📖 AlpTextyles Conference at Confindustria Moda: heritage meets innovation.
Hosted by project partner Confindustria Moda on July 11 at their HQ in Milan, the AlpTextyles Conference on Heritage and Innovation was more than a series of roundtables — it was a space for shared, intergenerational visions, and grounded collaboration.
Together with designers, breeders, researchers, institutions, and textile entrepreneurs, we explored how to build resilient, sustainable, and regionally rooted textile value chains in the Alpine space: from toolkits to safeguard heritage knowledge to orientation guides helping SMEs embrace circular models, and draft policy recommendations for regional and macro-regional authorities.
A few clear directions emerged:
⏭️ Start from local resources — raw fibers and skills.
⏭️ Shorten supply chains, making them more equitable, diverse, and shock-resilient.
⏭️ Bridge craft and industry — craft as a space for experimentation, industry as a scale enabler.
⏭️ Embed quality, durability, and beauty in sustainable design.
⏭️ Tell better stories, to consumers — but also to investors, institutions, and younger generations.
A key point: involve custodian communities and the new generations who will carry forward this living heritage. Without continuity and economic viability, safeguarding efforts can’t be sustained.
The AlpTextyles team is now finalizing the SME Orientation Guides, the Heritage Safeguard Toolkit, and the Policy Brief to be shared with EUSALP stakeholders and regional authorities.
For the opening remarks, we would like to thank Gianfranco Di Natale, General Director, Confindustria Moda, Hon. Vannia Gava, Italian Deputy Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, and Aleš Kegl, Project Officer, Interreg Alpine Space.
For the roundtables, thanks to everyone who contributed with insights, experiences, and ideas. Jawad Reddani, Enrico Sironi, Victoire Satto, Emma Casella, Alix Arto, Marco Rendina, Agostina Lavagnino, Kati Sekirnik, Ursula Tries, Bruno Motter, Christoph Walser, Mimi Urbanc, Pascal Gautrand, Patrizia Maggia, and Sylvain Guetaz.
Thank you to our very own Chiara Del Curto, Robin Oddon, Katarina Šrimpf, and Cassiano Luminati for moderating the event.
Stay tuned for the video content coming up soon on our YouTube channel!
—
🌐 AlpTextyles LinkedIn
📹 AlpTextyles YouTube
AlpTextyles Partners
Polo Poschiavo
ZRC SAZU – Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
emlyon business school
Razvojna agencija Sora
Regione Lombardia
Sistema Moda Italia
BELLISSIMO
Istituto Marangoni
TECHTERA
Stand Montafon
Mediplant
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
