Sustainability and the Social Fabric: Europe’s New Textile Industries 9781474224116, 9781474224147, 9781474224123

Citation preview

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Teixidors. 2013. Copyright Teixidors, 2013. Photo: Iker Basterretxea.

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC Europe’s New Textile Industries

CLIO PADOVANI AND PAUL WHITTAKER

BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2017 Paperback edition first published 2019 © Clio Padovani and Paul Whittaker, 2017 Clio Padovani and Paul Whittaker have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xii constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover design: Irene Martinez Costa Cover Image © Faliero Sarti 2013. Autumn/Winter Collection, 2013. Photo: Fred Lebain. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-2411-6 PB: 978-1-3501-0577-5 ePDF: 978-1-4742-2412-3 ePub: 978-1-4742-2413-0 Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters.

CONTENTS

List of Figures viii List of Contributors x Preface xi Acknowledgments xii

Introduction Clio Padovani

1

The challenges of a socially sustainable textiles and fashion industry 2 Plustex: An evidence-based approach 3 Chapter structure 5 Notes 8

1 Museums and the knowledge economy: Developing competitive advantage for the future Clio Padovani 9 Museums and the manufacturing regions: Culture, tradition, and heritage 10 Museums as knowledge transfer hubs 19 Innovation hubs and museum leadership 25 Conclusion: Knowledge hubs, networks, and social sustainability 28 Interview with Eulalia Morral i Romeu, CDMT, Terrassa, Spain, November 25, 2014 29 Interview with Filippo Guarini, Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy, October 29, 2015 34 Notes 40

2 Weaving a social structure: Achieving specialist distinction Clio Padovani 43 Social responsibility as a driver of economic and social development 43 Rethinking authenticity as a commercial value through the narrative of a community’s special labor 44

CONTENTS

vi

Innovation, the narrative of making, and a shared understanding of value 51 Product narrative and socially sustainable enterprise 58 Conclusion: Authentic narrative, economic value, and an industry sensitive to social sustainability 61 Interview with Jordi Purrà, manager, and Sofia Agerberth, export manager at Teixidors, Terrassa, Barcelona, November 25, 2014 62 Notes 67

3 Collaborative leadership, provenance, and the power of place Clio Padovani 69 Social sustainability: Importance of leadership, the value of the network, and mutual recognition of authentic experience 69 Harris Tweed as a weaving cluster: The provenance, the history, and the product 71 Planning a shared vision for Harris Tweed 77 Collaboration and leadership as tools for the empowerment for socially and economically fragmented textile manufacturing communities 84 The innovation gap or Valley of Death: The US and the European Union’s challenges in translating knowledge base into marketable goods and services 86 Conclusion: Value of the network and value for the community 87 Notes 88

4 Enterprise and social value: Responsible innovation in the denim industry Paul Whittaker The drive for innovation and the value of the workforce 92 Optimization and the duty of care 96 The added value of innovation 102 Conclusion: Creating shared value and societal benefits 106 Interview with Vasco Pizarro, director of marketing, Pizarro, Guimaraes, Portugal, September 9, 2014 107 Notes 112

5 Social enterprise, creative arts, and community development for marginal or migrant populations Paul Whittaker 115 The knowledge exchange initiative and incubating start-ups 116 Empowerment and the value of social capital 117

91

CONTENTS

vii

Empowering niche communities: Fashion Enter 121 Business-driven, policy-driven, skill set initiatives 125 Smart specialization: How the creative sector can have a positive social impact 126 Social enterprise, creative arts, and community development as  knowledge ecologies 128 Conclusion: Social bricolage 131 Interview with Jenny Holloway, CEO, Fashion Enter, London, March 11, 2016 132 Notes 138

6 Made in Italy: Reclaiming social heritage and artisan know-how Clio Padovani 141 Community know-how: Futuro Artigiano 142 Social heritage: Sarti 147 Forging a uniquely valuable identity: The value of community know-how to business 155 Conclusion 160 Interview with Roberto and Monica Sarti, Faliero Sarti, Prato, Italy, April 4, 2014 161 Notes 166

Conclusion Paul Whittaker Notes 171 Bibliography 172 Index 178

169

FIGURES

1.1

Internal courtyard of Ex Cimatoria Campolmi, now textile museum and city library. 2015 16

1.2

Museum entrance and damask weaving mill, TextielMuseum. 2008 16

1.3

TextielMuseum website screenshot. 2016

1.4

Antique Textiles Room. 2016

1.5

White Shirt According to Me. Gianfranco Ferré exhibition, 2014 24

2.1

Alabama Chanin—Collection—Ivory Jacket (left)—Ada Skirt (right). 2015 49

2.2

Community—Sustainable Design—Sewing. 2016

2.3

Teixidors. 2013

52

2.4

Teixidors. 2011

53

2.5

Teixidors. 2012

53

2.6

Teixidors. 2013

54

2.7

Teixidors. 2013

57

3.1

Orb Certification Trade Mark, stamped onto Harris Tweed. 2016 70

3.2

Hand shearing on the Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, UK 72

3.3

Measuring cloth, circa 1950

3.4

Mill darner inspecting cloth, circa 1950

18

24

73 74

50

FIGURES

ix

3.5

Harris Tweed Authority information leaflet

3.6

Warping the loom. Carloway, Isle of Lewis, 2013

3.7

Harris Tweed Authority van. Isle of Lewis, 2016

4.1

Scraping denim

99

4.2

Washing denim

101

5.1

The Social Outfit Newtown Fashion Show, Sydney, Australia. November 2014 120

5.2

The Social Outfit. 2016

5.3

Fashion Enter. 2015

5.4

Fashion Enter, Stitching Academy, 2016

6.1

Faliero Sarti, Autumn/Winter Collection, 2013

6.2

Faliero Sarti, Flags, Icon Collection, 2012

6.3

Faliero Sarti, Icon Collection, 2012

151

6.4

Faliero Sarti, Icon Collection, 2012

152

6.5

Faliero Sarti, Autumn/Winter Collection, 2013

79 81

83

120

122 123 147

150

158

CONTRIBUTORS

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3: Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Chapter 6:

Eulalia Morral i Romeu, Director, Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT), Terrassa, Spain. Filippo Guarini, Director, Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy. Jason Caslow, on behalf of Alabama Chanin, Alabama, USA. Jordi Purrà, Manager, and Sofia Agerberth, Export Manager, Teixidors, Spain. Kristina Macleod, Harris Tweed Authority, UK. Vasco Pizarro, Marketing Director, Pizarro S.A., Guimaraes, Portugal. Jenny Holloway, CEO, Fashion Enter, London, UK. Jackie Ruddock, The Social Outfit, Sydney, Australia. Roberto Sarti, President, Lanificio Faliero Sarti and Monica Sarti, L’Accessorio S.r.l., Campi Bisenzio, Italy.

PREFACE

This book was written between 2014 and 2016. It aimed to present new models of industry within a critical commentary, underpinned by European Union funded research conducted between 2008 and 2016. On June 23, 2016, the outcome of the UK referendum on membership of the European Union opened a new unexpected chapter in pan European academic research and knowledge sharing partnerships. In this new context, we offer this study as a snapshot in time, a record of a positive period, when industrial recovery and social well-being began to emerge through collaborative thinking necessitated by the 2008 financial crisis. Our research shows that strong leadership and a commitment to a way of working that can add value are crucial to socially sustainable enterprise. It is human beings, however, individuals, and crucially, collectives, who properly decide the terms of economic and environmental well-being. For this reason, we trust that the commitment to innovate and share to the best advantage of a sustainable European textiles and fashion industry will continue to endure.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have come about without the knowledge and insights gained through participation in international European Union funded projects that aimed to facilitate the competitiveness of the European textiles and fashion industry. These projects provided us with the opportunity to consider public policy, culture, and local enterprise, through the academic lens of Higher Education. The projects promoted new thinking about the economic and social impact of creativity, and enabled the establishment of long-term professional relationships between academics, local government partners, culture providers, and textile industry entrepreneurs. We would therefore like to acknowledge all the international partners of the Eurotex and Plustex projects, who generously hosted knowledge exchange meetings, and industry visits. Special thanks to Eulalia Morral i Romeu; Filippo Guarini and Laura Fiesoli, Fondazione Museo del Tessuto; Paolo Guarnieri and Nik Besnik, Municipality of Prato, Italy; José Machado and Gabriel Pontes, AMAVE, Associação de Municipios do Vale do Ave, Portugal; and John Hopkins, our research team colleague at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. In following through the idea for this book, we would like to thank all the colleagues who have provided assistance or contributed invaluable knowledge, in particular, Jason Caslow for Alabama Chanin, USA; Kristina Macleod from the Harris Tweed Authority; Jordi Purrà and his team at Teixidors; Roberto and Monica Sarti and Fashion Enter’s CEO, Jenny Holloway. Their input enabled our thesis to demonstrate more fully the socially sustainable value of our industry case studies. We would also like to acknowledge the unstinting help of our friends and colleagues, in particular, Ruth and Chris Thornton, who patiently fed back on first drafts without alarm, and motivated us through some of the harder sections; Dr. Walter van Rijin, our image researcher, who helped us track down all of our chosen images; and Ally McCombe, who helped us through the long hours of style guide and formatting. Finally, a big thank you to Lazlo and Mia, who heard little other than talk about this book for two years and more but remained unfailingly positive despite its impact on their Saturday mornings.

INTRODUCTION CLIO PADOVANI

Sustainability and the Social Fabric: Europe’s New Textile Industries is an evidence-based inquiry into some of the transformations occurring in the textile and fashion sector. To set the context, the textile and clothing business is one of the main manufacturing sectors in Europe. Data reported by Euratex, the European Apparel and Textile Confederation, note that in 2014, the turnover of textiles and fashion manufacture amounted to €165 billion, with further additional investments worth around €4 billion. Due to a revival of production in the European Union, the 173,000 active textile and clothing companies employed over 1.6 million workers.1 While these figures are impressive, our research indicates that the economic importance of the textiles and fashion sector and its tradition of manufacturing can be influenced by smaller numbers of specialist companies and individuals that maintain and develop the industry. Sustainability and the Social Fabric tells the story of some of those companies and how they have been able to sustain and renew some aspects of the industry by their innovative use of artisanal skills and generational knowledge embedded in their communities. Drawing on a series of case studies from across Europe, this book presents key examples of textile and fashion companies that are successful by virtue of their links with a specific European community. Each example brings to attention the intriguing mix of leadership, collaboration, traditional values, and skills development in a context of public policy initiatives that aim to encourage renewed confidence in niche, small, and medium-sized textile enterprises. The  objective of the book is to provide an evidence-based study on how harnessing the qualities of making through practice can influence new ways of considering social, economic, and political values. Sustainability and the Social Fabric analyzes a niche of the sustainability argument within the textile and fashion industry sector. It responds to the specific conditions created by the 2008 economic crisis, and should be seen in the context of the European Union’s innovation and growth agenda. Key discussions that impact on the

2

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

theme of the book are social and economic policy, social enterprise, and its potential to influence innovation. Consideration of the material culture of cloth, its local production, and history informs discussion of the postcrisis textile and fashion industry sector, as well as the creative thinking underpinning the adoption of new sustainable practices. The case studies represent evidence of a growth in artisanal quality manufacturing and socially driven technological innovation, while presenting connections between business innovation and community sustainability. We suggest that the diverse models of practice represented in the case studies contribute to new growth in the sector, design innovation, and improved social cohesion.

The challenges of a socially sustainable textiles and fashion industry Current scholarship into environmental and ecological sustainability underpins the premise of this study. The topic emphasizes the value of socially sustainable business practices for a competitive textiles and fashion industry, particularly for the knowledge-driven, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We offer an opportunity for reflection on the culture of material and craft skills and how this culture can be exploited. By foregrounding creative thinking and skills, we explore the proposition that the tacit knowledge and capabilities inherent in manufacturing communities represent an opportunity for innovation. Since the first decade of the twenty-first century, social challenges and sustainable communities have emerged as one of the key concerns in European policy. Stable and self-sustaining communities matter to international industrial policies that focus on competitiveness and the knowledge economy, to the political agendas of growth and the development of local jobs, and to the individuals who contribute to and develop communities. The challenge of refugee migration and displaced communities places great importance on policy and strategies that provide practical road maps to social integration, as well as transition into new ways of living and working. The creative thinking that we have found in some of the specialist textile and fashion companies in this book can perhaps come to influence better, more widespread understanding of the benefits of socially aware entrepreneurship. We propose that, when sustainability is a matter of community engagement, social benefit is not divorced from creative innovation and economic success. In this book, we focus on business innovation with a strong emphasis on industrial and artisanal skills embedded in the community. The European textile and clothing sector aims to distinguish itself through a knowledge-based economy that increasingly relies on collaborative relationships with the social,

INTRODUCTION

3

cultural, and technical skills capital rooted in its local communities. Of primary importance to us, while investigating areas of activity often associated with the social sciences, is to maintain a frame of reference that prioritizes the creative industries, the narratives of making, and the evolution of skills and material knowledge that are particular to communities and their people. This is consistent with what Richard Sennett, in The Craftsman, 2008, describes as “what the process of making concrete things reveals to us about ourselves.”2 Material history and the history of made objects, which include the fabrics and garments that comprise our field of study, can convey to others the narratives of making, of what is made, and its significance. Sennett observes that these stories, in turn, might generate “religious, social, and political values.”3 As practitioners and academics with backgrounds in Textiles and Fine Art, we have, over time, developed a shared interest in the material histories of objects and images and their ability to capture and transmit significant values through their social narratives. Working in a research-led institution that spans business and the creative arts has provided a rich environment for researching the contexts of creativity and innovation. Considering the values of community, creativity, and engagement, we seek to offer an opportunity for students to acquire knowledge of creativity in innovation, and prompt thinking that might lead to more responsible, socially sustainable practices in globalized industries.

Plustex: An evidence-based approach The evidence-based approach taken in this book is mainly grounded on knowledge acquired through research conducted as part of Plustex, a three-year European Union Interreg IVC project.4 Between 2011 and 2014, Plustex brought together nine international partners based in well-known European textileproducing regions, to collect and evidence the impact of regional public policy on improving the competitiveness of the textile and fashion industry. The research was limited to six areas of policy (themes) identified by regional industrialists as the most significant in affecting their economic future. Evaluation of the transferability of each partner’s research was one of the criteria that enabled our reflection on the strategic impact of policy on industry. Knowledge sharing meetings included industry visits that enabled further understanding of what the 2008 financial crisis meant for regional textile producers. The Plustex project introduced our research team to debates that focused on public policies that prioritized support for the creative industries. By researching the themes of the project, we found that the UK and mainland Europe have distinctly different arts and business policies, particularly with regard to the support of young entrepreneurs. This separation in thinking was found to have

4

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

profound effects on the development of design-led start-ups and, conversely, in exploiting the use of creativity as a business advantage. The content of Sustainability and the Social Fabric is underpinned by reference to some key concepts and thoughts. First, the author Richard Sennett, mentioned above, suggests that craftsmanship is “the desire to do a job well for its own sake,” and argues that the qualities of skill, commitment, and judgment, brought together in thoughtful labor, produce “viable proposals about how to conduct a life with skill.”5 In our case studies, and based on our research of other businesses not covered within this book, a version of this concept helps underpin the missions of businesses that put people at their center. This can be demonstrated internationally in the work of the American company Alabama Chanin, described in Chapter  2, so as to provide a context for the Spanish company Teixidors. Alabama Chanin has prospered through the recovery of local and historical textile production skills. The personal narratives of Alabama quilters are one of the compelling stories that have emerged from an enterprise that has a community focus. Everywhere, when researching this book, we have found evidence of how personal histories influence both social activity and business practice, be it an individual’s success in finding work, a first-generation company looking out for its workers, or a multigenerational business searching its archived past to ensure a prosperous future. In thinking about the account of making and the made object, we consider narrative to be a personal and social history construction. In this, we reference the cultural historical approach of Simon Schama who, in Citizens, observes that “narrative … weaves between the private and public lives of the citizens.”6 The stories we evidence bring into light both the importance of individual contributions and their achievements, as well as the added value narrative associated with artisan-made objects. In Australia, expressions of hybrid culture and the personal histories of refugee and migrant communities are finding a voice through the fashion social enterprises set up in Sydney and Melbourne. Organizations like The Social Outfit, referenced in Chapter 5, seek to ensure the sustainability of migrant communities by training them to design and produce fashion influenced by their diaspora. This compelling product narrative has a heritage, by virtue of the individual designers and makers, that spans centuries and expands the notion of storytelling. Increasingly, the voices of individuals— citizens, to recall Schama—provide an authentic account of the way businesses promote their creativity, integrity, or longevity. Narratives can create new bonds with consumers and develop new markets among those customers who desire to participate in authentic and responsible lifestyles. Finally, we acknowledge the wide-ranging discussion on crafts that has been central to the continued success of the UK creative industries. In The Invention of Craft, Glenn Adamson focuses his study on “today’s climate of postdisciplinary flux.” In his view, “The stark dichotomies suggested by the

INTRODUCTION

5

pairing of craft/industry no longer hold.”7 While we share Adamson’s conviction, our interviews with industry and associated professionals based in the UK and mainland Europe suggest that this conviction is only partially established. For the purposes of this book, we have adopted Adamson’s definition of craft as “making something well through hand skill” and adapted our thinking through reflection on his understanding of the word “artisan” as a skilled worker that might be defined best by the French and Italian dictionary definitions.8 We use the words industrial artisan where we want to indicate working in a manufacture context that benefits from the qualities associated with the handmade, the production of small runs of manufactured goods that are informed by timehoned skills, tacit knowledge of processes and materials, and tradition usually associated with a craft maker.

