek sustainable lifestyles, this heritage could help re-territorialise Alpine textile value chains, long disrupted by global sourcing and production. It would favour local natural resources, reflecting an attractive image capable of justifying the higher prices of Alpine products and promoting regional development and job creation.

Lead Partner: Polo Poschiavo (Switzerland)

Partner(s): Techtera (France), Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia), Early Makers Group / EM Lyon (France), Development agency Sora (Slovenia), Lombardy Region (Italy), Sistema Moda Italia (Italy), Bellissimo (Italy), Istituto Marangoni (Italy), Stand Montafon (Austria), Mediplant (Switzerland), Friedrich-Alexander-university Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany)

Year(s): 2022-2025

SUPPORTED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION THROUGH THE INTERREG ALPINE SPACE PROGRAMME: € 2,979,694 

Project website
www.alpine-space.eu/project/alptextyles 

@InterregAlpineSpace