Tag Archives: fashion

SILKNOW, fashion and tradition

SILKNOW is a European project that unites humanities and technology to study, conserve and disseminate silk heritage in Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries and its projection in culture, arts, design and today’s fashion.
European history is woven in silk. Silk trade was a vehicle of economic, industrial and cultural development in Europe, transmitting designs, fabrics, fashions and, above all, knowledge and progress, all universally captured in just one piece. Since the 15th century, silk has been more than a social code of fashion and design; it has been a vehicle for bringing people, places and ideas together. Today silk is alive in the current culture, art and fashion that still are experimenting with this inheritance.

Patryk Wojciechowski visits SILKNOW

On the 26th November, SILKNOW received the visit from the Polish fashion designer Patryk Wojciechowski who had a tour at our Garin’s HQ . There, he had the chance to discover how they are still weaving with historical Jacquard looms and some astonishing designs. Not only that, but he was witness of the most well-kept secret from all Valencia.  Later, he visited our coordinators (UVEG) to discuss the next steps on his creations and where he will show them.

Patryk will get inspired by historical designs, techniques, fashions and he will produce a SILKNOW collection based on them, moreover, he will use Monkeyfab’s 3D printers to innovate on textiles. 

This visit was a great opportunity to put in touch silk traditional industry with modern fashion design, as well as with academic research and the latest technology in image recognition (our Virtual Loom) and in 3D printing. This demonstrates that silk heritage weaves creativity, tradition and innovation in a single fabric.

Inspiring young designers

On the 24th September, our project coordinators visited the EASD (School of Arts and Design) in Valencia, Spain, and presented the project to students of last semester Fashion Design Course led by Prof. Mar Moya.

The team was composed by members from the SSH team: Ester Alba, Jorge Sebastián and Mar Gaitán introduced the project and explained to young designers the importance of silk heritage and the evolution of designs in silk along European history. Later, Cristina Portalés from the ICT team, showed our Virtual Loom and how it can be used to preserve historical weaving techniques but also to get inspired and boost creativity.


They will apply all this knowledge in an amazing fashion collection that they will present at the beginning of 2020.