Chapter structure The chapters and case studies each differently engage with the theme of sustainability. They constitute reflections on observations made in situ and responses to real business or social challenges. Their format is a mix of description of the complex reality of the entrepreneur in the textile and fashion sector and engagement with relevant literature. They open, for nonspecialists, insights into academic discourse, the creation of value, communities of practice, collaboration, social sustainability, and public policy initiatives. Where possible, we have included a structured interview with a professional linked to the relevant case study. In Chapter  1, “Museums and the Knowledge Economy: Developing Competitive Advantage for the Future,” we address the theme of social sustainability by focusing on how culture and heritage can help maintain communities that are closely linked to local textile industries. We present a view of how textile organizations, previously thought to work discretely, are gradually becoming more interconnected. The chapter demonstrates how, in some European Union regions with long-standing traditions of textile manufacturing, specialist clustering activities are served by the efforts of regionally based textile museums. Increasingly integrated within their local social, political, and manufacturing communities, whose culture and interests they represent, museums can offer leadership and stimulus in transnational knowledge transfer projects, and in the development of the networks that can aid business innovation. Chapter  2, “Weaving a Social Structure: Achieving Specialist Distinction,” foregrounds the theme of social sustainability from the perspective of cooperation and mutual benefit. It demonstrates how a Spanish textile cooperative, Teixidors, creates a sense of authenticity in its products, not through technological means,

6

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

but by offering a different experience of material and emotional relationships. The chapter references the academic and literary thinking of Walter Benjamin to frame a discussion around authenticity in the production of, and engagement with, material objects. A comparison is offered by way of the authentic traditions of textile production maintained by the sustainable community model of the American company Alabama Chanin. The chapter exposes how industries can create an experience of value through highly specialized products that benefit from social difference. The forty-five weavers and finishers at Teixidors, a social group that could have been marginalized by their learning difficulties, offer a model of textile enterprise in which consumers contribute to the creation of the authentic. This genuine cooperative project has enabled both better integration of the local community and the strong international development of the Teixidors brand. The theme of social sustainability is developed in Chapter 3, “Collaborative Leadership, Provenance, and the Power of Place,” by assessing the importance of leadership, the value of local networks, and the mutual recognition of shared benefits arising from cooperation. The focus of this chapter is on the Harris Tweed producers in the Outer Hebrides, a craft-based cluster that until 2006 was facing terminal decline. The geographical place and protected brand of Harris Tweed both enabled the product’s iconic premium quality and, in equal measure, disabled its manufacturing community. While the story of the recovery and development of Harris Tweed is referenced to provide context, the focus of the chapter is located in the clustering and networking activities needed to ensure the survival of what was officially designated a fragile community. The  recovery of a manufacturing community in crisis offers a model through which to consider planning and cooperation as fundamental prerequisites when facing the challenges faced by today’s artisanal textile producers. The chapter identifies future skills development and the smart specialization strategies endorsed by the European Commission as tools for the empowerment of socially and economically fragmented textile production clusters. The case study is not supported by an interview, but has been extensively informed by conversations held with Kristina Macleod, of the Harris Tweed Authority, during the spring of 2016. Chapter 4, “Enterprise and Social Value: Responsible Innovation in the Denim Industry,” engages with issues of environmental sustainability by weaving it into the broader context of social innovation. The chapter engages with the theme of entrepreneurial innovation and technological discovery. Considering the ethical and well-being issues for the workforce as a springboard for innovation, we explore the idea of key enabling technologies (KETs) and the goods and services the European Commission believes will help address the societal challenges of the future. The case study of the family-owned, Portuguese company Pizarro provides the focus for observing the entrepreneurial process and the

INTRODUCTION

7

commitment to innovate informed by social responsibility. Originally a textile dyeing company, Pizarro is a very large employer in the region, finishing garments for global companies like Inditex and its subsidiaries. Mindful of designer trends for worn and softer looks in the use of denim, and the industrial accidents in underregulated outsourced textile factories, Pizarro has innovated to promote new, nontoxic processes. The company maximizes the long-term capabilities of its community and the high added value of its proposition, while maintaining a long-standing familial character. Chapter 5, “Social Enterprise, Creative Arts and Community Development for Marginal or Migrant Populations,” tests the premise that knowledge exchange promoted by universities, government, and private stakeholders can foster the conditions by which communities can become more socially inclusive, more cohesive, and self-sufficient. Social sustainability is investigated from the perspective that business enterprise can promote a story of individual and community empowerment in environments that might otherwise have low expectations for future achievement. The very diverse experiences of refugee populations and inner-city youth unemployment are referenced through the initiatives of two Australian companies, The Social Outfit and The Social Studio, as well as, in the UK, the training and manufacturing company Fashion Enter. In Australia, the cultural heritage of refugees informs the designs and garments produced by these social enterprises that have created self-sustaining training and business development networks. The London-based case study shows how challenges arising from unemployment in young people have been transformed by a social enterprise that offers recruits new routes to qualifications and manufacturing apprenticeships, while promoting the recovery and retention of fashion technology skills. Chapter  6, “Made in Italy: Reclaiming Social Heritage and Artisan KnowHow,” completes the thematic exploration of social sustainability by calling attention to the value and mutual benefit to the textile industry of unique, timehoned skill sets within artisanal communities. The specialization of artisanal manufacture and pride in its quality is captured in the case study of the Italian woolen mill, Faliero Sarti. Faliero Sarti’s extensive industrial archive charts a history of design and technological progress based on the craftsmanship of its workers. The success of this company remains conditional on specialized knowledge embedded in its community. The regional district, active in wool production since the Middle Ages, is a reservoir of tacit knowledge employed to facilitate problem-based innovation and very high quality standards. Consistent with this historical trajectory, the company compares its business evolution to the progressive postwar identification of Italy as a nation of world-class industrial artisans. The  case study provides an opportunity to review contemporary points of view around the role of knowledge-driven craftsmanship in ensuring competitive advantage and community sustainability.

8

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Sustainability and the Social Fabric: Europe’s New Textile Industries presents a unique portrait of several European textile enterprises and their manufacturing innovations as they strive to be competitive in an increasingly global industry. Each business illustrates broader principles and models of practice that are indicative to their locality. We show that companies are creating new standards of knowledge and specialization by working—in a number of ways—with their local and regional communities. We argue that these companies not only represent innovative models for successful business but that their creative and economic success is linked to their contribution to local society. These business examples enable readers to reflect on how cooperative relationships between an enterprise and its community can lead to mutual benefit, a benefit that at times extends into areas of technological innovation that affect the industry more broadly. Finally, this book presents some innovative models of business that propose, by ensuring textiles and fashion production works with the inherent social value of its community of makers, how artisan skills productively contribute to a more socially sustainable textiles and fashion industry.

Notes 1

“EURATEX Key Data,” (2014), European Apparel and Textile Confederation, available at: http://euratex.eu/library/statistics/key-data/key-data-details/?tx_ttnews%5Btt _news%5D=4846&cHash=a43f98d261ba88233db94846a8f7e08e (accessed December 17, 2015).

2

Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 8.

3

Sennett, The Craftsman, 9.

4

“Plustex,” (2011–2014), Comune di Prato, available at: http://www.plustex .eu/?page_id=2 (accessed June 6, 2015).

5

Sennett, The Craftsman, 9.

6

Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (London: Penguin, 2004), xvi.

7

Glenn Adamson, The Invention of Craft (Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2013), xv.

8

Adamson, The Invention of Craft, xxv.

1 MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: DEVELOPING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR THE FUTURE CLIO PADOVANI

This chapter presents a view of how, for mutual benefit, textile activities previously thought to be discrete are becoming increasingly interconnected. It demonstrates how actors in the manufacturing and innovation ecosystem are developing new models of activity that link across regional, social, and technological spheres. This chapter addresses the theme of social sustainability by examining instances of how culture and heritage can help maintain healthy and durable textile communities. In some European Union regions with long-standing traditions of textile manufacturing, museums have been established as the repository of local knowledge and skills, as well as the accumulated narratives that accompany the process of artisanal and industrial making. These textile museums are playing an increasingly important role in preserving, educating, and disseminating good practice related to applied intellectual property, the tacit know-how that characterizes the current drive to maintain the knowledge economy. This chapter begins by illustrating how museums have become an intrinsic element of the knowledge economy; how their collections and holdings protect the knowledge wealth of the industry, the design and manufacturing traditions, and the local communities they serve. Following the 2008 financial crisis, museums have had to respond creatively to the new funding climate imposed by governments seeking to implement

10

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

austerity measures, never more so than in the countries and regions, such as Italy and Spain, which host some of the most prominent textile museums. European textile manufacturers and their associated industries have experienced company failures or extreme financial difficulties. The competitive pressure of increased manufacturing and outsourcing of high-volume, lowvalue goods to far eastern competitors began this cycle of crisis and was followed by the decline in orders from the luxury couture markets in Europe and the United States. In this situation, working on the conscious acknowledgment of the importance of heritage in maintaining connected knowledge clusters, regional textile museums have had to develop new models of activity that link their regional, social, and material history networks. Aware of the need to cluster around cultural and technological heritage, education, enterprise initiatives, and, in some cases, policy-making recommendations, museum teams have been able to establish a more significant societal presence through the clustering and preservation of diverse interests, industrial expertise, and manufacturing community networks. The collected narratives embedded in objects, industrial equipment, and the roll call of high-level skills are a powerful repository of manufacturing knowledge and a key to sustaining a high-quality textile industry. The European Union has recognized the importance of the preservation of industrial knowledge and the value of the clustering of communities associated through their manufacturing heritage and traditions, so much so that it has identified museums as one of the elements of the triple helix innovation ecosystem.1 By studying the experience of European textile museums, this chapter sets out a case for museums as organizations that can help drive innovation and take a lead on motivating new models of artisanal and industrial activity. Drawing together the cultural, social, and technological capital of the European textile and clothing industry, their activities inspire a collaborative approach to innovation that can be a springboard to a competitive future.

Museums and the manufacturing regions: Culture, tradition, and heritage Accumulated narrative of making: The knowledge and skills economy Writing in the field of cultural studies, in On Longing, Susan Stewart takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining relationships between narratives, origins, and objects. Engaging in a complex web of literature, psychoanalytic thinking, semiotics, and cultural theory, she posits the thesis that narrative is a structure

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

11

of desire capable of generating or forming the subject. When describing one of the meanings of the word “longing,” specifically focused on a definition related to belongings or appurtenances, Stewart connects longing to the capacity of narrative “to generate significant objects.”2 The narrative of longing, in this context, may be viewed as a system that helps construct and form the notion of the body and the self. In her study, the body, in its relation to interiority (or the self) and exteriority (the outside world), part to whole, is understood as the driver of desire; that desire drives and animates narrative. Working through the idea of longing, belongings, and objects of desire, in On Longing, Susan Stewart takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the meaning of collections, objects generated by means of narrative. She uses the idea of collections to express how the narrative of the personal, constructed within each of us as an expression of the self, operates in consumer society. For Stewart, the collection marks the connection between all narratives, “the place where history is transformed into space, into property.”3 The collection enables the self to organize a narrative of objects, established according to “a dialectic of inside and outside, public and private, meaning and exchange value.”4 Moreover, Stewart presents the idea of collections existing between the private and the public sphere, between personal and social time, and that collections can begin as a way of arranging, through knowledge or expertise, the hidden narratives of an individual. Curating and assembling the collection as private identity, the individual’s narrative is connected to the organization of a culture, a reflection of personal narratives, where individuals become the collectors.5 It follows, therefore, that it may be possible to connect the idea of narrative as the “collection of the self,” to discussion of the accumulated narratives that accompany the process of artisanal and industrial making. This would be understood, in the case of the artisan maker, as the knowledge, attributes, and competencies that underpin the production process; a common narrative of making, in the case of localized industrial manufacture, to be the collection of the intangible, local, and social practices of a knowledge-making community. In “Knowledge in Memory: Corporate and Museum Archives”, Federica Vacca discusses the rise of initiatives associated with Italian (and French) textiles and fashion companies. She notes that the Italian companies systematize the memory and knowledge of their history and production, give more value to the intangible assets related to their local manufacturing context, and as a result enable competitive differentiation. The cultural heritage held in company archives captures their design trajectory and artisanal manufacturing innovation, and is accordingly driving companies to set up corporate museums. These museums not only communicate their company’s distinctiveness and authority in the business arena but also constitute what Vacca terms, “active culture resources.”6 If we follow Stewart’s thinking, as well as active cultural resources, these company museums may also be thought

12

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

of as the collection of the knowledge of a making community. The Ferragamo corporate museum aptly exemplifies this concept. Ferragamo, a luxury artisanal producer of  footwear based in Florence, Italy, articulates its museum display space,  and external website, by contextualizing its products (among which are shoes  produced for Hollywood stars of the  1950s and 1960s) within a sociocultural and material  landscape. The artisanal tools,  wooden shapes (tomaie), and materials used in making each pair of shoes are displayed along with original photos and design  inspiration, demonstrating the  value to the company of the long process of knowledge  accumulation and the intangible added value that the artisans confer to their products. The establishment of the corporate museums is a new addition to the longestablished tradition of collecting and retaining textile heritage. In some regions of Europe with old, deep-rooted textile manufacturing traditions, the accrued knowledge and skills evidenced in physical textile samples that demonstrate those skills have been the objects of sustained study for hundreds of years. In the nineteenth century, for example, there was a renewed interest in collecting antique textiles focused primarily on examples of the technical structure and design of the cloth rather than the garment or textile it came from. Merchants of antique textiles, who through their profession had been instrumental to the preservation of historical textiles, collected with very precise criteria. The most important measures for the time were the possession of a particular and prized motif. This accordingly required only the collection of a fragment of the overall cloth. Merchants were therefore able to satisfy several customers by breaking up one item. This has left a lasting impact on the physical size and composition of many private collections; in many cases, the information on the form and function of whole garments, including their provenance, is lost. Evidence suggests that a collector’s desire for these textile fragments can be motivated by many diverse enthusiasms. Strong relationships between collectors, manufacturers (often one and the same), merchants, and the communities of artisans and specialist trades who produced the textiles often underpinned the drive to accumulate examples of past knowledge. By extension, education or the transmission of specialist, artisanal, and local knowledge to the children of textile workers who had generational links to the manufacture of textiles also provided, for some collectors, an incentive to share or donate entire collections. These textile collections have subsequently become the foundations for museums and educational institutes across Europe. In postwar Prato, Italy, one such collector was local entrepreneur Loriano Bertini. He became aware of the availability of an important collection that had once belonged to one of the best known dealers of antique textiles in the Florence area, Giuseppe Salvadori. Bertini purchased this collection, which had remained untouched since the dealer’s death, between 1968 and 1969, with the simple aim of augmenting his own holdings. However, when he donated his

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

13

life’s collection to a technical preparation college specializing in textiles, the Buzzi Institute, Bertini expressed his rationale as the desire to facilitate the development of students noting, “antique things made by intelligent men create intelligence for us and for the men of the future.”7 Bertini’s legacy of textile objects that aim to sustain design and improve the industry he admired is very similar to the enthusiasm that sustained Henry Cole in the development of the original South Kensington Museum, now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Cole held the intention to draw on a reserve of decorative motifs, created in the past, in order to find inspiration for new lines of production. His aim was to requalify historical products through the founding of schools of applied arts and the establishment of collections of ancient examples of artistic types to benefit public educational establishments, not private collectors. Today, the practice of retaining historical products to inspire innovation, initiated by Cole, continues to inform product development and enterprise through the corporate collection and dedicated specialist museums.

Retaining and preserving textile know-how: Corporate and public archives As we have seen, textile collections and archives can be utilized in a range of ways that reflect the mission of the corporate or public nature of the host. Both the corporate and the public collections maintain a focus on the design history encapsulated in their collections and the collective knowledge and artisanal skills that underpin the making; there are however some differences. In the case of corporate textile archives of luxury products, the design history and practice are often enhanced by a history of the brand and its impact on societal taste and trends. This is presented through a material history of iconic objects and themes. For instance, the online presence of the Gucci Museo in Florence establishes the significance of its archive on the front page. The page defines the Gucci identity as a brand and introduces the gravitas of its presence in industry, its global influence on taste in fashion and textiles, while advocating and maintaining the focus of design innovation on the ingenuity and creativity of its artisanal knowledge. The online page dedicated to the archive identifies the Gucci company as “a byword of the Italian craft and glamour,” highlighting the accessories, prints, and logos that marked its history.8 The Gucci Bamboo bag is, for example, presented by a short history of its design and manufacture: First created in 1947, the original Gucci Bamboo bag was a small constructed handbag crafted in pigskin with a curved bamboo handle, the design became an iconic example of the acumen of Gucci’s craftsmen who were pushed to invent clever solutions to war time rationing of materials […] Nowadays, the construction of each bag is made with the same techniques used for

14

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

the original model and requires 13 hours of craftsmanship to guarantee the perfection of the details.9 A contemporary red crocodile bag and an iconic 1960s’ canvas bag with logo illustrate the text. The images are part of a short series that includes the drawings created for the 1958 and 1959 patent applications. The series shows two different handle treatments, the former as an undivided cane and the latter as a number of separate lengths of cane arranged in the same semicircular shape. The narrative of craftsmanship and artisanal knowledge involved in the Gucci Bamboo Bag is a thread that runs through its presentation; they display its iconic status through time, the transmission of tacit knowledge across generations of artisans, and the design innovation characteristic of the narrative of making and material expertise. In these images, the archival culture and heritage collection of the Gucci brand recognizes its connection to the communities that serve and sustain it. The archive repository of accrued skills and design capabilities exemplified by products such as the Gucci Bamboo Bag is a keystone of the company’s competitive advantage. It is a symbol of the group’s manufacturing history and represents the added value this narrative offers to a knowledgedriven economy. For public museums, the archiving of textile materials and cultural heritage is different from that of the corporate collection. The Centre Documentació y Museu Tèxtil (CDMT) in Terrassa, Spain, is one such public museum. CDMT is positioned north west of Barcelona, in the Vallès region of Catalonia. The region has a long history of textile production. In a way reminiscent of the origins of the Prato museum in Italy, in 1946, CDMT developed out from the donation of a private collection of historic fabrics. A wool industrialist called Josep Biosca made the donation. The collection of Barcelonese industrialist Ricard Viñas was added a few years later. CDMT is the first specialist center of its kind in Spain. It has a unique collection of modernist Catalan Art Nouveau pieces made by Catalan artists, designers, and companies from the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The museum has worked tirelessly to promote its international collection and its regional cultural heritage, so as to encourage engagement with Terrassa as a contemporary exhibition environment and to develop CDMT’s reputation as a national and international resource and study center. Understanding that its mission and reputation would be enhanced by the ability to engage a global public in research and study opportunities through free access to online archives, CDMT was one of the first textile organizations to embrace the digitization of its archives. The Textilteca, or library of textiles, offers the public over 26,000 textile documents from all eras and cultures including, fabrics, original designs, sample books, dress, and accessories. The objective

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

15

of the database is to stimulate ideas and offer support to professionals in textile design and fashion, and to help all those interested in textile heritage to consult the CDMT’s holdings.10 Their archives, in a way reminiscent of the Gucci collections, are the repositories of know-how (tacit artisan and manufacturing skills) acquired through time in the region. In some cases, the archived material exemplifies only the surviving documentation of many companies in the textile sector who, in the second half of the twentieth century, were forced to diversify or went out of business. For CDMT, “documenting, studying and disseminating this heritage will help identify and preserve the unique character of the country’s industrial culture.”11 This is the most notable difference between the corporate archive collection and the regional museum. In the latter, the collection is made up of multiple collections. A group of collections has the advantage of offering visitors a range of interests but unlike the corporate archive, such as the Gucci Museo, public collections do not have the same power to attract as the luxury brand collections. They operate fundamentally as a knowledge hub with a social investment remit and therefore work without the benefits of brand loyalties. As a result, CDMT does not always find it easy to stimulate the interest of local manufacturers to innovate their products based on local design history. The CDMT online archives remain, in this sense, an educational resource for communities of international researchers, artists, designers, historians, and collectors, but have yet to fully take off in the local entrepreneurial imagination as the drivers of innovation.

Heritage funding: Recognizing the knowledge economy Like the textile industry, many of Europe’s textile museums have had to respond creatively to the post-2008 financial crisis. Two such museums, CDMT in Terrassa, as mentioned above, and the Museo del Tessuto in Prato, Italy, have reacted by developing new models of activity that link their local, social, and material textile history, encapsulated in their archives, to new education, research, enterprise, and policy development activities (Figure 1.1). Textile museums in the north of Europe are similarly engaged in a conceptual restructure of their mission and future prosperity. One such museum is the Tilburg TextielMuseum, Holland, which is built on a strong regional textile history and industrial expertise (Figure 1.2). The Tilburg TextielMuseum was the first textiles museum to connect its archive and equipment holdings to the objective of stimulating innovation. Launched in 2004, its TextielLab has grown quickly in reputation and external use. In recent years, it has facilitated collaboration between designers and the industry by operating as a unique experimental space and knowledge center. It

16

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 1.1 Internal courtyard of Ex Cimatoria Campolmi, now textile museum and city library. 2015. Copyright Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy.

Figure 1.2 Museum entrance and damask weaving mill, TextielMuseum. 2008. Copyright TextielMuseum, Tilburg, the Netherlands. Photo: Joep Vogels.

