Tech and Crafts: Technology, Crafts and Innovation for Future Fashion

Mercedes Rodriguez Sanchez

1. Figure 1. Project Muze.
2. Figure 2. Finesse’s voting system for selecting AI-generated designs.
3. Figure 3. Images generated by Robbie Barrat using AI (left) prototype inspired by these images (center) and final coat from Acne Studio’s Fall/Winter 2020 menswear collection (right).
4. Figure 4. Revolve and Maison Meta transformed AI-generated designs from the first edition of AI Fashion Week into physical garments available for purchase on revolve.com. Pictured: looks by Paatif (left), Opé (center) and Molnm (right).

María Luisa Calvo Frutos

1. Figure 5. Virtual simulation of twenty-four [Re]gPD blocks.
2. Figure 6. [Re]gPD blocks developed into a virtual vest.
3. Figure 7. [Re]gPD blocks developed into a virtual shirt.
4. Figure 8. [Re]gPD blocks developed into a virtual pullover.

Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran

1. Figure 9. Render of 3D replica of kimono made of recycled ledger paper.
2. Figure 10. Render of 3D replica of Padded hanten with bamboo motif.
3. Figure 11. Render of 3D replica of two Scott Paper dresses.

Lorraine Portelli

1. Figure 12. Adobe Illustrator (2023) was used to create the 2D patterns of the Għonnella.
2. Figure 13. X-ray image of the Għonnella.
3. Figure 14. 3D Photogrammetry of the Għonnella.
4. Figure 15. Digital recreation process of the Għonnella in CLO 3D.

Venetia Koutsou, Eleftheria Stoikou, and Maria Zoumaki

1. Figure 16. “The Story Behind” VR Museum. The central hall of the museum, in which the visitor starts the museum tour.
2. Figure 17. Left: “Wear Is Art” Exhibition Poster. Presented at Geni Tzami in Thessaloniki, this exhibition explored the fusion of fashion and visual art, inspired by iconic Greek artists. Right: a) “Frosyni” by Elena Tsalikidou, b) “Women of Clay” by Eleni-Maikanti Paliochoriti, c) “Matomenes (Bloodstained)” by Athanasios Vassiliadis. Matomenes (Bloodstained) by Athanasios Vassiliadis.
3. Figure 18. a) AI Tour Guide welcoming the visitor to “The Story Behind” Museum, b) “Little Stories of Revolution” Virtual Reality Exhibition. All Images and 3D Scanned Clothes were reprinted with permission from the designers, c) “Wear Is Art” Virtual Reality Exhibition.

Sylvia Bossenz, Carsten Behm, and Timo Schnitt

1. Figure 19. Photogrammetry of the artifact (left), original photograph from the Museum (center), Moritz from Buxtehude Avatar (right).
2. Figure 20. Flow chart of our processing and collaboration with the Historical Museum Hanover.
3. Figure 21. Our animated Moritz in his recreated cabinet.

Mercedes Rodriguez Sanchez

1. Table 1. Applications of generative AI across the fashion value chain

Lorraine Portelli

1. Table 2. Features and technical drawing of the Għonnella

Mónica Bueno Ortega

1. Table 3. Number of guild examinations in Seville, 1710 and 1726

Gisela Beatriz Fortuna Mantellini

1. Table 4. Project design methodologies. Main theoretical contributions
2. Table 5. Stages in the fashion design process

María Arcas Ruiz

1. Table 6. Milestones in the international history of coolhunting and the foundation of major trend agencies

Sandra Barreiro Parguiña

Technology, crafts and innovation for future fashion

The editors

“Tech and Crafts” is far more than just a book, it is a much broader project, an idea aimed at having many ramifications in the future.

“Tech and Crafts” represents the necessity of an agreement: just as progress must lean on technology, technology, in turn, must lean on tradition. These traditions materialize in production—whether craft-based or industrial—but also in the very conceptualization of designs. Ultimately, every object conceals a way of approaching problems and materializing solutions. Objects, therefore, express our culture and our heritage.

Thus, “Tech and Crafts” is a look to the future, but also an assertion of the past, of our history. Innovation and tradition are two sides of the same coin, two profiles that also serve to structure this book.

In the first part, we look from technology toward crafts, not with the aim of replacing them, but to explore them through new possibilities. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual garment simulation, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, data analysis, bioelectronics, and generative design systems are transforming the ways we conceive, produce, and teach fashion.

Naturally, the initial chapters of this book present some applications of these advancements for the sector. However, the focus quickly shifts to the relationship between technology and tradition, explored through the lens of heritage. It is noteworthy the extent to which this Industry 4.0 is creating an opportunity to highlight the value of textile heritage. Clothes undeniably reflect our history and customs, but their preservation and presentation to the public are not always that evident. Consequently, thanks to technical advancements, museums, institutions, and even major luxury brands are breathing new life into their archives.

In the second part of the book, the approach is the opposite: innovation is viewed through the lens of tradition. Revisiting historical techniques, processes, and past innovations allows us to better understand contemporary fashion practices and to place current developments within a broader cultural and technical continuum. This idea underpins the following chapters, which adopt a historical perspective and explore the material, technical, and methodological foundations of fashion production across different periods.

Innovation within crafts is a linear and cumulative process, one in which ways of making inherently contain the identity of their time, the genius loci, and the technical knowledge that is transmitted across generations. These chapters reveal how such knowledge continues to inform present-day fashion, from design methodologies and pedagogical tools to the development of contemporary products, brand narratives, and spaces for fashion retail.

Design is fundamentally a process in which innovation is almost always present. The final chapters of the book further develop this perspective, focusing on how design processes are carried out, but also on how they are learned, documented, and transmitted. Every design responds to a specific problem within a particular context, where technology often acts as a powerful tool. Learning to design therefore means learning to integrate history, technique, material culture, and innovation.

“Tech and Crafts” is, as we have said, an idea—a necessity that cannot be fully encompassed in its breadth and complexity within a single book. It requires many more actions, some theoretical, some educational, but also practical. In reality, these texts offer only a first glimpse, aiming to highlight how closely fashion and technology have always walked hand in hand, and how consistently this partnership has maintained a distinctly humanist character.

Therefore, while this book has many limitations, we have strived to bring together experts and researchers from around the world to offer the broadest and most diverse perspective possible. Our goal has been to unite all viewpoints around a common interest: the future of fashion.

We hope you enjoy it.

A necessary “new deal” and a strategic opportunity

Guillermo García-Badell*

Abstract

Industry 4.0 brings about changes at all levels. These changes are going to affect our production model, particularly the fashion system, and will modify society as a whole. To face this “revolution” with confidence in the future, a pact between tradition and innovation is necessary. This is the essence of the “Tech and Crafts” project as a whole, which finds a strategic location for its development in the Centro Superior de Diseño de Moda at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

The objective of this text is to present this project, provide it with a historical and theoretical framework, first highlighting its background, and then systematically reviewing the texts that comprise it. Ultimately, it aims to contextualize and introduce “Tech and Crafts” as a project presented here in book format, but ensuring guidance to future scientific, technical, theoretical, and practical developments, all of them endowed with a much broader character where technology acts as a driver of progress in its most extensive sense.

Keywords: Technology, crafts, design, Industry 4.0, fashion, patrimony