Intertwining cultures / Project full video

Video transcript

AlpTextyles is an Interreg Alpine Space project that gathers the textile heritage of the Alps to establish a sustainable textile industry in the region.

12 partners develop business and cultural solutions based on sensitivity to local resources. Through cross-border collaboration, the goal is to lower carbon emissions and promote sustainable lifestyles.

AlpTextyles focuses on mapping the Alpine textile know-how and aesthetics, testing new technologic solutions for circular design and product development, and transferring them into the local ecosystem with online and offline tools.

It develops Orientation guides for SMEs and business support organizations to upgrade skills in heritage- sensitive marketing, Heritage safeguarding toolkits to help cultural institutions to digitize textile traditions, and a Policy brief with strategic recommendations for public authorities at the regional and macro-regional levels.

The project makes all its outcomes available in a MOOC, a Massive Online Open Course for students and professionals, launches actions on the Metaverse, and participates in policy meetings of the European Strategy for the Alpine Region and multiplier events, including Milano Unica, one of the largest textile fairs in the world.

AlpTextyles is innovative in that it operates at a geographical scale not usually seen, considers consumers’ perception and demand for sustainable products, and promotes an unprecedented collaboration level in the textile ecosystem, from breeders and craftspeople to technology experts and designers. Prompting circular climate-neutral solutions, AlpTextyles also helps to preserve the biodiversity of the Alpine sheep breeds and fibers and dyeing plants. It ensures environmental, social and economic sustainability for heritage-based craft and industrial textile products and sustainable lifestyles.