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

17

combines a specialized workshop for the manufacture of unique fabrics and an open studio where innovation is central. The creative communities and clients that use the services of the TextielLab are national and international designers, architects, artists, and students. TextielLab product developers and technical experts guide the users. Projects are submitted and assessed against the main criterion of innovation, while clients are matched to technicians and facilitators from the museum. The process of creative development is defined as “one of discovery, which connects industrial knowledge of yarn, hand and computercontrolled techniques with traditional craftsmanship” (Figure 1.3).12 In a 2013 interview, Hebe Verstappen, Head of the TextielLab, explains some of the ways creativity and industrial knowledge enable the pursuit of innovation in each project: We get a lot of enquiries about smart textiles and smart materials, but the funny thing is that we can’t use these yarns on the computerized machines. So we employ manual techniques such as passementeries or hand weaving looms, but employ with them smart materials. We are currently working with machine producers to find a solution for this sort of gap . … . We hope to reach some interesting and innovative developments by 2015.13 In the changed landscape of European textiles and museums, this entrepreneurial model of activity integrates effectively with the vision for smart growth and enhancement of the public image of regions advocated by the European Union. In  public policy promoted by the European Union, cultural institutions in partnership with society, business, and public authorities can advance opportunities for their diverse knowledge to become part of or a driver for adopting and adapting innovative solutions to their specific situation, thereby promoting long-term structural change. This model of collaboration between industry wealth creators, knowledge providers, and public bodies has been the subject of extensive academic debate and is identified as the triple helix model of innovation. The concept of a triple helix of relationships was first considered in the 1990s. The concept articulates the shift from a dominating industry and government model prevalent in an industrial society, to a new relationship between academia, industry, and government, which is more akin to a knowledge society.14 A significant body of research has grown around the theme of a knowledge society and the opportunities for policy making and industry growth that arise from an advanced knowledge economy. In  a knowledge society, knowledge may be tacit; it may be codified in journals, patent descriptions, etc.; it may be embodied in instruments, machinery, and advanced equipment; and it may be embodied in academics and graduates starting a business.15 The triple helix model has been considered as a process of renewal of the valorization

18

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 1.3 TextielMuseum website screenshot. 2016. Copyright TextielMuseum, Tilburg, the Netherlands.

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

19

of knowledge or the ability to innovate in the market through knowledge transfer. This encompasses not the one-directional transfer of knowledge from one stakeholder to the other, but the interaction of knowledge, that is, a twoway process of applied problem-based learning, what we might think of as the application of know-how, triggered by questions arising from business. In the context of current Smart Specialization Policy, a new stakeholder model is emerging, named Quadruple Helix. This advocates collaborative leadership as a connected cluster of academia, business, and public bodies with the addition of civil society, seen as innovation users.16

Museums as knowledge transfer hubs Smart specialization and textiles communities The opportunities for collaboration advocated and enabled by textile museums such as the Tilburg TextielMuseum reflect in many respects the policy guidelines developed by the European Union to enable the return to competitiveness of the European textile industry. The rejuvenation and future-proofing of manufacturing are tightly linked to the establishment of a knowledge economy, smart specialization networks, and regionally based innovation. For example, the European Commission’s Joint Research Council has developed the S3 Platform. This supports implementation of policy related to the drive toward regional Smart Specialisation, defined as: “A process of developing a vision, identifying competitive advantage, setting strategic priorities and making use of smart policies to maximize the knowledge-based development potential of any region, strong or weak, high-tech or low-tech.”17 The S3 Platform is one of the tools set up to disseminate and share in the implementation of the main European Union 2010 policy, Europe  2020: A strategy for smart sustainable and inclusive growth. The role of regional policy is highlighted as an incentive to develop opportunities for economic expansion in the European Union by promoting innovation in all regions. Where previously regional variations in innovation capacity and investment may have been recognized as challenges to an innovation union, current European Union policy sees smart growth and innovation potential as existing in a more open system in which different actors can collaborate. A separate paper titled “Regional Policy Contributing to Smart Growth in Europe 2020” notes that: The capacity of the EU to recover from the crisis and meet longer-term challenges rests not only on a strong industrial base but also on the creativity and skills of people, governance and strong social values—solidarity, respect for the environment, openness and cultural diversity. Cultural and creative

20

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

industries, which flourish at the local and regional level, are in a strategic position to link creativity and innovation. They can help to boost local economies, stimulate new activities, create new and sustainable jobs, have important spillover effects on other industries and enhance the attractiveness of regions and cities.18 The European Union policy context, with its opportunities to maximize dialogue and collaboration between new stakeholders, has been to the benefit of cultural organizations such as CDMT, by creating an environment in which they can adopt new strategies and propose themselves as more than a cultural heritage and education organization. The CDMT collaborative network, where knowledge is transferred into companies, can be an important stimulus for change and competitive advantage. Companies in the network have greater opportunities to leverage the knowledge in the community, specifically with regard to activities not always directly related to economic and technology transfer. For example, the Spanish fashion company Desigual is collaborating with CDMT, engaging its collections management expertise to create a new company archive. The quality of knowledge exchanged is not easily bought or sold. It is the result of trusted relationships within the network’s cumulative local know-how or social capital. CDMT recognizes that knowledge sharing will enhance its position within the region and the local industry sector. Its organization gains currency from the collaboration with Desigual while the fashion company shares in the expertise and knowledge that will contribute to its brand history. The added value that is created by enabling these types of interorganizational trusted relationships strengthens the local textile sector and highlights the social nature of the networks that are creating shared value for their district.

Developing the district: The Tilburg TextielLab, a shared knowledge hub In the study, Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Co-Operation in Italy, a generic description is given of the original understanding of the nature of the industrial manufacturing district, as it emerged primarily in Italy in the postwar period. Districts are geographically defined productive entities; they are characterized by a large number of firms involved in the supply chain of a similar product. A district may have clusters of small and microenterprises. The social links in manufacturing communities that help form them, that is, the family-owned businesses that often include specialized artisans that compete and collaborate with each other may also, in part, characterize a district.19 If adaptability and innovation are hallmarks of the districts, so too is their communal capacity to cater for rapidly changing product demand. This is made possible by a number of factors that include organizational traits such

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

21

as entrepreneurial and managerial capacity. A flexible workforce and flexible productive networks are also noted as traits of a successful district. This is seen, for example, in the sharing of expensive capital equipment, kept in full use by small enterprises specializing in related production. Social resources and social structures such as the extended family are thought to be important enabling factors in providing the conditions for workers to adapt to flexible work requirements and for employers to access a flexible workforce.20 The close cultural and political relationships of manufacturing communities are thought to promote stability, consensus, and common values, as well as differentiate the more artisanal small enterprises from the social conflict that can be a part of medium- and large-company relations. Better distribution of economic and social benefits within the district appears to encourage cooperation, flexibility, and innovation. Finally, district communities are distinguished by the deep consolidated knowledge of craftsmanship and the know-how passed on by generations of workers within the specialist activity or its associated supply chain. In Futuro Artigiano, Stefano Micelli explores the importance of the interpretative qualities present in artisanal know-how by making the example of the patternmaker for the midsize shoe manufacturer Geox. An experienced patternmaker will be able to translate effectively the designer or manufacturer’s drawings into a master pattern for all the production. To do this, the patternmaker needs to have a specialist eye, which constitutes a combination of creativity and taste in understanding the design, and a specialist hand, which is sensitive to the tactile and somatic knowledge needed to evaluate the materials that would best produce the desired effect. The know-how of the patternmaker is deemed essential within series and mass production, so as to ensure that quality is maintained and that the handmade look is still an important part of the product’s competitive advantage.21 To illustrate the idea of the integration of historical and technological knowledge with the innovation economy network, it is useful to return to the example of the Tilburg TextielLab. For visitors, the Lab enables the tracing of historical practices to the modern day. As mentioned above, for designers, artists, and students, it is a place for the realization of work, a place where they can be assigned a project coordinator and can be closely involved in the production process. Members of the museum staff are trained to work with the most advanced textile machines and the accompanying computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacture systems while able to operate historic industrial machinery. While inspiring and supporting design innovation, the Tilburg TextielMuseum makes a conscious attempt to offer the opportunity for manufacturing designs on a more industrial scale, making them accessible through the museum shop and online. Offering manufacturing capabilities is a solution given in response to

22

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

the fact that, in Holland, the number of textile-producing companies has shrunk considerably. Textile manufacturers like Kendix, De Ploeg, and Van Besouw have their own in-house, full-time design teams so they rarely commission young freelance designers. The TextielLab considers itself also as a bridge organization to arrest and remedy the loss of fundamental knowledge about textile materials and techniques from the national skill set. In discussing future perspectives for the museum, when the Lab was set up in 2004, its director noted that the mission was to create “a unique museum where it is the production of culture rather than its display that is pivotal. In this, its core values of craftsmanship and creativity would only be realized by working together with designers, textile industry, students and lecturers, the business community and government organizations.”22 Further, it was noted that the organizational structure of the network was ideal in promoting innovation. The Tilburg TextielMuseum is recognized as a center of excellence for the creative textile industry, in which culture, production, and commerce are brought together in collaboration.

Collaborative knowledge in community networks Although the Tilburg TextielLab initiative was set up prior to the formal adoption and dissemination of European policies in support of regional smart specialization, it dovetails well with aspects of the smart specialization policy and its areas of operational interest: entrepreneurial discovery and enabling knowledge-based assets in both the public and the private sectors.23 For museums such as those in Terrassa and Prato that do not currently have Lab-style capabilities, the policy funding that supports smart specialization strategies in Europe has opened up new opportunities to collaborate with the textiles manufacturing community and establish a stake in the production of the knowledge economy that supports innovation. By utilizing their networks of stakeholders, both CDMT and Museo del Tessuto have been successful in securing funding for a range of regional knowledge transfer projects. An example undertaken by a network of partners including the Museo del Tessuto is Plustex. Completed in December 2014, Plustex sought to find examples of good practice in the implementation of regional policies designed to sustain and revitalize the textile and clothing sector. The methodology that underpinned Plustex’s investigations was provided by a framework of key themes, developed in consultation with regional SMEs, that were considered to be of strategic importance to a forwardlooking and competitive European textiles and clothing industry. These included: • Support of young entrepreneurship and innovative business models; • Diversification of production toward high-quality and high-tech textiles and niche products;

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

23

• Support for the clustering and internationalization of SMEs; and • Fostering eco-innovation and social responsibility in the sector. The project aimed to facilitate the exchange of policy know-how to improve effective delivery of regional and local development policies in the specific areas of innovation, knowledge economy, and social and environmental initiatives.24

Collaboration-driven change The Plustex project, one of many possible examples, illustrates that there is a change in the role of museums in textile communities. These projects demonstrate that from having been primarily concerned with the preservation of culture and heritage, textiles museums now also contribute to the revitalization of the industrial narratives of some regions, specifically by collaborating with their specialist community to mobilize the cultural, social, and technological capital present in their regions. The success of museum-led projects, focused on the valorization of technological and design heritage embedded in their collections, is leading to an expanded view of the museum’s ability to contribute to innovation, driven by social practices in artisanal manufacturing and traditional heritage. While it is true that funding limitations brought about by austerity measures in Spain and Italy have in part driven change, CDMT and the Museo del Tessuto have nevertheless increased the breadth and creativity of their reach. The case for a progressive evolution of the function of not only textile museums but also museums in general is advocated by the UK Museums Association’s campaign on the future sustainability of museums. The principles identified by the Museums Association for future-proofing its work include a responsibility to the social, cultural, and economic vitality of the local community and a responsibility to respond to changing political, social, environmental, and economic contexts consistent with society’s expectations of museums. It states that “with their long-term role in preservation and community engagement, museums are in the  sustainability business. They balance the interests of different generations.  As well as serving society today, they aim to pass on collections, information and knowledge to people in the future” (Figure 1.4).25 The central  idea of museums as places where collections challenge thinking, provide stimulating debate and promote questioning is now at the forefront of museum policy in the UK  (Figure  1.5). At its core, this amounts to museums having the ambition to change people’s lives by having a strong sense of social purpose, expanding active participation and positive impact for the communities that use  them. Funders and policy makers are exhibiting a change in thinking, expecting museums to achieve greater social outcomes by transforming expectations, and identifying explicitly how they will make a defined contribution to support positive social change.26  For the Museums Association,  playing a

24

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 1.4 Antique textiles room. 2016. Copyright Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy.

Figure 1.5 The White Shirt According to Me. Gianfranco Ferré exhibition, 2014. Copyright Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy.

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

25

role in positive social change is not limited to the provocation of cultural debate that  might inspire the public to rethink assumptions. Its research shows that, through their position as  trusted community hubs, museums are instead increasingly thoughtful about how they enhance an area’s economic vitality and contribute to the leadership of social and economic regeneration.

Innovation hubs and museum leadership Leadership In their new format as entrepreneurial organizations that seek to facilitate innovation and enterprise, museums share knowledge, link specialists with a wide audience, and showcase new research; in so doing they dissolve the boundaries between knowledge created within the museum and elsewhere. Museums bring together research from varied places, including university academics and, increasingly, community groups. They draw on the expertise of source communities, the people who made or used things in museums, and engage participants in the production of user-generated content.27 Consequently, some museums are providing leadership to their textiles networks and local region. With policy changes, limited public funding, and economic and social regeneration issues high on the agenda of post-2008 governments, promoting innovation has become a feature of the entrepreneurial museum model. Developing new models of network activity, the Museo del Tessuto for example, demonstrated committed leadership and a willingness to take risks to facilitate change and promote discussion around innovation strategies in their region. Other directors of similar museums in different regions have engaged in advocacy to persuade politicians and policy makers that museums can be useful partners to industry.28 This expanded role of leadership within their geographic and knowledge districts has enabled greater community openness to the broad societal and economic themes that underpin public policy. It has also led to the inclusion of museums in successful research and knowledge exchange projects. As upholders of social capital—the trusted networks that underpin long-term resilient relationships—these organizations provide leadership in clustering and innovation activities by connecting previously discrete textiles partners. In the established but competitively threatened textile community of Prato, the Museo del Tessuto has enabled creative initiatives that connect art, design, education, manufacture, and public culture for the broad textiles community it serves. It champions innovation through knowledge transfer and by fostering the creative thinking, material innovation, and skills collaborations key to the development of a competitive industry.

26

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Sustaining networks of creativity, quality, and community-held traditions Supporting creativity of thinking and the opportunities of interdisciplinary exchange is a key purpose in helping networks to innovate. One of the keystones of current educational practice in business and management schools is the role of creative or design thinking, which “combines analytic reasoning with a more exploratory skill set that design practitioners [embrace].”29 The process of innovation, of creating new solutions to problems, including enabling co-creation of ideas through collaborative partnerships, is linked to the production of strong narratives. In Change by Design, the author considers how stories put “ideas into context … give them meaning,” and are essential to design thinking.30 The narratives that underpin the development of products, services, and experiences powerfully affect the communication of their value and the end users’ experience. In this context, the cultural heritage narratives that are the traditional preserve of museums seem well placed to create a focus to lead on improved creativity in education and industry, to support training and strategic thinking, and to sustain resilient partnerships. The capacity of museums to lead on innovation and entrepreneurial activities can be exemplified by an innovation day run by the Museo del Tessuto. The innovation day was set up to complement the Plustex project and included representatives from local government partners and agencies, educators, and representatives from high-profile local textile design and manufacturing companies. International representatives were invited from fashion start-ups, innovation hubs, and creative industry funding agencies. Presentations were made to the local audience on a range of activities, including managing public funding to boost creative industry development and up-skilling young people within new fashion technology apprenticeship schemes. The innovation day integrated industry knowledge with discussion about financing models and regional policy objectives; it connected local and international actors across the different fields needed to promote the development of design, skills, economy, and social agendas. Through the example of the Plustex innovation day, it is clear that Museo del Tessuto is utilizing events, workshops, study days, and industry visits to inspire new thinking across the textiles communities. As a repository of historical, cultural, and artistic and design knowledge built up in the community over centuries, it is well placed to signpost new creative developments in the sector; it provides the clustering of cultural, interdisciplinary skills needed to enable a wide range of initiatives. Participating in international exhibitions, lending to other collections, and establishing working partnerships with world-class and local institutions, the museum attracts and disseminates a cross section of

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

27

current knowledge. It has the capacity to influence developments in the textile and fashion sector and, by extension, business knowledge in its region. In the context of the Prato district and the Museo del Tessuto, a creative approach to innovation offers solutions to problems originating from changed manufacturing and economic scenarios, maintaining but reframing the quality and tradition that continue to be a characteristic of the local artisanal skill set. Innovation processes provide the opportunity to think differently about the challenges, while retaining existing strength in competitive factors such as the added value conferred by offering artisanal characteristics to manufactured products. The human capital, represented by the skills in the community of textile workers and producers in Prato, is in some ways maintained and enhanced by the challenges of improving their global competitiveness. The principles of quality and tradition, knowledge of craftsmanship, and cultural heritage are driving the  recognition that it is possible for textiles workers to envision an artisan future,  a future in which industrial smart manufacturing will be allied to the  historical skills of handcrafted processes and increased customization practices are driven by user demand.

Innovation and knowledge transfer development The examples of the textile museums in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands case studied in this chapter demonstrate a range of activities and professional networks that are increasingly interconnected. At a local level, the district or the equivalent cluster of industries and organizations is being reconfigured in its aspirations and practices, and by the need to innovate and compete. Museum administrations have found a niche and an opportunity to reframe their cultural, social, and economic sustainability mission to create impact in their communities by enhancing the process of knowledge transfer. Universities, cultural providers, enterprise associations, and local government are increasingly involved in bringing together knowledge in more creative and unusual clusters. They are doing this to exploit the innovation ecosystem and, in particular, those elements that can contribute to a successful innovation pipeline. The activity of diverse cultural, social, and economic actors, all focused on creating shared value across their industries, is providing more open information platforms, synergy of industrial know-how, and creative modernization. A significant aspect of the transfer of knowledge, tacit and explicit, occurring between the extended textile networks, is that it appears not to be subject to the more obstructive practices that have in the recent past sometimes governed sensitive industrial manufacturing data. The changed digital environment, with open source and social media interactions, may be influencing this shared approach to innovation. However, the desire to create synergy of purpose

28

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

to reinvigorate industry, and its links to society and cultural values, seems the main force that is driving this integrated approach to achieving increased competitiveness through innovation. All the companies that inform the case studies in this book in some way demonstrate that sharing and developing knowledge to assist in the process of industrial and artisanal innovation have a powerful impact on social and community cohesion. In an established but threatened sector such as textiles and fashion, the textile museum’s role is shown to be that of a catalyst for the adoption of creative thinking, the facilitation of material development, and skills collaborations. The extension of the textile museum’s traditional social learning and education function, together with the leadership displayed in assisting behavioral change, is helping to ensure the sustainability of the industries and their extended community stakeholders.

Conclusion: Knowledge hubs, networks, and social sustainability Through CDMT, Museo del Tessuto, and the Tilburg TextielMuseum, we have illustrated how culture and heritage can help maintain healthy and durable communities by supporting quality textiles manufacturing knowledge and networks. By espousing an active enterprise and leadership role, the aim of the directors and staff of these textiles museums may be redefined, for the purposes of this book, as creating socially integrated institutions that can support the textiles industry in their region. By maintaining links with local actors and experts and by deepening and diversifying their relationships with audiences, the textiles museums discussed in this chapter can be described not only as capable agents of potential change for their industry but also as an element in the sustainability of the society within which these textiles industries are based. Seeing itself as the custodian of textile-related competencies that are increasingly not retained within the local industry, the Tilburg TextielMuseum has, for instance, worked to maintain the skills capability and the technological knowledge associated with its equipment collections to the benefit of its community. The museum has additionally sustained the development of skills through projects and opportunities for collaboration, and has facilitated design creativity and short-run productions for local designers. If new business start-ups are to benefit from proof of concept experiments and be able to produce sample runs without incurring expensive overheads, the activities and services provided by Tilburg are invaluable. In our case study, museums seek to draw together the social, cultural, and sometimes technological capital of the community to inspire the innovation that is critical to a competitive future. In Spain, we have seen that the skills of CDMT

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

29

museum staff are inspiring collections management and the establishment of a living corporate archive for the rapidly expanding fashion company Desigual. This new archive will underpin future research and development for Desigual and other textile and fashion experts. Such initiatives contribute to the quality of the work and products made by textiles and fashion companies, the retention and use of industrial skills and expertise, and the public trust in the museums themselves. Ironically, the production of knowledge and the quality of the interventions made by these textiles museums may ultimately lead to a reframing of the traditional format of the textiles museum. That is, success in facilitating knowledge hubs and networks that can lead to creative innovation and improved industry competitiveness may reduce the number of large-scale, expensive exhibition and display events they host. By extension, the traditional role of the maintenance of heritage could give way to promoting the future social and economic sustainability of textile communities.

Interview with Eulalia Morral i Romeu, CDMT, Terrassa, Spain, November 25, 2014 At the time of writing, Eulalia Morral i Romeu is the director of CDMT, Terrassa, Spain. In the interview that follows, she elaborates on the history of the museum and its contribution to sustaining the cultural heritage and economic development of the textiles sector in Spain and internationally. The interview presents the aspiration of the museum to contribute to the textile design industry through its activities within a complex network of stakeholders, even if it demonstrates equally well the caution sometimes exercised by the Spanish textile manufacturers. Interviewer: Clio Padovani Respondent: Eulalia Morral i Romeu INT: RES: INT: RES:

How do the collections of the museum mirror the local geographical, cultural, industrial environment? The Vallès region has a long history as a textile-producing center. Was the museum built on the basis of a private collection? Yes, it was founded from a private collection in 1946. The museum is the oldest in the city and it is the life achievement of a Terrassa citizen called Josep Biosca. Josep was of humble origins but he had done well and this is his legacy; for him, it demonstrates to the city that he had succeeded. Josep made his fortune through trapping or

30

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES:

straperlo. In the aftermath of the war, Terrassa had a strong black market in wool. Josep exploited this opportunity as he had a strong business sense and he eventually also developed a property portfolio. Josep was a collector and in 1946, he donated his private collection of historic fabrics to the city of Terrassa. He opened the collection to the public in 1946, but when he saw that managing the growing collection was too big and expensive a job for him, he left it to the city in 1953. Some years later, the Biosca Textile Provincial Museum incorporated another collection into the museum, which the Provincial Council of Barcelona had acquired from the Barcelona industrialist Ricard Viñas. Ricard was a textile manufacturer and a passionate collector who had documented his own collection to museological standards. These two collections would eventually grow, during the 1960s, into Terrassa’s oldest museum, the Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil. The museum is also the first specialist center of its kind in Spain. It is the European Union’s view that high quality textiles can compete with the far-east’s capacity for efficient low cost volume production. Is this a view you share and if so why? I think it’s logical, and I believe this is the way forward, but it is not yet confirmed that things are like this. I want to believe but I don’t yet see it. European textiles, with the know-how that it has accumulated over the years, are useful and can continue. You can see it in the small enterprises that have re-oriented themselves towards technical textiles. Small design collections are also using this know-how, and they need to, so that they can develop and compete on a global scale. So, I believe that the only possibility for textiles to develop as an important industry in Europe is for it to work towards the high quality; this will also help combat the de-industrialization in this country, and maybe across others too, which has happened in the last few years. I should add that here in Spain, not always or rarely in our case, does this European textile know-how originate or refer to the memory, the heritage, that is conserved in the museum. That’s interesting, is it the case that the Spanish textile industry doesn’t see the relationship between this accumulated knowledge and their product development? Now we see the industry making products with high added value, very sophisticated products with special characteristics. The products are made by companies some of which were founded over 100 years ago and which are now in their fourth generation. So, the know-how is present and is the basis for continuity. Many companies have died

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES:

31

along the way but others have managed to re-invent themselves, to continue to weave by adapting to new contexts, to new clients but also to other industries. These companies have developed textile solutions for new markets. To do this you need to really know how the material works, its properties, how it can be constructed. Is it possible that the reason why industrial manufacture in Spain doesn’t seek a point of reference in the museum is because for the manufacturers the museum is more involved in design? We have always tried to “de-musealise” ourselves, that is, move away from the slightly “sacred,” historical role of the museum, to be much more of a service. For example, we have transformed ourselves to become a center for services to design and to design manufacture. We have now found that our clients, instead of being from industry, are increasingly other museums and other collectors. We sell services to museums that house textiles but don’t know how to handle them or conserve them as objects. We provide a service for collectors who know nothing of textiles or to individuals who want to know about the authenticity and value of their objects. The Imatex digital database for the collections was made for industry and for designers, so they could consult the collections online and be inspired. We don’t exactly know who is accessing the database, so we don’t have a very clear view of its users. We do meet up with the industry through study days, workshops, and museum events, but it doesn’t seem that we are very important to them. There is an assumption that a network and clustering of textile producers, designers, museum collectors, is central to the future development of the textiles industry here in Europe, but from what you say, I wonder if such a network exist? We have made ourselves members of the network of innovative enterprises and ACTE, and we try to collaborate, but it is difficult. For example, I told the network that in a textile museum in Prato (Italy), twice a year they show local companies’ last season collections. Here they don’t understand this; it’s a very different reality here. There are many networks and associations and they meet if there is some occasion but there isn’t a network as you describe it. The UK may be different to what you describe because individuals, associations, industry and the regions, are being encouraged to come together around policies when, for example, pilot funding is offered to develop particular strands of activity. Here in the 70s, after the inauguration of the museum in this building, there was a board of governors’ which included two administrations,

32

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT:

RES:

INT: RES:

wool makers of the region, finishers, several industrial associations. The board was part sponsors of the museum with everyone paying a little but this funding mechanism slowly declined until the provincial government finally took over the entire management of the museum. The budget of the museum is now 90% public money provided by the province. A textile center or museum is conventionally about retaining heritage, but may be the role of the museum has changed to reflect the time we live in. Is this correct and if so, how has the role of the museum changed? There are two things. In general, museums must evolve to meet the economic constraints or they won’t be able to survive. We changed at the beginning of the 90s and now we are seeing the benefits of this change. We thought we were going to be a service to industry, while now we are a service to cultural and textile heritage. We created ways to attract a different user and this has worked well. We now provide a service not simply a heritage repository. Also, cultural heritage is as much in fashion here as in the UK. Some time ago, a group of retired technical personnel from factories in the locality got together and came here to see if it were possible to set up a museum for the dyeing industry. I said we could transform this idea into a knowledge transfer project. We developed this project with 8 or 10 people who have now worked with the university and established a web presence to develop awareness of dye sublimation and the practical challenges of dyeing fabric on industrial scale. So, although people don’t always have a clear idea of how textile heritage can be useful, we have used the museum to facilitate new audiences and their learning. In a linked way, do you think the role that the museum plays in the community has changed? When I arrived here the role of the museum was very different. There have been three phases of change. In the 70s, there were no cultural centers in Terrassa, no public exhibition halls. With the arrival of democracy in the 80s, everything changed. Services and buildings that didn’t exist before suddenly appeared and this building became a museum but with no activities and no social role in the community. In the 90s the museum changed again, to fulfill a Catalan region role and we became a point of reference for TextilModa. Locally the museum continues to be not well known in the city. Local visitors account for only 50% of our attendance with 50% of visitors coming from abroad. Visitors to the Imatex database are all from further afield or international.

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

INT:

RES:

INT: RES:

INT: RES: INT:

RES:

33

A repository of history is a very different role to that of inspiration to a new community of makers and consumers; do you think that the museum can function as motivation for new design as well as a community that values the textile industry? A repository with a database, not necessarily with exhibition spaces but with an outfacing communication system towards society like ours, certainly can serve to inspire and can have this role. Others can motivate without the repository but, for me, it is important that the collection is present and accessible; that physical contact is possible. We have seen that when students of design schools and fashion professionals come and touch, and see the collections for themselves, they have a completely different type of engagement. What do you think is the role of the archive in the museum’s work? It’s the hard drive. Our heritage is physical, as are the people who work here with us. The physical heritage enables all our development but heritage without knowledge is nothing. So, we have physical archives and intellectual archives. The personal networks that we have, like with the museum in Prato, are a way of retaining the knowledge archive and enrichment for all of us. I am very interested in the Tilburg Museum. Are you familiar with it and its initiatives? I am very interested in what they are doing. Your Inspiring Lab seems to function in a way that is not too dissimilar to projects at the Tilburg Museum; could you say a little more about the Inspiring Lab? With Inspiring Lab we tried to develop a service through which industry designers could interpret our heritage hand in hand with their own trend forecasts. It’s not easy for designers who need to turn around ideas for collections in 24 hours to select and edit from our extensive collections. So, we tried to enable better use of our collections by offering to use a senior designer to provide a unique, personalized pack of information to meet specific design requests. May be we were not sufficiently able to communicate this to the public because this particular aspect of Inspiring Lab was not particularly successful. Inspiring Lab may not have developed as an industry tool as we hoped but we are currently undertaking the conservation and collection management for Desigual. They didn’t consult us for design inspiration but they did engage with us to catalogue their own design collection and advise on its management and conservation. Of course, Inspiring Lab is not only about inspiring design; it is also intended to enable art therapy with the local Hospital psychology department. We have been working with the hospital for three years

34

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT:

RES:

INT: RES:

INT: RES:

to facilitate a collage of memories. The patients look at our collections and if they are inspired to retrieve a positive memory from their life, the patient does a drawing that an embroidery artist helps them manifest it in physical form. All the embroideries produced are then connected to form a collage that is exhibited here and in the hospital. The project has been very well received by the patients and in the extended community. As an extension to your work with the community and your earlier point about the museum functioning as a means for knowledge transfer, do you think that museum based conferences, workshops, etc., can also influence public policy? No. There are relationships that can develop between people but here in Spain there is no direct influence over public policies. Administrations do not particularly care about heritage and other related initiatives. Returning for a moment to design and creative production, do you think that the role of the artisan has changed? I don’t have much contact with artisans but I believe artisans have changed, in that, they have seen that if they want to thrive they need to work with industry and not against industry. The artisan needs to enter into the normal market channels; in the majority of cases, it is not possible to succeed individually. This is the transformation Teixidors made here in Terrassa. There are also many artisanal embroiderers here who are involved in Pronovia, the wedding dressmakers. Finally, what contribution do you think the artisan makes to the textile industry and its competitiveness? Maybe the industry is learning from the artisan by making shorter runs and smaller collections; by making more personalized products and showing how things have been made, not always by big industry; all of which makes the product a closer, more personal experience for the consumer.

Interview with Filippo Guarini, Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy, October 29, 2015 In this interview Filippo Guarini, director of the Museo del Tessuto, describes the changing role of the museum and the challenges it faces in the prevailing economic climate. He presents the role of the museum as a stakeholder in the local textile community and as a guide to best practice for building awareness in its audience. Echoing the experience of Eulalia Morral i Romeu and CDMT,

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

35

Terrassa, the interview confirms on the one hand the capacity of the museum to contribute to innovation in the manufacture of textiles while on the other hand acknowledging the complex relationships within the sometimes conservative political and manufacturing clusters within which the Museo del Tessuto operates. Respondent: Filippo Guarini Interviewer 1: Clio Padovani Interviewer 2: Paul Whittaker INT 1: There seems to be an increasing emphasis in the European Union that museums should operate like knowledge hubs; do you think the role of the museum has changed over the last ten years and if so what role does it now play? RES: The role of the museum has changed. The museum opened on this site (Cimatoria Campolmi) ten years ago, and with respect to the past, the function of the museum has changed much since it has been located here in this building. Previously the Museum was a location of study that had the function to represent symbolically, from a cultural point of view, the textile history of Prato. Its exhibition activity was concentrated primarily on the permanent collection. It had a collection of antique textiles that did not have a tight link to what was produced in the district. Important elements of change have been the decision to open up the museum to a much more diverse public audience; and to use the collections to tell the story of the district through the contemporary section. In the last few years we have tried to open our interest to contemporary fashion, so the museum is moving away from being a highly specialized textile sector museum to one that deals also with textile in fashion and contemporary fashion. This change is happening because this is the need of our district; we need to change the vision, the way we are seen from outside. It is very important that the district communicate that it is a fundamental component of the supply chain for the “Sistema Moda Italia”; it is not simply a supplier. In the same way that the district needs to make efforts to communicate more about itself, to show internationally that it is part of the broader high quality Italian fashion industry, the museum also needs to open its interests and tell the story of this experience more broadly. I must also add that in the last year the museum has tried to become a place to bring together knowledge, and to aggregate people. A place open to the public, open to the city and the social context, independently from the topic of the museum. This is something we are trying to

36

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT1: RES: INT1:

RES: INT2: RES:

INT2: RES:

INT2:

RES:

do by hosting concerts, collaborating with school events or other cultural institutions, hosting workshops etc. So making the museum much more embedded in the community, breaking down barriers? Yes. Given the museum’s textile focus and history, what do you think are the particular challenges that face a specialist museum like Museo del Tessuto? I already answered this a little bit. But is there something special to a textile museum that you’ve had to face? The problem is that a textile museum is a very specialized institution, so it addresses itself to people highly focused and interested in our field. But it is not possible to continue like this. It’s important to be open, to make our audience broader. That’s why we are opening to contemporary fashion. It is a subject that attracts more people. Fashion is closer to people, it is trendy; you can see it on television, its something not technical, not too technical, and remember that even if the Prato district is still in existence, when you talk about textiles, until 5–6 years ago it meant to talk about crisis, de-industrialization, talking about losing jobs and so on, so textiles can be seen as a negative story. Fashion brings positive thoughts, probably also dreams. Something we would like to develop more is to make the museum become a place where visitors, intended as fashion consumers, can get more information, can become more conscious about what they usually buy. This is something I would like to achieve. So awareness building. You are aiming to make the visitor more knowledgeable when they shop. Yes, I would like more people to understand more about fast fashion, what is behind fast fashion, all the problems connected with the environment. I would like the museum to become a place where people become more aware of what concerns fashion buying. To educate, to create more conscious, informed consumers of fashion. Do you think that in general museums in Europe are aware of the need to connect more with the audience, the visitors? So, like the technical museums, do you think that they are aware of need to work with people differently? As far as I can see in Tuscany, some of them, yes. Some museums are still running their activities in the same traditional way but I can see the beginning of a new sensitivity. I don’t know, probably textile

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

INT1:

RES: INT2: RES:

INT2: RES:

INT1: RES: INT1:

RES:

INT1:

RES:

37

museums are not so open to these kinds of changes. Technical and fashion museums in Italy are perhaps very conservative. As museum director of a specialist textile museum, do you think that the connectivity between a museum and its locality, the people, industry and customs make the museum a more sustainable and valuable institution? What do you mean sustainable? Do you think you have made the museum is more sustainable? Yes. I think that opening the museum to more connections; more contacts with companies, with people, yes, absolutely, it is necessary to make the museum more sustainable and valuable. Is there a financial side to that or is it a cultural thing? Both, the museum must be perceived as something important in the everyday life of the community. To be important, the museum has to organize to be open, to be active, to be recognized as an added value to the community. Strictly linked to this is the fact that companies can become closer to the museum. For instance, our President is a young entrepreneur and he’s very interested in the possibility of companies improving by consulting our heritage, taking inspiration, and so on. He’s convinced that if we structure such a service in an appropriate way, it will become one of the benefits we can offer to the companies that support the museum. And the industry and the economy equally benefit, so everything moves outward from there? Yes, so opening the museum … you know, the museum must give to the community, to the companies, to the people, it must be generous. It is the European Union’s view that high quality textiles can compete with the far-east’s capacity for efficient low cost volume production. Is this a view you share? I think it can help. It can help to improve the sensibility of entrepreneurs and to take action that moves in the direction of high quality: improving design, improving collaboration with cultural institutions and stressing the importance of having a heritage. Beyond the museum, there is no choice for textile companies, they must work on quality, and they have to. But there is the added value of their production. Much has been made of the positive effect of the clustering of textile producers, designers, material, or process innovators etc., as a way of developing the textiles industry here in Europe; from your experience, do such clusters or networks exist and how critical are they to the industry? I don’t think there is a single European textile cluster because every nation works for its own future; and if there is, it was not able to face

38

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT1:

RES:

INT1: RES: INT1:

the most important challenges of the last few years. I am talking about the commercial issues, the WTO (World Trade Organization), the relationships with China, and so on. I think textiles are not perceived as a leading industry in Europe. There are other sectors that have been considered more important in Europe and we have not been able to stress our importance. Probably now, when the European Commission is talking about re-industrialization in the new programming period, they understand that there have been many weaknesses. In Europe there are some nations that have been able to set up good national clusters. For instance, France is one of them, with the technological textile cluster around Lille. They had very strong support from the national government. In Italy we have local clusters, like Prato, like Biella, but there is no national strategy. What role might the museum play in such clusters and in enabling a competitive European textile industry? For example, might the museum enable knowledge sharing that inspires the designers of the future, or by hosting conferences, positively influence public policy decision makers? This would be a very interesting vision. I think it should be like this. Museums are part of the cluster and should formally be recognized as such; they can do positive things to support and aid collaboration. The problem is that here in Italy politics is not yet ready to put this into practice. For example, we have a textile Innovation cluster in Tuscany, formally established, but cultural institutions and museums cannot join. We can only join through parallel agreements. We cannot be partners, formally speaking, we cannot be a recognized as part of the cluster. I think the museum could play a really active role as a hub, among industries, heritage, creativity, young designers and in involving visitors. One of the most important assets of the museum is that it’s a place where people go, a place that is able to talk to people, with immediacy. It is a media; we could consider it a media. To put this in context, how important is it for companies and designers to have a place, normally a free place, to get in touch with consumers? It’s a bit like what the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is doing, to be a facilitator, an exchange agent. Yes, a facilitator. From your perspective and experience, what three features of the “concept to product” cycle are most important to the development of high quality textiles in Europe? For example, I might say they are creative thinking, material innovation and skills development?

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

RES:

INT2:

RES: INT2:

RES: INT2:

RES:

INT2:

RES:

39

What concerns Prato, what is of strategic importance, is to conserve the huge heritage of tacit knowledge. This is very important and it’s going to be lost in several parts of the supply chain. The second aspect is education. We are losing a very important part of our technical education system and universities …. The secondary school system is changing and we don’t have universities, like your Winchester School of Art, working in textiles. The Buzzi institute is a secondary school: it’s an excellent secondary technical school. We have universities, private ones like Polimoda, charging a lot of money to students, creating fashion designers with very little knowledge of material and manufacture. Is your point that here in Italy, at the beginning of the cycle of creativity, schools and universities are not focusing on a fundamental level of skills development; that is, they don’t engage with how to make a textile before trying to make a fashion item. Then, at the industry end, we are losing the skills and knowledge of how to transform a textile into a garment? Eventually we won’t have the skills background to be technically able to compete with places like China. Yes it’s going to disappear, I think, it’s my personal view. So our next question takes this up … with a focus on the role of artisans. We have spoken at length about the museum and its connection with industry, textile innovation and the European textile industry; do you think that in recent years the role of the artisan has changed? What do you mean by artisan? Is it the artisans of the Italian districts or the “makers” as in the UK? Industrial suppliers? We are using the term artisan in the context of small industry. What we mean by artisan is those people in the factories who have the tacit knowledge and the skills to transform products; they are industrial artisans. I want to understand very well what you mean. Do you mean people working in the industry with tacit knowledge but that are involved with industrial production, not makers. Because in Italy artigiano, artisan, means handicrafts. Someone working with a manual loom, so smallscale production, like the Tweed weavers? Yes, someone who takes the qualities of the handmade and applies it to a production. It’s not the same as to say that there is only one of these fabrics, but it’s to say that the fabrics aren’t just about the machine. There is something about the maker that is transferred into the thing; typically they might be short runs. I have understood. I think their role can be very important and strategic in giving inputs to bigger industries and experimenting, working with

40

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT1: RES:

INT2: RES: INT1:

high quality, testing new markets and incentivizing towards quality. Its re-humanizing industrial production. But these artisans can also discover new niche markets, for example in England. In Italy we still have separation between categories; we have makers, SMEs, bigger industries, we don’t have anything in between. Do you think the artisan can make a creative contribution to competitiveness of the European textile industry and if so how? Emphatically yes. In Italy this is still limited but I strongly believe in this. I would like to see local government improving this situation. The  separation of funding is even more pronounced in Italy and it depends also on the mentality of the managers in the regional government that administer the funds. These managers are not used to considering this kind of argument or debate. In the new European Commission funding programs like Interreg, like Horizon 2020, you can find some seeds of this way of thinking. They are trying to foster cross-disciplinary connections between creativity and business, to bring together different worlds. This is happening. In the UK it mostly happens in the metropolitan cities. This is because they are already hubs themselves. A place where connections can happen more easily. OK, that was the last question, thank you for your time and thoughts.

Notes 1

Marina Ranga and Etzkowitz Henry, “Triple Helix systems: An analytical framework for innovation policy and practice in the Knowledge Society,” Industry and Higher Education 27, no. 4 (2013): 238.

2

Susan Stewart, On longing: Narratives of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1984), xi.

3

Stewart, On longing: Narratives of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection, xii.

4

Stewart, On longing: Narratives of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection, 154.

5

Stewart, On longing: Narratives of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection, 34.

6

Federica Vacca, “Knowledge in memory: Corporate and museum archives,” Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry 6, no. 2 (2014): 274.

7

“le cose antiche fatte da uomini intelligenti creano intelligenza per noi e per gli uomini del futuro … .” Chiara Lastrucci and Marco Ciatti, Museo del Tessuto di Prato: trenta anni di donazioni (Prato: Museo del Tessuto Edizioni, 2007), 46.

MUSEUMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

8

“GUCCI MUSEO Archive,” (2015), available at: http://www.guccimuseo.com/en /gucci-archive/bamboo/ (accessed May 9, 2015).

9

“GUCCI MUSEO Archive.”

41

10 “Textilteca,” (2015), Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil: CDMT, available at: http://www.cdmt.es/textilteca/?lang=en (accessed May 9, 2015). 11 “Textilteca.” 12 “Tilburg Textiel Museum,” available at: http://www.textiellab.nl/en/page/lab-intro (accessed May 17, 2015). 13 Anna Battista, (2013), “Driving (and Weaving) Innovation: the TextielLab@ The TextielMuseum, Tilburg,” available at: http://irenebrination.typepad .com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2013/05/textiel-lab-tilburg.html (accessed May 17, 2015). 14 “The Triple Helix Concept,” Triple Helix Research Group, Stanford University, available at: http://triplehelix.stanford.edu/3helix_concept (accessed May 17, 2015). 15 Marina van Geenhuizen, “Valorisation of knowledge: Preliminary results on valorisation paths and obstacles in bringing university knowledge to market” (paper presented at The Eighteenth Annual High Technology Small Firms Conference, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands, May 27–28, 2010), 2. 16 Ruslan Rakhmatullin, (2014), “Triple/Quadruple Helix in the context of Smart Specialisation,” available at: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/sbs/sar/centres/bcned /BCNED%20Files/1%20Ruslan_Rakhmatullin.pdf (accessed March 24, 2016). 17 Costas Fotakis et al., The role of Universities and Research Organisations as drivers for Smart Specialisation at regional level (Brussels: European Commission, 2014), 9. 18 “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions,” Regional Policy contributing to smart growth in Europe 2020 (Brussels: European Union: European Commission, 2010), 8. 19 F. Pyke, Giacomo Becattini, and Werner Senegenberger, eds., Industrial districts and inter-firm co-operation in Italy (Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1990), 2. 20 Sebastiano Brusco, “The idea of the industrial district: Its genesis,” in Industrial districts and inter-firm co-operation in Italy, ed. F. Pyke, Giacomo Becattini, and Werner Senegenberger (Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1990), 11. 21 Stefano Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, L’innovazione nelle mani degli italiani (Venezia: Marsilio, 2011), 78–80. 22 Caroline Boot and Hanneke Oosterhof, Made in Tilburg: Design—Art: Creations from the Netherlands Textile Museum/Caroline Boot (Tilburg: Netherlands Textile Museum, 2004). 23 OECD, (2013), “Innovation-driven Growth in Regions: The role of smart specialisation,” Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, available at: http://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/smartspecialisation.htm (accessed June 6, 2015). 24 Comune di Prato, (2011–2014), “Plustex,” available at: http://www.plustex .eu/?page_id=2 (accessed June 6, 2015).

42

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

25 Museums Association, (2009), “Sustainability Campaign Report,” available at: http://www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns/sustainability/sustainability-report (accessed June 6, 2015). 26 Museums change lives (London: Museums Association, July 2013), 9. 27 Museums change lives, 11. 28 R. Sandell, “Social inclusion, the museum and the dynamics of sectoral change,” Museum and Society 1, no. 1 (2003): 45. 29 Roy Glen, Christy Suciu, and Christopher Baughn, “The need for design thinking in business schools,” Academy of Management Learning & Education 13, no. 4 (2014): 653, 662. 30 Tim Brown, Change by design (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009), 4.

2 WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE: ACHIEVING SPECIALIST DISTINCTION CLIO PADOVANI

Social responsibility as a driver of economic and social development This chapter explores how socially responsible initiatives within the luxury artisanal textile industry can reveal new thinking about the value of authenticity. It investigates the social connection between those who make authentic products, the economic success of their goods, and the compelling narratives that, through aspects of emotional design, attract customer following. The theme of social sustainability will be explored through the narratives that accompany making, and how they contribute to the uniqueness of products and enable a shared understanding of what is authentic and valuable. This is expanded by case studying Teixidors, a Spanish social project. In Teixidors, we see what could have been the contribution of a marginalized community of people to an economic success story. The company adds intangible worth and offers a personalized route to independence and social cohesion for its workers. The chapter references accepted norms of authenticity in academic and literary thinking, explaining how personalized narratives might confer intangible value to textile and fashion products. By way of illustration, it includes the long-established American company Alabama Chanin. This proven business model provides a global context to illustrate the social and economic power of harnessing authentic skills and traditions that connect to the consumers’ quest for an authentic identity. Alabama Chanin, like Teixidors, demonstrates how the continuing loyalty of customers who choose meaningful objects and brands can support ethical, environmental, and socially sustainable businesses.

44

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

By analyzing how industrial and artisanal skills embedded in the community become a key element of competitiveness for industry, the chapter case study offers the opportunity to rethink, through the narrative of a community’s special labor, authenticity as a commercial value. At Teixidors, each woven piece is made differently by the way each weaver, man or woman, selects the fibers, equipment, and scale of work, which they have most affinity with. Each product is individualized, with its imperfect finish made authentic by virtue of the trace of the personality and physique of the maker. In this way, the narrative of making develops into a shared understanding of what is authentic and valuable. The forty-five weavers and finishers at Teixidors offer a model of textile enterprise built on social responsibility and integration, and cohesion and specialization born of the weaving skills that are part of their community’s tradition. The Teixidors industrial artisans create authenticity not through technological means but by offering a different experience of material and emotional relationships. Addressing principles of emotional design, we draw some conclusions about how industry can lead on social sustainability by creating new thinking. We propose a soft innovation that is based on a changing public perception and strengthening consumers’ direct investment in a community’s character. Innovation, in this case, can be a product of difference in social capital.

Rethinking authenticity as a commercial value through the narrative of a community’s special labor Authenticity in a context of literary thinking This first part of the chapter outlines how the enrichment of the manufactured product, and the perception of its authenticity, can produce lasting competitive advantage in small textile artisanal communities. To situate the discussion around how SMEs in the textile and fashion sector might channel new thinking based on authenticity and the creation of value, we explore the proposition that the narrative and shared experiences of a community can become a distinctive element in the customer’s perception of value. Indeed, as objects take on added meaning and individual narratives flavor and characterize the finished output, we observe that products suffused with personal histories can express added value. Our overall focus on a socially sustainable industry aims to understand more about how the use of narrative and origin applies to the artisanal manufacturing context. To illustrate the fundamental elements of this theme, we bring to bear cultural theories that have been a benchmark in art and design thinking. Walter Benjamin’s work on authenticity and aura can be useful when reflecting on

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

45

creative production, the origin of an object, and its enduring meaning over time. It seems appropriate therefore to take Benjamin as a starting point for discussion of authenticity as difference. Traditionally, within the practices of art and design, the handmade artisanal object is associated with the uniquely crafted object, mostly produced in a limited series. These two elements can preserve the object’s sense of origin and authenticity. The origin of the object, seen as the expression of a particular cultural production, such as, for example, the handmade lace of the Venetian lagoons or the hand-painted production of Delft tiles, is often located within a specific geographical place and time. The handmade, one-off crafted work can also be the result of collective storytelling and multiple narratives, beyond that of the single artist or craftsperson, as for instance in the quilting bees of the American southern states. In this case, the object expresses the values, tradition, and tacit knowledge of the wider group or community that collectively produces it. According to Howard Caygill’s review of Benjamin’s thinking, the work of art’s existence depends on it being reproduced. This is because the work changes through time, through physical condition, ownership, or purpose (use value). To illustrate, Caygill reframes the definition of the work of art as an object with borders, where, if the borders of the work of art are impermeable and closed, “then the work is immutable, defying time and change; if they are permeable and open, then the work is constantly in a process of transformation, becoming other than itself.”1 If the borders of the work of art are closed and fixed at a particular time and place, then the work becomes an object of contemplation, rather than something that changes in response to use. These qualities make it one-off, unique, and valuable, because it is not subject to time and change; it accordingly assumes an aura. “A strange weave of space and time […] conjoining uniqueness and duration.”2 Caygill observes that the development of mechanical reproduction caused Benjamin to consider authenticity as that which offered the opportunity to confer authority to an original, as the object whose meaning is transmitted unchanged through time. Benjamin redefines authenticity in an object as “the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration, to its testimony to the history that it has experienced.”3 Caygill notes that authenticity becomes the record of the process of preservation and transformation, but one that also privileges preservation or substantive duration, over transformation. More specific to the context of artisanal craft practice explored in this book are Benjamin’s reflections on the craft of the artisan and the transmission of experience and knowledge, as illustrated in his references to pottery and weaving. In “Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft” (1998), Esther Leslie considers how Benjamin begins to link together narrative and craft in a 1936 essay called The Storyteller. In this work, Benjamin explains that the ability to tell stories is

46

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

distinguished by the presence of two elements, traveling and the knowledge of past local lore. The two main characters who synthesize these experiences are the traveling journeyman and the master craftsman. She explains: “The habitat of the storyteller is the craft milieu, in which resident master craftsmen— who know the past, who know time—exchange experiences with travelling journeymen—who know distance, space.”4 Yale anthropologist Narges Erami also comments on the figure of the weaver and weaving as a focus for the representation of this continuous motion, as well as the weaving of words used in storytelling. In “Of ladders and looms: Moving through Walter Benjamin’s Storyteller,” Erami finds: “The weaver perhaps more than any other artisan is a Benjaminian figure of constant motion in stasis. The loom moves rhythmically, combining warp and weft, as the weaver’s hands move over the work in silent communion with the loom.”5 For Benjamin, the imperfections found in the knotting and weaving of carpets, or the imprint of the potter on the vessel, facilitate their authenticity, qualities implicit in these objects since their origin. Authenticity is in their substantive duration and preservation of the traces of history they have experienced. The touch of the hand expresses the aura of the crafted object, exemplifying the transmission and transformation of experience and wisdom. In storytelling and narrative, “traces of the storyteller cling to the story the way the handprints of the potter cling to the clay vessel.”6

Creating authenticity Defining authenticity as one of the key elements of the economic sustainability of textile communities is referenced across many sections of this book. As artisanal crafts enjoy resurgence across global markets, there is growing interest from industry, economists, and policymakers, in new ways of identifying and conferring value to products. Environmental sustainability initiatives and corporate social responsibility programs, particularly aimed at emerging economies, have brought about action to preserve not only craft products but also the traditional or indigenous knowledge of a defined skilled community. In a 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology paper discussing authenticity and innovation in artisanal industry, Amit Basole discusses the centuries-old embroidered and woven silk sari production in the Indian city of Banaras and the efforts being made to protect this community’s traditional and indigenous knowledge.7 These handwoven silk sarees are prized because their designs descend from the sophisticated and complex patterns of the Mughal period. The weaver’s craft mixes scrolling patterns with brocade weave heavy with gold, silver, and multicolored wefts. This practical knowledge, or textile knowhow, is protected through geographical indication (GI). It is a form of intellectual property right (IPR) similar to zones of origin for premium food and agricultural products in Europe. Due to its focus on locality, it has been seen as compatible

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

47

with authenticating community-based traditional knowledge, particularly in economies such as India. However, Basole highlights that the adoption of GI principles, while improving value, has also been shown to have a negative effect on innovation. Basole in fact argues that, in the emerging economies where this scheme is being trialed, knowledge development is stagnating. The drawback to the GI IPR approach is that authenticity is measured by how closely the product resembles the accepted original. Accordingly, when GI is applied, product innovation is devalued in order to maintain perceived authenticity or value, in this case, the original saree. Basole suggests that one method to avoid this negative effect on craft and an artisanal community is to adopt the position that the “criteria of authenticity must be developed from within the artisanal community.”8 The static regulatory framework that characterizes the silk saree example above is in contrast to how many artisans and craftspeople conceive of what is involved in the authenticity of their own products. In the Teixidors interview that accompanies this chapter, the ethos of limited edition and specialist craft production encompasses more than the repetition of skills and the preservation of the weaving craft. In Teixidors, knowledge and skills are learnt on-the-job through workshop training or apprenticeships, for Teixidors practice is continuously evolving. In a similar vein, an influential Italian study on reassessing the potential economic impact of artisanal know-how, Futuro Artigiano, referred to more fully in Chapter  6, observes that artisans are known to have a dynamic approach to their knowledge.9 Artisans innovate in response to market demands and consumer tastes, adapt according to the availability of resources, and bring together intellectual and practical skills when finding new solutions to problems. Basole, in agreement, also remarks that “an artisanal cluster embodies a knowledge commons that is the result of generations of experimentation and innovation … .”10 These views suggest that, in artisanal industries, the link between authenticity and value needs to be considered as an evolving characteristic that prevents “knowledge commons” from becoming fixed. Authenticity of a product or process may be thought of, in this light, as a quality that reflects the dynamic nature of practices within an artisanal manufacturing community. These modifications and variations can provide added value and competitive advantage, while maintaining the tradition and heritage of their field. Added value can be defined as an increase in the value of a resource, product, or service, as a result of a particular process. It may also be something useful or different that someone can offer, which will make an economic difference to a company.11 This last definition can provide alternative ways of thinking about creating added value, connected to other intangible qualities artisans and craftspeople may bring to the making of their products. The added value for a small company may reside in harnessing the social or material narratives

48

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

that contribute distinctiveness to its manufactured article. For example, in this chapter’s case study, we see evidence of how a community of people who could have been socially marginalized have helped to provide through their difference an added value to the company’s offer. For Teixidors, its authenticity resides in its weaving heritage and skills. Its added value is built on celebrating difference and the narrative of material and emotional relationships embedded in its products.

Value in authentic artisan craft and enterprise The idea of authenticity as a valuable asset to the success of artisanal practice is one promoted across a number of global contexts. To illustrate, in January  2015, the National Confederation of Artisans in Italy organized an event for entrepreneurs and students as part of Pitti Uomo collections. Branded as “Artigiano Contemporaneo” (Contemporary Artisan), the event featured Oliviero Toscani, known as one of the first photographers to convince luxury fashion brands to introduce social issues into advertising campaigns. Discussing themes of creativity, research, and experimentation within art and craft, Toscani presented himself as an artisan, explaining that, for him, “artisanal craft capabilities are the energy that produces art, and art is the highest form of communication.”12 The manifesto for “Artigiano Contemporaneo,” launched in 2012, stakes a claim for the group’s philosophy of authenticity in artisanal production. According to the manifesto, to be a contemporary artisan means to be the author of unique pieces, often customized and developed through making by hand, that draw on hereditary assets and their own tradition. The manifesto continues by describing artisan work as inhabiting a present future, always contemporary, where labor is recognized as a synonym for a new concept of luxury. It is the luxury of commitment, of time, of uniqueness, and authenticity. As such “authenticity, knowledge and uniqueness of the product represent the core business of our enterprises. [… These] elements of competence and excellence need to be communicated to win market share where quality needs to prevail over brand and price.”13 This distinctive understanding of expertise is the object of renewed attention from industry and local authorities. In various fields, it forms the basis of global and European strategies for the knowledge economy. This definition of expertise also moves toward new models of competitiveness linked to high-quality employment and social cohesion. The value of authenticity, expertise, and a focus on sustainable artisanal communities are something that have been long championed by the luxury fashion and interiors company Alabama Chanin. Based in the southern United States, it provides a comparative example for the European case studies in this book by offering an international model of business based on the preservation and reinvention of traditional skills with community development at its heart.

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

49

Alabama Chanin began making accessories and garments from recycled cotton jersey T-shirts early in 2000 (Figure 2.1). The company’s founder, Natalie Chanin, has a degree in environmental design with a focus on industrial and craft-based textiles, and spent her early career as a stylist and costume designer. Her early interests in textiles were enriched by a documentary that featured the stories and textiles of local Alabama quilters. In developing her business, Natalie Chanin was able to draw upon a section of the local community that had in part been left unemployed by the closure of textile mills and garment-manufacturing companies following the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement. Natalie’s designs—the distinctive look and feel to the Alabama Chanin goods—were influenced by the traditions of home crafts, community interests, and storytelling she experienced through the quilters and seamstresses in her community. Alabama Chanin has become an influential luxury fashion company and an umbrella for a number of related businesses. Across a range of interests that include a school of making and a machine-manufacturing facility open to other like-minded companies, Natalie Chanin maintains principles of sustainable production and supply that include “cultural sustainability, in the form of preserving

Figure 2.1 Alabama Chanin—Collection—Ivory Jacket (left)—Ada Skirt (right). 2015. Copyright Alabama Chanin. Photo: Abraham Rowe.

50

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 2.2 Community—Sustainable Design—Sewing. 2016. Website screenshots. Copyright Alabama Chanin.

hand-sewing skills.”14 The sewing processes that define the company’s look are created from a range of continuously evolving stylized stencils and patterns, cut, appliqued, and hand-embroidered mainly using organic cotton jersey. Stitching is bold and decorative, honoring the traditional textures of quilting, reimagined to construct and embellish contemporary clothing. The sewing is done by hand, by independent contractors, in their own homes and at their own pace (Figure  2.2). This business model is a proven success. Alabama Chanin is successful because what is valuable to the community that makes the products also creates value for the company. Alabama Chanin presents another example of a business that has successfully employed the historical narrative of skills and labor associated with a locality to create products with a story of the land, the people, and their handcrafting traditions. Chanin’s products have in turn become meaningful to customers who are drawn to buy into genuine experiences and authentic values.

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

51

Innovation, the narrative of making, and a shared understanding of value Teixidors The exploration of ideas of authenticity and value in artisanal industries presented above propose that tacit and explicit knowledge, narratives, and material and social history are enabling new socially and economically sustainable business initiatives. These business initiatives embody new ways of conceptualizing innovation as a mix of intangible factors and further suggest that innovation can be brought about by creating added value and by reshaping our experience of products and the companies that manufacture them. These businesses benefit artisanal communities who may be otherwise marginalized by virtue of location, skills, or social status, and can have far-reaching impact on the long-term sustainability of these communities. One such company is the Spanish weaving cooperative, Teixidors. The case study evidences the complex networks of values that can sustain successful small businesses in the textile and clothing sector. Teixidors was set up in 1983 in Terrassa, a town close to Barcelona. It is a cooperative and a social project. Teixidors’ aims are to create exceptional handmade textiles and to reestablish artisanal manufacture in this traditional wool-producing region while enabling local adults with learning difficulties. The company occupies, at the time of writing, a building dating from the 1920s’ Spanish modernist period, with a showroom overlooking the road and a large workshop filled with wooden manual looms. Teixidors is proud to inhabit historically significant spaces. The inherited industrial heritage permeates its philosophy and products, and grounds the company in generational knowledge of manufacturing know-how. The cooperative invites potential workers and their families to visit the workshop and try out the handweaving equipment. Over the years, it has developed an in-house training programme where, on completion, apprentices receive an externally recognized skills certificate. Over thirty years, through word of mouth, a large number of disabled people, some of whom have met at Teixidors and married, have been able to benefit from the employment, skills training, and social integration offered by the cooperative. The making revolves around the manual, wooden looms that were built at the very start of the project. Through the looms, the weavers can transform quality raw materials into unique, bespoke pieces. In the Teixidors newspaper, a biannual publication, the looms are described as a basic design adopted by cultures around the world; a loom model that offers similar solutions to common problems. The same type of loom was in use in most of Europe until the industrial revolution. The Teixidors social and creative project came to fruition through investment in these looms; these

52

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

looms constitute a form of shared capital between the local material history and the weavers (Figure 2.3). The looms require manual interaction with the weaver who operates them, a connected process in which the loom translates the weaver’s gestures (Figure  2.4). Teixidors describes the weaving process as full of subtleties and a means through which the weavers stamp their individuality on each piece of weaving. What is evident when visiting the workshop, however, is a more unusual individualized approach to making; that is, each weaver, man or woman, can select the size of loom they feel most affinity with. Men, for example, often choose to operate the more physically demanding larger width looms, to produce blankets and curtain fabric, or choose to work with linen, a hard fiber until softened by the warmth of the hand. Women have preferred to weave smaller items in softer fibers, or loom threading, finishing, and quality control tasks, that require attention to detail and sustained concentration. The weavers engage their whole body in the activity and develop affinities, expert knowledge, and specialisms. The effort to match the weaver to preferred trades in the workshop is reflected in the special qualities and features of the Teixidors blankets, scarves, and other interior products. The lack of product uniformity is typical of artisanal pieces, and reflects the many nuances arising from the handlooms and the individuality of the maker (Figure 2.5). Teixidors has developed this one step further, making it the unique selling point of their business. Over the years, it has perfected a

Figure 2.3 Teixidors. 2013. Copyright Teixidors, 2013. Photo: Iker Basterretxea.

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Figure 2.4 Teixidors. 2011. Copyright Teixidors, 2011. Photo: Iker Basterretxea.

Figure 2.5 Teixidors. 2012. Copyright Teixidors, 2012. Photo: Iker Basterretxea.

53

54

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 2.6 Teixidors. 2013. Copyright Teixidors, 2013. Photo: Iker Basterretxea.

blend of imperfection and sophistication that speaks of specialist, unique, and highly desirable personalization. This enables the pieces to be woven to display a “deliciously imperfect finish.”15 The imperfect finish is often highlighted by the use of a colored thread on the selvage, which has become, perhaps not surprisingly, one of the brand’s distinguishing features (Figure 2.6).

Enterprise and artisan skills embedded in the local community The approach to innovation displayed by Teixidors asks us to connect with the idea that innovation can be the product of tacit knowledge made evident through the hand, which is different to the more conventional assumption that innovation suggests new technology. Teixidors achieves innovation by industrialized hand practices that create added value. The added value can be found in the different experiences triggered by the emotional and material relationships suggested by the Teixidors products. The blend of imperfection and sophistication in the Teixidors products is made evident in the materiality of its output. Advances in product development are made not by using man-made technical materials but by the expert, slow, harmonious mixing of warp and wefts, color, and weight and texture of the yarns, which in combination produce something new and at the same time something ancient.

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

55

Sustainably sourced fibers add special value to the woven pieces. Selecting unusual materials to weave with enables Teixidors to enrich the woven object with the qualities inherent in the fiber. For example, in its collections, the plaid blanket Gobi and the Khangai shawl illustrate the result of yarn research and evidence effectively how the artisanal process shapes the Teixidors products. At first glance, these items appear gray brown, soft, and with an evident loose weave structure. Gobi and Khangai are made from a blend of 50 percent eco merino wool and 50 percent handcombed yak down. Teixidors tells of the difficulty in obtaining the scarce yak fiber. This is not the outer, abundant wool of the animal, but the soft young fur of yak calves that requires handcombing to yield the material to be spun into this unique and rare yarn. The yak fiber is mixed in the Teixidors workshop with its own ecological range of merino wool, not only to add volume and strength but also to create a uniquely blended thread. The final stage in the artisanal transformation to luxury handmade products is Teixidors’ bespoke approach to finishing. A consequence of its innovative creation of unique threads is that the cooperative has had to find specific solutions to the finishing of its distinctive yarn selections. With simple washing, drying, and ironing equipment, the finishers test new procedures for each material. By using two types of eco soap, they test different recipes until an authentic, almost alchemical change happens to the size, volume, and texture of the fabric; transformational changes that give the products the look and feel that makes them unique and exclusive. In Teixidors’ words, through these processes “our cloth achieves balance and maturity.”16 The example of the search for new materials illustrates the way Teixidors thinks of added value in its textile products and in its process as producers. The research and production method behind the yak fiber operates like a metaphor for the cooperative’s vision of innovation through modest, yet highly meaningful and sophisticated relationships that share a consideration of authenticity as value. As a social project and a business driven by a sense of stewardship of land, resources, and people, Teixidors has sought out alliances, suppliers, and collaborators who share in this vision. The yak fiber used to produce the Gobi and Khangai items, for example, is the product of a collaboration with a cooperative run by nomadic herdsmen in the mountains of central Mongolia. The initiative is led by Veterinarians Without Borders, with the aim to preserve the fragile ecosystem that is the yak’s habitat. Yaks are introduced into the local herds, overseen by tribal herdsmen who can then manage the grasslands sustainably, as well as, to some extent, control the desertification of the land. In this way, steps are taken to preserve the nomadic Mongolian tradition, while the production and sale of yak fiber enable the cooperative to manage its future.17 Teixidors states that the philosophy of the mountain herder cooperative fits well with the values of its project, adding: “It’s a pleasure to work with this type of thread, with its history and authenticity.”18 Authenticity appears to be regarded

56

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

by Teixidors as an intangible quality that is linked to continuity, to communities engaged in specialist practices, to social structures that facilitate knowledge and narratives transmitted through local traditions, as much as the renewal of past manual skills and know-how. Innovation for Teixidors is related to new ways of being in business, new models of socially inclusive enterprise, and different thinking around configuring the value chain; that is, who participates in it, how each contributor fits with the company’s vision and values, and how these values are then reflected in its products and its market appeal.

Authenticity with a difference: The added value of a community narrative The authenticity discernible in the Teixidors products is the result of connected values that permeate its brand, a narrative mix of design quality, social project, and ecology. The company has become synonymous with a repository of skills and knowledge. Its collective achievement seems built on a deeper, significant effort to facilitate a return to industrial prosperity through the recovery of social values associated with work in the crafts. In order to promote its narrative of social achievement, the Teixidors workshop is open to study groups and schools, which expands their social and skills agenda into the local education and business landscape. The offer to share the artisanal making process with customers and other stakeholders is a powerful facilitation tool, both in communicating the mission of the social project and in enabling outsiders to absorb the beauty and importance of the process for the weavers. Pride in the weaver’s skills and output is evident everywhere and the extraordinary atmosphere of individual and collective achievement contributes to a narrative that consistently foregrounds the creation of a self-sustaining community of specialist knowledge. The company is promoting its products on a global stage and, while Teixidors is committed to remain in its location, its challenge is to fulfill the demands of the local and world markets while supplying typically short-run productions. Teixidors appears to have achieved a balanced business. It produces limited ranges, constitutes a competitive niche product, and productively starts valuable collaborations with suppliers and globally known designers who share their beliefs. One of these collaborations is with the Spanish designer Christian Zuzunaga. By collaborating with companies like Zuzunaga, Teixidors presents a clear direction in its enterprise and an enhanced commitment to creating added value. The Integrate: Time and Place collaborative collection of woven blankets, launched in 2012, is reminiscent of scaled-up plaid fabrics. They reference the visual relationship between traditional fabrics and the pixel, a trademark of Zuzunaga’s design process. Close up, the weaving produced from extra-fine eco merino wool, exposes the crossing of warp and weft as a very bright mix of high contrast hues and replicates the overall effect of an image created by individually

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

57

vivid pixels.19 The collection presentation to the public included the presence of two Teixidors weavers to show the objects’ integrity, while simultaneously communicating to visitors the values of the social project. The Teixidors product is informed and sustained by its social capital. The skills and physical attributes of its workers are celebrated and contribute to the uniqueness of its goods. As a cooperative that values the individual contribution of its employees, the value of people is intrinsic to the success of its products. While engaging with transformation in the manual rendition of a digital image, the interpretation of the skilled craftsperson and the character of artisanal handweaving bring about the transfer of each individual’s story to the piece they have woven. The narratives of making and the personal narratives of the weavers become a single story, created and shared through the touch of the hand (Figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7 Teixidors. 2013. Copyright Teixidors, 2013. Photo: Iker Basterretxea.

58

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

At Teixidors, the transferal of skills and knowledge is a transformative activity that reveals the value-driven work of the cooperative. The authenticity of its narrative and that of the handwoven object share the same thread, unwinding from the movement of the shuttle to transmit the timeless knowledge of the textile fabrication process. The individual inflection given to the cloth by the maker, its final size and texture, initiates the transformation of the story of the  individual weaver into the finished fabric. In the fields of knowledge management and business innovation, the characteristics conferred to artisanal products by their makers can be a crucial asset in sustaining competitive advantage and economic growth. A number of studies in business literature have paid particular attention to how some communities are recognizing the added value and competitive advantage conferred by this form of individualized knowledge. Innovation arising from business models focused on the competitive benefits of new forms of knowledge that are difficult to reproduce offers some of the greatest opportunities for growth.20 Teixidors’ exceptional and unique blend of design, business, and social sustainability is a form of innovation based on specialist social and craft contexts. It is both the cause and the success of a community development project. As such Teixidors, like Alabama Chanin, propose the concept that social sustainable enterprise is both advantageous to communities and a success in a competitive market.

Product narrative and socially sustainable enterprise Narrative and the value experience This section of the chapter addresses how our appreciation of a product can be influenced by its narrative; that is, how the story of the object can influence its appreciation. As outlined above, in cultural theory, literature, and art practice, writers have referred to weaving as a metaphor for connecting, embedding, or storytelling. The action of weaving has also been employed to suggest the process of thinking and bringing together the threads of a story. In “Clues and Cloth: Seeking Ourselves in ‘The Fabric of Myth’,” Sullivan Kruger explains this activity within literary and artistic contexts by tracing a line from Greek legend to present-day practice. Referencing the range of expressions that no longer have “an explicit reference to cloth, but now almost exclusively describe the realm of human emotions and mental activity,” she argues that cloth and its making represent a society’s symbols, secular practices, and beliefs.21 In the same way that we may talk of cloth-making as storytelling, when we draw

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

59

attention to collective values and social customs we refer to the fabric of our society, culture, or heritage. The author notes how a piece of fabric is able to transmit information about the society that created it, equating its yarn, pattern, and structure to a parallel grammar. “For centuries weaving and clothmaking were vital forces that homogenized societies, both economically and imaginatively.”22 Woven products made by Teixidors draw on this long history of textiles. The  Teixidors shawls, blankets, and scarves are created as design items that follow in the footsteps of local history and trade; they are items of rare, high, economic value. Additionally, they are autographs of special labor and share a compelling story. The objects embody intangible values, for instance, cooperation, mutual benefit, integration, and social cohesion. Gathered together, the textual, crafted, and social elements of a community of practice propose a specialist model of enterprise whose narrative has the additional benefit of embodying the aspirations and hopes of a community of people. Even though Teixidors might describe its products as modest in its ambitions and manufacture, it exercises a powerful influence in the consumer imagination. The specialization of the Teixidors products is communicated through the framework of the social project and the networks of suppliers and collaborators that it has built to ensure traceability and ethical responsibility in its supply chain. The collections it is known for, all over the world, are made significant by the fact that it embraces the unique, imperfect, handmade gesture. The narrative of making is centered on difference rather than technological perfection. It expresses the aspirations of a community, and it creates a social fabric. It is this authentic exchange, allied with design and material excellence, that has been recognized by strong customer interest and the development of the Teixidors brand.

Narrative and experiential design To understand more about why the Teixidors products have caught the imagination of consumers, we investigate literature that engages with emotional and experience design, and we explore how Teixidors helps its customers have an experience rather than simply engage with the use value of a product. In The Experience Economy, an influential 1998 study on the evolution of the experience economy and customer business management, authors Pine and Gilmore note that customer experiences have emerged as a category that creates new value. The proposition is made that, while goods are tangible and services intangible, experiences are memorable. Buyers of experiences value being engaged in the memorable associations that are created within this highly personalized approach.23 Buyers of experiences value memorable

60

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

and highly personalized products and, because of the individuality of the customer, no two experiences of the same product are alike. Pine and Gilmore take this point further to suggest that an experience is significant in that it is retained internally as a treasured memory. By extension, individuals are noted to desire lasting experiences that will enable a transformation, or to help them become different, more individual, and more authentic. For many companies, enabling this transformation represents a valuable challenge that requires a very sophisticated approach, beyond the production of commodities and goods and even customization and personalization of their offer.24 In Pine and Gilmore’s study, a key attribute to creating competitive advantage is the sustained and guided transformative properties of a commercial offer. The Teixidors project exemplifies this aspect of consumer theory. Its product and community narrative help create strong memories in its customers, a sense of shared experience, mediated by the sensory and tactile qualities of the woven objects. Buying from Teixidors can also articulate customers’ desire for transformative experiences. A 2010 consumer research study, authored by Australian scholar Michael Beverland, adds benefit to Pine and Gilmore’s thoughts regarding the experience economy. Investigating consumers’ quest for authenticity in consumption, Beverland found that “consumers employ authentic products, services and experiences to create authentic selves.”25 Beverland explores how consumers increasingly feel the need to be connected as active members of a community. Feeling connected may bring important benefits such as personal enrichment through participation and an involvement with like-minded others. In expressing preferences for authenticity represented by the products and their stories, consumers associate their desire to develop an authentic self with the brands that most evidently offer a connection with these values. It is possible to recognize the transformative effect of the experiential object suggested by Pine and Gilmore and the desire for connection outlined by Beverland when thinking of the experience provided by a Teixidors product. The  structure and feel of the cloth communicate its handmade heritage. A Teixidors blanket is the product of the tradition of a place, a culture, and its values. It is simple and pure, modest, and elegant. It is created through physical and emotional labor and demonstrates this in its imperfections. It opens a view onto a slow, meaningful, traditional production, which is further enriched by the mission to sustain values of social development and equality. If the buyer becomes aware of participating in a value experience, the interaction with the object can produce a transformation in the customer. In the crossing of woven threads, we are able to glimpse the experience of the weavers, and gain entry to a space in which we can cocreate a common narrative.

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

61

Conclusion: Authentic narrative, economic value, and an industry sensitive to social sustainability As we have seen, the attraction of the Teixidors products is based on a narrative of making, uniqueness, and difference. The customers’ search for distinctive, personalized goods and services that are in line with their aspirations and desires can be witnessed in the Teixidors products. The story evidenced by Teixidors’ products includes the personal achievement and transformation of individual weavers who each benefit from community integration and a supportive social and work structure. The Teixidors founding story enables a feeling of collective participation in the cooperative’s efforts to foster community values and social cohesion. Customers, who experience pleasure in designed objects that reflect their values and that contribute to positive change, express their loyalty by buying into the narrative of the enterprise. The Teixidors cooperative is mindful that it is building on long-standing local, cultural, and economic heritage, and that its claim of authenticity is an economic asset. For the management of Teixidors, making choices to retain ethical sources, simple materials and original weaving processes, is how they preserve cultural heritage. Recovering skills and competencies, reimagined for a contemporary global context, goes hand in hand with the aim to educate, empower, and integrate groups of workers that might otherwise be at risk of being marginalized. Consumers are increasingly interested in authenticating their own choices and see, in this brand, not a resistance to mainstream production, but an alternative that can complement and have positive impact on the exchange between business and society. The management of Teixidors have expressed an interest in developing their business model elsewhere. Research carried out on the growth of consumer tribes, and their communicative, transformative potential for business and society in the twenty-first century, questions “how sustainable these [consumer] communities can become, how inclusive and available to all, how accessible both geographically and economically.”26 That said, the Teixidors ambition to expand need not founder, as it has shown that growth and innovation can be achieved when core business values and societal challenges are brought together to mutual benefit. In completing the analysis of Teixidors’ case study it remains important to evidence how consumers contribute to making this social project a sustainable business model. One of the recurring elements that enable the successful exchange is the cooperative’s communication of its mission and values to the public. For those consumers who desire to feel connected and genuine in their lifestyle choices, Teixidors achieves the goal of providing a memorable,

62

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

meaningful experience. From describing the provenance of its materials, the story expressed by its products, and the sensory impact of its workshop environment, the values of exceptional design practice within a tradition of local, responsible production are celebrated. The company has been able to maintain its focus on exquisite design distinguished by materials and tradition, never prioritizing its social project over the quality of its output. Over the years, the manufacture of quality products and the social project have successfully fused into one identity; now neither would have significance without the other. What began as a social responsibility project has created lasting economic value. A community has established innovation focused on knowledge management, the availability of resources, the promotion of change through the durability of products, the resilience of individuals, and the permanence of tradition. Innovation based on establishing relationships between weavers and the public, materials and ecology, has meant the retention of skills and improvement in social cohesion. Perhaps Teixidors has been lucky in that it operates in a time when we are increasingly aware that social responsibility can be a driver for economic development. Or, it may be that Teixidors’ vision has created the conditions for its contribution to now be recognized and copied by others. What is clear, however, is that the Teixidors model suggests that a textiles industry sensitive to its workforce can lead on and mutually benefit from social sustainability.

Interview with Jordi Purrà, manager, and Sofia Agerberth, export manager at Teixidors, Terrassa, Barcelona, November 25, 2014 In the interview, Clio Padovani explores with Jordi Purrà, manager, and Sofia Agerberth, export manager at Teixidors, the values that underpin the company’s design and reputation for high-quality products. The discussion covers the emphasis Teixidors places on materials, as well as the practice of production, sometimes referred to in the chapter as the narrative of making. The interview engages with the importance of authenticity and design as they are understood by Jordi and Sofia but also, and perhaps not surprisingly as both the interviewees are managers of an internationally growing textiles company, offers a glimpse of the competitive nature of industrial enterprise. Respondent 1: Jordi Purrà, Manager Respondent 2: Sofia Agerberth, Export Manager Interviewer: Clio Padovani

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

INT: RES1:

INT: RES2: INT: RES2:

INT:

RES2: INT: RES2:

INT: RES2: INT: RES2:

63

Can we start by me asking what is critical, or core to the quality of Teixidors? My quick view which is quite conceptual and very simple, Sofia maybe has a more sophisticated argument but mine is very economic and plain. For Teixidors, it’s a mix: when we talk about quality, in fact we were talking about design and materials. At the end of the day its design and the material that matters most, it’s what people first see. When you touch a piece you quickly feel if it’s something different and not from the standard market articles. Of course we also have two other big stories; we have the ecological one and the social one. These two come together. The people that are sensitive to one are usually sensitive to the other. It is true, some people are not as sensitive to the two stories as the design and materials. They feel that the design or the quality are most important and the stories come afterwards as a complement; others of course, see the whole package. Teixidors started out as a cooperative, is this still the case? Yes. Is this the best business model for Teixidors and will it continue? Yes, basically we’ve been carrying on as we started. It started as a cooperative because of the people really. The people that started Teixidors wanted all the people who were working here to be part of the company and it still is like this. Is Teixidors getting bigger, I see it more around; I see it on the web a lot and so I imagine that the business has grown while still maintaining the ethos of the cooperative. Yeah. That’s very important. Now we are 45 people, all in the cooperative. And how many people who are managing, let’s say. Managing, we are 12 people now, all the rest are weavers. We want to grow as a company but now in this space, it’s not possible. We are waiting for a new space. Oh, where will that be? Very close to here. It is an old Spanish modernist building that is almost double the size of this place. They are just working on it now. How many more people will you need in the new space? How many more weavers? Well, we are not thinking of what we need. It takes five years of training before you are prepared enough to be a weaver, it’s quite a slow process. When we are in the new space we can take on more people for training and we can open the place up to the public more often. Also, Terrassa has an architectural tour for tourists that they

64

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

want Teixidors to be part of. The town wants to show visitors the textile industry. Teixidors is the only textile manufacturer left so it’s important to be able to see the factory. INT: Will you offer the training in-house? A lot of companies are training people inside the company rather than taking workers from outside. Are you thinking the same? RES2: It’s important to do it here. We have certain ways of working and it’s very important that the workers learn our way. Our way is distinctive. INT: On my first visit to Teixidors, some years ago, we discussed designing textiles by consensus. In a lot of places you find a designer and/or a design team. Through our conversation Juan Ruiz said Teixidors try to design through a consensus. Do you think this is still the case, because, we know that you are, for example, collaborating with Zuzunaga? RES2: More and more people are interested in doing collaborations. What they do is come with an idea like working with a particular material and then we do proposals. We have now also done a collaboration with E15; it’s a German furniture company that do lots of accessories. It took a very long time to work out the design, it took up to a year. What they had in mind was a grid system and they had a clear idea of how they wanted it to look but it still took a long time to complete. It took a long time to get it exactly right. We are getting approached more and more by designers, and companies that are interested in collaborations. We collaborate with others on their projects but not for our own collection. Until recently, we didn’t really have a person who was in charge of the design 100%; it was all designed within the team. Now we have someone who has been with us, maybe half a year; she is a textile teacher in one of the design schools in the city, and she comes here twice a week to work on our designs. She is 100% focused on design development. INT: Does that change the product then? RES2: No. It is very important that we keep the same lines as we have our own characteristics that people who know the product are familiar with. When they see it, they know that it is Teixidors. It’s interesting, when we were at a show together with Zuzunaga, showing together, people came up to us and said this looks like Teixidors. INT: It does. It’s in the relationship. If you know the work of Zuzunaga you see the relationship. In future, do you think that it will be more difficult for Teixidors to manage the idea of collaboration and remain

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

RES2:

INT:

RES3 INT RES3 INT RES2:

INT: RES2:

INT:

RES2:

65

individual? Will collaborations be a bigger part of your work as you grow? We have to be careful. We do collaborations that are very balanced. Teixidors will never be under another brand, it will always be made by Teixidors. There’s a balance, and we have to keep our identity. There are some beautiful things behind you. How do you go about choosing materials and making the fabric? Is the supply process the same as it used to be at the start of the company? Do you still have links with the eco-wool firm Maco Merinos? Yes. Do you still look for specific yarns and then move on to what the product will look like if you use these yarns? Yes. Does that work? Yes very much so. Maco Merinos is a strong story because we know the whole process from the beginning. We have become really good friends with this small farm. For them there is the idea that they only work with Teixidors because of its social project. They don’t sell to anyone else. We buy their whole production. We have a closeness, which is very important. We also have a closeness with the Yak that we get from Mongolia that we started working with two years ago. We found the material and then came the design of the product. And with the cashmere, the cashmere was selected because basically it’s the best cashmere that’s available. The linen is European linen, so we have traceability of where it comes from. We only work with natural materials that support our ethos. When the design goes to the weavers, what do you give them? It’s a drawing, a very simple drawing. It’s a very beautiful drawing. Many of our weaves are quite simple but some are more complicated and they have to be done by one of our more specialist weavers. Depending on the intended size, we have two or three meter looms and these are difficult to work. You have to have a lot of strength and affinity with the equipment. That is the way that we have been presenting Teixidors, that it is to do with a physical relationship between the maker, the loom and the material that is being woven. For example, linen being a hard fibre needs more strength during the weaving process. Do you think the physical attributes of the weavers actually do somehow get reflected in the product? In the pieces, yes.

66

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

RES3

INT:

RES2:

INT:

RES2: INT:

RES2: INT:

RES2: INT:

RES2:

We also have the cashmere weaves. They come out of the loom very open. To make sure the structure is consistent the person weaving cashmere has to apply exactly the same force; that is complicated and you have to pay attention. They do this the whole day, eight hours a day. Another key area of the book is the idea of the industrial artisan. There is an idea in the UK that there is a return of an industrial artisan, that is, somebody who can manufacture but still maintain key qualities and characteristics dependent on the craft of the making. Would you say that Teixidors has workers that fit with that idea? Well, yes I would say so in that we maintain key attributes. I think that the beauty of the artisan and the small imperfections that you have in the handmade is what really makes the piece. You know, a machine could not make the irregular edge that you see here in one of our pieces. You can only make this if it is hand woven. The little details are what makes the piece. You could not mechanically make our product exactly the same. Do you think that the growth in hand made, more artisan work, is having an impact on what you see around you in the industry? When you go to fairs and take your work around, is there anything that looks like this? To be honest, very little. A couple of companies that have the handmade quality but really it’s not a lot. Ok. I think we have covered what makes your product different. It is the cohesion perhaps between materials, design and the two stories. Finally, another key theme of the book is authenticity. The case study of Teixidors illustrates the idea of a certain modesty; a sort of ethical, inner modesty, if you like. Yeah, yeah. That’s maybe not the right way to say it, but yours are not products that scream out loud. For us the authenticity comes from the way in which people experience the material and the emotional relationships. Would you agree with that? Definitely I agree with that but there again, it’s a product that is exclusive in a modest way. Going back to the idea of authenticity; sometimes authenticity is about being rare. Would you say Teixidors products are rare? I mean for example, one design, is it a limited edition? We have tried to reduce the collection in the last four years because we cannot keep a large stock of so many products. It’s really been a problem. When we take products out of the collection we have stock left over so we can see more clearly exactly

WEAVING A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

67

which products are really working. I’m not sure when they started doing the Sisteron collection but I think it must have been six or seven years ago, and it’s still one of the best sellers. It’s the same colours today, and there have been no changes. And then the Jazz, the cashmere collection, we started four years ago, that also works really, really well; we maybe make some changes in the colours. INT: I think that by reducing and thinning down the collection, in a way, you are making it more rare? RES2: Yes. INT: I am trying to find out in what way the Teixidors product is authentic? Harris Tweed is branded because it comes from a very specific place. The yarn that you use is very specific to this region. Do you think the relationship with Terassa brings authenticity toTeixidors or would it be much more to do with the human, the material, and the synergy of those things? RES2: Yeah. It’s not about place. It would be a dream for me if Teixidors could start in other places in the world because its needed. INT: Innovation is often thought of as mainly technological. Your approach to innovation seems to be the combination of societal, material, and narrative. Would you describe Teixidors as an innovative business, and does innovation have any meaning inside Teixidors? RES2: I think it’s innovative that we are a social project and that we make such a high quality product because those things are not often linked. These guys are doing this amazing job. Not many people could apply the same concentration levels that they do; they do an excellent job. INT: Thank you for your time.

Notes 1

Howard Caygill, Walter Benjamin [electronic resource]: The colour of experience (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), 92.

2

Caygill, Walter Benjamin [electronic resource]: The colour of experience, 93.

3

Caygill, Walter Benjamin [electronic resource]: The colour of experience, 101.

4

Esther Leslie, “Walter Benjamin: Traces of craft,” Journal of Design History 11, no. 1 (1998): 5.

5

Narges Erami, “Of ladders and looms: Moving through Walter Benjamin’s ‘Storyteller,’” Anthropological Theory 15, no. 1 (2015): 96.

6

Erami, “Of ladders and looms: Moving through Walter Benjamin’s ‘Storyteller,’” 96.

7

Amit Basole, “Authenticity, innovation and the geographical indication in an artisanal industry: The case of the Banarasi Sari,” Working paper, 2014-09 (University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2014).

68

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

8

Basole, “Authenticity, innovation and the geographical indication in an artisanal industry: The case of the Banarasi Sari,” 128.

9

Stefano Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, L’innovazione nelle mani degli italiani (Venezia: Marsilio, 2011).

10 Basole, “Authenticity, innovation and the geographical indication in an artisanal industry: The case of the Banarasi Sari,” 143. 11 R. Combley, Cambridge Business English Dictionary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). 12 “La capacità artigianale è l’energia che produce l’arte e l’arte è l’espressione più alta della comunicazione,” http://www.cnatoscana.it/oliviero-toscani-affascina-gli -imprenditori/, Oliviero Toscani on Fashion. 13 “Artigiano Contemporaneo,” (2015), available at: http://www .artigianocontemporaneo.it/eventi/ (accessed March 23, 2015). 14 “Alabama Chanin,” available at: http://alabamachanin.com/about-alabama-chanin (accessed December 10, 2015). 15 “Teixidors,” (2015), available at: http://www.teixidors.com/home.html#!/project.html (accessed February 14, 2015). 16 Teixidors, “Teixidors Newspaper,” in Teixidors SCCL (Terrassa, Spain, 2013), 28. 17 Ar Arvijin Delgerekh, (2016), available at: https://fairtradewool.wordpress.com (accessed December 12, 2015). 18 Teixidors, “Teixidors Newspaper,” 30. 19 Clio Padovani and Paul Whittaker, “Modern alchemy: Collaboration and the value of social capital,” Craft Research 6, no. 1 (2015): 99. 20 Stephen Pinch, Knowledge communities. In, Kichin, R. and Thrift, N. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. (Oxford, GB, Elsevier, 2009) 25–30. (doi:10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00190-5 ). p. 26. 21 Kathryn Sullivan Kruger, “Clues and cloth: Seeking ourselves in ‘The Fabric of Myth,’” Catalog for The Compton-Verney Art Museum in Warwickshire, England. (September, 2008) 12. 22 Sullivan Kruger, “Clues and cloth: Seeking ourselves in ‘The Fabric of Myth,’” 11. 23 B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore, The experience economy (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011), 98. 24 Pine and Gilmore, The experience economy, 244. 25 Michael B. Beverland and Francis J. Farrelly, “The quest for authenticity in consumption: Consumers’ purposive choice of authentic cues to shape experienced outcomes,” Journal of Consumer Research 36, no. 5 (2010): 843. 26 Bernard Cova, Robert V. Kozinets, and Avi Shankar, Consumer tribes, ed. Bernard Cova, Robert V. Kozinets, and Avi Shankar (London: Routledge, 2007), 311.

3 COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE CLIO PADOVANI

Social sustainability: Importance of leadership, the value of the network, and mutual recognition of authentic experience This chapter explores the book’s central theme of social sustainability by considering the importance of leadership, the value of an extended network, and the mutual recognition of shared, authentic experience. This chapter focuses on the Harris Tweed weaving community in the Outer Hebrides, an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. Its geographical place continues to make the community relatively isolated. At the UK Census in 2011, there were 27,500 people living on the islands. On Harris and Lewis, there are, at the time of writing, 184 “home weavers” on double-width looms and forty with single-width looms; these traditionally self-employed freelancers work with the finishers of Harris Tweed as specialist textile artisans.1 In the early years of the twenty-first century, changed market conditions, poor management of production, and de-skilling brought a number of challenges to this community that, amplified by retirement and loss of jobs, brought the manufacture of this iconic cloth almost to a standstill. The case

70

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 3.1 Orb Certification Trademark, stamped onto Harris Tweed. 2016. Copyright Harris Tweed Authority, 2016.

study for this chapter investigates the context and strategy behind the solution to these seemingly intractable problems, as well as the way the officially designated fragile community around Harris Tweed devised and implemented a strategic recovery program. We explore how the actors and stakeholders involved in this process came together to produce a forward-looking strategy and, in so doing, created new market demand open to the newly rethought and redesigned Harris Tweed cloth (Figure 3.1). The final part of the chapter reflects on the case study and the accompanying literature, linking the community’s well-being and future self-sufficiency to the wider European agenda for sustainable growth. The case study draws attention to the process of entrepreneurial discovery and the KETs identified in the European Union’s Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). The chapter concludes by highlighting not the technology aspect of the KET strategy but the “soft” key enabling practices of collaboration, enterprise, and leadership, and their capacity to function together in support of a model of collaborative management. By cooperating to recognize the societal needs of the community, artisans, entrepreneurs, and government organizations can construct a model of practice, create shared value, and benefit the continued sustainability of social capital networks.

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

71

Harris Tweed as a weaving cluster: The provenance, the history, and the product Harris Tweed is identified as a cloth “wholly produced on the island … Its identity is intrinsically bound up in the landscape and heritage of its makers both visually and in its tactile qualities: thick, rough and protective.”2 The distinctive colors of the yarn, traditionally dyed as fleece to reflect the tones of land and seascapes, are expertly carded and blended to produce the typical flecked look. This, together with the traditional handwoven twill, herringbone, and plaid weave structures, has created the distinctive fabric known across the world as part of the British sartorial image and heritage brand. The making of the cloth is in the hands of weavers who are still strongly connected to the rhythms of the land and to the crofting activity that is prevalent on the islands. Depending on the weather, weavers can be looking after their flocks of sheep or weaving Harris Tweed, the two activities harmonizing in a delicate balance (Figure 3.2). Historically, this has been a conventional mode of subsistence for the Harris Tweed weavers, one that has also depended on the continued fortunes of the cloth. Traditionally, the knowledge of weaving Harris Tweed is passed on to family or apprentices on domestic mechanical looms inherited by subsequent generations. The success of Harris Tweed rested in part on the knowledge of it being handwoven in the home of the weaver and its authenticated geographical provenance. With the growth of its appeal as a fabric suited to sporting pursuits and country lifestyles, imitations entered the market, leading to the Harris Tweed trademark being established in 1909. Further protection of the brand, and by extension its community of artisan weavers, was put in place through an Act of Parliament in 1993. In this Act, the production of handwoven Harris Tweed is identified as the main source of work for the island’s private sector. The Act defines the means by which the integrity, distinctive character, and worldwide reputation of the fabric must be maintained, supported by the creation of a Harris Tweed Authority, charged with furthering the welfare and employment prospects of the Harris inhabitants.3 The characteristics of the fabric enshrined in the Act are inextricably linked to the location of its production; in this sense, the location functions as a competitive advantage for the island industry. The cloth, originally made and worn by crofters, acquired its first trademark in 1909. The Harris Tweed Authority explains the journey to the established trademark as follows: A company was formed under the title The Harris Tweed Association Limited to ensure the grant of a new trademark and an application was filed to register the well-known Harris Tweed Orb and Maltese Cross with the words Harris Tweed underneath. This Certification Mark was granted in 1909, registered in 1910 and stamping began in 1911.4

72

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 3.2 Hand shearing on the Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, UK. Copyright Lara Platman, 2010. Photo: Lara Platman.

The authorized authenticity of the handmade cloth indicates the strength of its status as a valued commodity, reflecting changed consumer priorities in a global economy. By way of illustration, in “The Very Recent Fall and Rise of Harris Tweed,” the authors quote the Japanese fashion retailer and United Arrows founder Hirofumi Kurino, who observes that customers are not excited by globalized products, where the same item is available in every city. When interviewed on the values that underpin his business, Kurino explains that the 2008 economic crisis affected the rise of Japanese trends for simpler lifestyles, for longevity, and for rethinking the concept of fashion. An affinity with deeply held knowledge and traditions leads, for him, to an appreciation of products that reflect the individuality, meanings, and values within local cultures.5 Accordingly, one reason why Japanese consumers buy Harris Tweed is that the brand represents British cultural qualities with which the Japanese can identify.

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

73

Constraints, demographics, and lost knowledge exchange Looking at the industry model, a number of characteristics provided by artisanal manufacture were seen also as barriers to new sales. Although the trademark was initially successful in securing a competitive future for Harris Tweed, helping it to achieve a global market, the trademark also became a constraint on product innovation. To retain the trademark, production was required to rigorously uphold the established and defined product process, including wool supply and dyeing processes. Traditional spinning and weaving practices maintained the integrity of the product but did not change in consideration of potential new markets (Figure  3.3). In the design and production context, the Harris Tweed cloth had a close association with menswear. The heaviness of the fabric however presented a challenge to successful adoption for womenswear. Additionally, ongoing difficulties were recognized in reconciling Harris Tweed’s heritage and authentic process with scaling-up production, investment in new technologies, and diversification without diluting or lowering the standards of the brand. Over time, the industry arrived at a stage where there had been no substantial transformation to the design and production process or, by extension, to the clientele buying the product (Figure 3.4).

Figure 3.3 Measuring cloth, circa 1950. Copyright Harris Tweed Authority, 2016.

74

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 3.4 Mill darner inspecting cloth, circa 1950. Copyright Harris Tweed Authority, 2016.

As orders slowed in the 1990s and 2000s, the structure of the industry, reliant on a majority of single weavers spread over remote terrain with limited contact with merchants and mills, further influenced the decline of the Harris Tweed industry and its community. Individual weavers, working alone or in small family groups bound by strict codes of practice, brought about a situation in which knowledge was not then easily accessible or transmittable. The number of people leaving an industry in decline contributed to the lack of product

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

75

development by undermining the organizational structure necessary to support innovation. The transfer of tacit knowledge requires close physical proximity, and it is difficult to transmit tacit knowledge effectively through the written form. One of the main challenges associated with the transfer of tacit knowledge can be the loss of skilled workers through retirement or industrial restructure. In the case of Harris Tweed, the numbers of workers leaving when allied to reduced numbers of unskilled entrants to the profession accordingly came to exacerbate the problems of knowledge transfer in an already small workforce spread across island landscapes. In the midst of what appeared terminal decline of the industry, in 2008, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the Scottish Government’s economic and community development agency for the north and west of Scotland, commissioned a skills audit to gage the extent of the de-skilling problem. This was aimed at “identifying needs, investigating training options and to make recommendations for a Skills & Development Plan related to sector development.”6 Recommendations made to address the retention of skilled labor for the industry included accreditation for existing weavers, National Qualification Group Awards to indicate a clear employment trajectory for schools and colleges, and a pilot training program for weavers funded by the European Social Fund.

Networks of production: Weak clusters undermine sustainability Other factors also functioned as constraints on the success of the Harris Tweed business. The location plays and played an important part in the character of the product and in its distribution, particularly as the industry remained cut off from the globalized digital economy. The remote locations traditionally added to the appeal of the cloth and underpinned its market associations with a simple, elegant, strong craft image. The 2012–2015 Outer Hebrides Creative and Cultural Industries Strategy, commissioned by HIE, highlighted the strong sense of brand identity surrounding the Outer Hebrides as a “place” supported by associations with history, cultural traditions, and a “wildness of landscape and weather.”7 A cloth that reflects these origins, nevertheless, must arrive reliably to Savile Row tailors’ or international fashion houses. Its provenance and place can, therefore, also act as a barrier to economic growth without appropriate logistics infrastructure. Consultations undertaken by HIE identified wider challenges for the area, such as poor access to fast broadband and high transport, fuel, and energy costs, also acknowledged by other businesses in Scotland as adversely affecting the performance of their enterprises. While the HIE agency is working to develop a local cluster with a number of businesses with similar interests, the lack of an established, historical, regional structure of independent manufacturers

76

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

cooperating to ensure a cohesive supply chain has hampered the development of the Harris Tweed industry. In other chapters in this book, clusters are referenced as an important organizational structure able to impact on the sustainability of industries, workers, and communities. This does not mean that they cannot be in a relationship of “competitive collaboration” like, for instance, the Italian manufacturing districts. “Clusters and the new economics of competition” (Michael Porter, 1998) describes clusters as a geographical concentration of producers that can extend to customers and providers of complementary products and services. Simply put, clusters enable critical mass in a specialist field. They influence opportunities through extended social capital networks and can facilitate solutions to common interest challenges within their sector.8 Porter explains: “Clusters promote both competition and cooperation. Rivals compete intensely to win and retain customers […] Competition can coexist with cooperation because they occur on different dimensions and among different players.”9 In his study, Porter identifies three ways in which clusters can positively affect competitiveness: by raising productivity, by driving the direction and pace of innovation, and by creating new businesses that return strength to the cluster. Evidence suggests that there were poor synergies between the different stakeholders in the Harris Tweed industry. This can be seen in the approach of one entrepreneur, who became interested in the industry and the potential to modernize the production of Harris Tweed. He established a range of commercial strategies to reduce the variety of Harris Tweed patterns woven by his mill, and then outsourced the production of garments in a way that was not consistent with tradition.10 His strategy exacerbated the problems in the prevalent working culture of the Harris Tweed industry, where sole traders and manufacturers worked independently to their own advantage. Recognizing that there is strength to be found in industrial clusters, since 2010, HIE has explicitly promoted a remit for community development in the Outer Hebrides. Policy to support the strengthening of fragmented, artisanal, and manufacturing communities now exists; it offers training and financial investment to the textile sector, and enables collaborations that increase scale, capacity, and distribution. This has worked to the benefit of Harris Tweed and the local creative industries by promoting critical mass in skills, production, design innovation, and skills succession planning. The market for Harris Tweed is as important to the health of the Highlands industry as the initiatives and practices set up to maintain its manufacture. Originally made fashionable by the British aristocracy, Harris Tweed gradually gained popularity and became more successful with a wider audience. This can be demonstrated by the product’s appeal to the American market in the 1950s, when leading male roles in the film industry often wore Harris Tweed.

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

77

The Harris Tweed jacket was more recently reprised in Ben Affleck’s film “Argo.” In a Guardian newspaper interview in 2013, Tony Mendez, on whose character the movie centered, also spoke about the less-known role of the cloth, as a secret language in the world of US spies during the Cold War years. The Harris Tweed jacket was, according to Mendez, the equivalent of a Central Intelligence Agency uniform and a covert code for operatives in the field. He states that “if you were in the field during the Blitz, you wore a trench coat. If you were tracking Ivan [the Soviet Union and its allies], you had Harris Tweed.”11 The decline of the appeal of Harris Tweed for the American market had a considerable impact for the industry and its community. Decades of underinvestment and poor sales contributed to the decline of Harris Tweed making. A combination of industryrelated factors, including slowing market demand, lack of innovation, and loss of skills, which when mixed with broader local economic and social challenges of location and demographics, brought the industry and the community that relied on it to a point of crisis.

Planning a shared vision for Harris Tweed Collaborative leadership: The Harris Tweed Industry Forum In this context, it is particularly significant that the 2007 HIE Fragile Areas Review described the Outer Hebrides as “fragile areas […] characterized by weakening of communities through population loss, low incomes, limited employment opportunities, poor infrastructure and remoteness.”12 Successive iterations of fragile areas report findings identified support for leadership training in weakened communities as one of their policy priorities. Being able to identify gaps in provision and to successfully address those within a cluster requires transparency in relations and the sourcing of management skills that bring together public and private stakeholders. For Harris Tweed to continue and grow, a radical reassessment of the product and the market position of the cloth, along with a collaborative approach to shared issues of concern such as marketing strategies, skills, and training, was a necessity. In 2010, the Harris Tweed Industry Forum (HTF) was formed, and it proposed a new strategy designed to address the challenges that had surrounded the industry. HTF was an industry-led body that brought together private firms and support bodies. It was chaired by the Comhairlie. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar is the local government council that includes the Outer Hebrides. The recommendations of the Forum, outlined in the Harris Tweed industry strategy, placed particular emphasis on identifying “the markets and positioning of the cloth, along with a collaborative

78

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

approach to press coverage, skills, and training and seasonality.”13 The shared vision for the strategy is quoted by HTF as one prepared to “realize the potential of Harris Tweed as a world renowned brand, leading to sustainable growth in the industry and contributing to the economic well-being of the Outer Hebrides.”14 The HTF strategy expressed a commitment to partnership and collaborative approaches. The commitment to working together is a theme reprised many times in its vision document. The principle of working together is supported by the establishment of a range of groups better able to represent the interests of all new and established stakeholders. The theory being that these groups could achieve critical mass to lobby regional, national, and European-level institutions, and make a stronger case to leverage funding to return to precrisis level training and production. The strategy’s central pillars were identified as profiling, promoting, and protecting the cloth. The pillars could be applied differently to the various stakeholders. That said, profiling and promoting the cloth to regain (as in the case of the American market), to increase the market share, were the concerns shared by all stakeholders. Without a thriving market, production had drastically decreased, so the ability to create a new generation interested in and able to champion the Harris Tweed cloth demanded a joined-up marketing strategy focused on the distinguishing features of Harris Tweed. Both industry and local government are stakeholders in this process, working to capitalize on a genuine product, with industry providing leadership in identifying the opportunities and changes in the market. One of the central concerns of some business leaders was the rebranding of Harris Tweed as a young fabric (Figure  3.5). Rebranding and diversifying the customer base were initiated by attending international trade fairs and working on design developments to innovate the cloth, for example, including more lightly spun yarns to address the challenge of designing for womenswear.15 This innovation connected with new adopters, who could identify with the qualities of craftsmanship, heritage, longevity, and Britishness. Harris Tweed Hebrides Chairman Brian Wilson, a former UK trade minister, advocated diversification and adaptability to new markets since his takeover of the old Shawbost Mill in 2006. He was one of the first to search for new ambassadors for the fabric. Freshly championed, Harris Tweed was before long adopted by film, television, and music industry stars, as a model of cool, street-style clothing that came intertwined with the image of traditional British values. In a 2014 interview, Wilson stated that the production for 2012 was the best in decades, and Harris Tweed was now embraced by new markets, such as interior design.16 Protecting the cloth has been a role largely taken over by the Harris Tweed Authority. It protects the brand through the distinctive Orb trademark. The  Authority’s role is to retain the significance and value of the cloth for its producers, while finding the balance between authenticity and innovation.

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

79

Figure 3.5 Harris Tweed Authority information leaflet. Copyright Harris Tweed Authority, 2016.

To protect must also encompass ensuring the fabric’s continued production, providing future prospects through vibrant and targeted production. Training and education of new weavers, spinners, and finishers is, we would argue, part of this remit, as it contributes to the framework that delivers standards, and knowledge of how education can offer sustainable, stable growth to this community. These examples typify some of the actions taken to establish first steps in cooperation among the Harris Tweed industry representatives.

Creating shared value: Taking a socially aware approach to business practice can be beneficial Collaboration is one of the strategies involved in creating shared value. In a 2011 article for the Harvard Business Review, also referred to in Chapter  4, the authors Porter and Kramer present the concept of creating shared value, in which companies focus principally on fostering connections between societal and economic progress.17 Porter and Kramer discuss how the competitiveness of a company and the health of the community around it are very closely linked, as well as how traditionally companies took on social roles in support of the needs of their workers. With the decline of vertical manufacturing (where the same company would, for instance, weave the cloth, construct, and finish garments), and the outsourcing of specialist functions, companies weakened their connection to their locality and community, while becoming global businesses.18 The paper critiques the assumptions made by government

80

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

and society that social weaknesses should be addressed as a supplement to business development, as is often the case with corporate social responsibility schemes. Their position instead asserts that when business works together with, and mindful of, societal challenges and needs, the economic value created also creates value for society. This idea takes as a starting point a business model that does not seek to redistribute value already created through profits, or one of sharing personal or corporate values with society. Rather, it asks companies to identify the societal challenges in their communities and to meet those needs, which will in turn create shared value for all stakeholders. According to Porter and Kramer, there are three ways through which companies can create societal value: rethinking products and markets, reviewing where productivity is found in the value chain, and building supportive clusters in the company’s location. In these approaches, the opportunities for opening up to innovation are increased, they claim, by focusing on, among other things, the needs of the markets and the tools needed to address new social concerns with ethical production. Inventing new ways to increase productivity in the supply chain benefits firstly companies that incur reduced costs and, secondly, suppliers, who can access advances in technology and greater resources. Finally, clustering producers in close geographical proximity enables deeper relationships with communities interested in the success of the enterprise, either through direct involvement or the spillover effects of successful companies. For the Hebridean weavers, the cluster as described by Porter and Kramer would have aligned with their specialist heritage and the approved standards of cloth production conferred by the Harris Tweed stamp of authenticity (Figure 3.6). Porter and Kramer’s thought that regulators should keep in mind the creation of shared value and set performance standards is interesting to reference in respect to this case study. Critically though, Porter and Kramer make a case for not prescribing the methods by which regulators achieve these outcomes; these are left to the companies to interpret.19 This enables a level of independence and consideration of local factors that may impact on the quality of the product. For the Harris Tweed industry, a small degree of autonomy from the rigidly interpreted and controlled stamp of authenticity could have kick-started innovative thinking around how to achieve the industry standards with reduced internal resources or in periods of challenging external conditions. Similarly, more contemporary notions of clusters as geographically strong business ecologies had not infiltrated the predominant business model, lending credence to one of the “fragile areas” report findings, identified as providing support for leadership training within weakened communities. The leadership model that was put in place for Harris Tweed is characterized by having community values. This point seems to be of relevance to our case study of the Harris Tweed weavers where marginalization has acted as a barrier to adapting to changes in market demand and to changes that might have

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

81

Figure 3.6 Warping the loom. Carloway, Isle of Lewis, 2013. Copyright Harris Tweed Authority, 2016.

made their production sustainable through the peaks and troughs of market demand.

Recovering knowledge, the cluster, and Europe 2020 Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) We can see similarity between the principles outlined by Porter and Kramer for creating shared value between industry and community and HTF’s new strategy. The strategy’s assessment of needs, focused on profiling, promoting, and protecting the cloth, noted specific goals for practical actions to improve product development and services within the Harris Tweed industry. This was proposed to be achieved by, in the first instance, ensuring a world-class product and service and secondly by optimizing the operational functions across the industry. Importantly, recognition was given to embedding the benefits of these improvements throughout the wider community, with the aim of achieving sustainable growth within the Outer Hebrides economy.20 Some of the ways this was intended to happen were through better communication of industry developments, increased support for the design and artisan business community, better links between the Harris Tweed sector and tourism, cultural, and Gaelic sector initiatives, and ensuring sustainability of traditional lifestyle options in the community. This last aim seems to have proved to be an important one in

82

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

determining the long-term sustainability of the island’s population. As preorders for Harris Tweed have spiked since 2012, some weavers have been able to work full time on the Harris Tweed production, with less emphasis on the agricultural crofting model to sustain their income. Additionally, at the time of writing, a number of new entrants and returners are reported to have joined training or production, attracted by the values of the industry and the distinctive way of life it offers. Evidence of the strategy’s success seems to endorse the theoretical findings of Porter and Kramer’s thesis on the creation of shared value. The process of identifying practical objectives that would restart the industry from a position of virtual closure was designed with an awareness of the interdependence between product and community. The success and profitability of the industry have created value by addressing the societal challenges of the industry and of the individuals, as well as the companies involved in the supply and production of Harris Tweed. Competitiveness has been achieved through establishing a collaborative approach that has created a powerful local cluster. While in the past company or individual objectives were considered as divorced or secondary to the regional benefits derived from working together, the new strategy, designed to guide the recovery of the industry between 2010 and 2013, has sustained the renewed profitability of Harris Tweed over more than five years. Operational functions, such as logistics, have been improved by designing supply chains that share the burden of the costs associated with an isolated location. The cluster’s collaborative approach has enabled its interests to be represented more effectively in funding programs, and for it to be better supported within national and international public policy initiatives (Figure 3.7). One of the public policy initiatives widely discussed in this book is the European Union’s Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). The principle behind the strategy is to support the entrepreneurial discovery process as relevant to the conditions, culture, and context of its regions. The strategy, as a public policy, aims to facilitate economic growth by sustaining, through funding projects or other interventions, the process of building competitive advantages in niche markets.  The Harris Tweed weaving industry is a good example of a developed specialist industry that is benefiting from combining its entrepreneurial expertise  with its regional resources and heritage to forge new business opportunities. Dominique Foray, an economist and innovation and knowledge management expert, has written extensively on smart specialization. In a 2014 research paper, he reflects that the “goal of a smart specialization strategy is to generate new options or new specialties in order to diversify the structures of the regional economy.”21 Further, he investigates how the process of entrepreneurial discovery is dependent on a partnership, network, or cluster, where knowledge, previously dispersed, is brought together “for collective exploration of a new domain.”22 Considering the management of knowledge involved in this process, Foray

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

83

Figure 3.7 Harris Tweed Authority van. Isle of Lewis, 2016. Copyright Harris Tweed Authority, 2016.

thinks of entrepreneurial discovery as a system capable of creating and utilizing a number of innovative ideas relating to a specialist area of activity. In turn, the context within which this happens, the local enterprise, cluster, or region can evaluate the opportunity presented by the innovation and, with this knowledge, consider “the future economic value of a possible direction of change.”23 The Harris Tweed case study explored in this chapter can exemplify in many aspects the identified aims and principles of smart specialization. The innovation process, aided by some government intervention to support training and education, has developed from the sharing of entrepreneurial knowledge networks within the industry. The boundaries between previously discrete organizations have blurred, bringing together a number of agencies and stakeholders whose aim is to sustain the intangible value, skills, and experience previously at risk from social decline. Cooperation has created the conditions for innovations in weaving processes that have encouraged the production of new designs and the need for advanced equipment capable of larger widths and intricate patterns. The greatest change, however, would seem to be in the process of thinking about the system that underpins production and sales, which has led to the development of new niche markets across global audiences, and in new textile-related sectors such as interiors. In our judgment, the process of clustering and innovation means that the community is now better able to evaluate the economic value of change and to regard this, and its own adaptability, as a key advantage.

84

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Collaboration and leadership as tools for the empowerment for socially and economically fragmented textile manufacturing communities A shared vision of the future Achieving a shared vision for the future of Harris Tweed has not been without challenges: the competitive advantage that the brand now enjoys is the result of investment, adaptability, and some compromise between competing business interests. The substantial economic investment in education and training that has been delivered through the effort of local industry, the Scottish government, and the European Union has delivered the most impact on the community. The Harris Tweed Industry Strategy formalized some of the training requirements, setting a target of 15 percent of the workforce newly entering the industry by 2012. Realizing the need to protect production, to reskill a new generation of weavers, and to preserve traditional expertise has stimulated a range of projects and training initiatives. For example, a £200,000 skills and training program, funded through European Union funding, Comhairle, and HIE and Skills Development Scotland, led initially to the training of new weavers and the establishment of an education framework that accredited the existing knowledge of experienced weavers. The cluster benefited from a Harris Tweed investment fund established with Comhairle, a council-backed organization, and European Union funding, secured to help the industry meet demand while retaining seasonal work patterns. Management and production training for existing staff was set up to improve and disseminate the understanding of business, working to train a bigger pool of staff with business development or leadership attributes.24

Empowerment of local skilled workers After assessing needs within the weavers’ supply chain, the customer-facing provision, and the business management expertise, an education and training framework was set up. Accredited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the training framework accredited the knowledge gained through practice in the weaving industry, mapping and evidencing the standards of quality and core skills necessary to become a Harris Tweed weaver. Interestingly, the education of new and skilled weavers now requires learning that goes beyond the practical and industry-specific competencies of yarn and cloth.

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

85

The program instead focuses on regaining links to the Hebridean culture associated with social learning situations, for example, the working songs connected with weaving. Other aspects of learning in the program include considering whether Harris Tweed weaving can contribute to sustainability and self-sufficiency of lifestyle choices, and explaining and defending opinions about the future of Harris Tweed weaving, which includes developing the leadership skill of assessing risk and making risk-informed decisions. These details, while interesting in themselves, paint a larger picture of the recovery of local cultural traditions, and of community empowerment aimed at handling adaptability and change. When HTF came together, one of its aims was to jointly profile and promote the Harris Tweed product. Market research was undertaken to assess consumer demand and trends in the woolen textile sector. There was an investment of £80,000 in a consumer research study into perceptions and opportunities in the key growth markets of Russia, Japan, and the United States.25 An ambitious growth target of a 20 percent rise in sales for new products was set for the three years between 2010 and 2013. In 2014, production achieved 1.1 million meters of cloth, up from 400,000 meters in 2008. An article for the Scotsman newspaper, in October  2015, confirmed that, while core markets in Japan and the UK remained strong, there had additionally been a new surge in interest from fashion houses in France and Italy.26 Enabling the transparency and availability of market information across the network of producers has been a key factor in the development of an adaptable, collaborative leadership model. Making available market information and other innovation practices has strengthened the cluster, overcoming the differences and reservations about sharing knowledge that originally contributed to disable the industry. Information flowing within the cluster contributes to establishing strong social capital, trust in the network, and the organizations that lead it.

Key enabling practices: Collaboration and leadership The issue of the flow of knowledge across organizations and clusters is central to all global mature economies. In Europe, the European Commission’s focus is to facilitate the flow of knowledge to support the Europe 2020 growth agenda. One of the ways it seeks to utilize knowledge to support industry development within its regions is by promoting KETs. KETs are defined as a group of technologies, which include nanotechnology, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. In the Commission’s view, KETs can offer a competitive advantage to innovators

86

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

if they are adopted across a range of products and industrial sectors. KETs are seen to be instrumental in modernizing Europe’s industrial base, and can drive the development of entirely new industries.27 They are equally relevant to traditional or new sectors of industry, where they have been proven to boost environmental and societal benefits. They can achieve this by, for instance, optimizing the qualities of construction materials, improving pharmaceuticals and medical  treatments, and delivering more environmentally sustainable energy and communication services.

The innovation gap or Valley of Death: The US and the European Union’s challenges in translating knowledge base into marketable goods and services Globally, the issue of translating advanced often experimental knowledge into manufacturing or service competitiveness is a challenge identified in industry and at government level. In the United States, a 2014 report by the chief scientist on nanotechnology and manufacturing, highlighted concerns around the strategic identification of barriers to the effective exploitation of new technologies such as nanotech. In a forum convened to discuss the report findings, nano manufacturing was seen by participants as “affecting many sectors of the economy and having widely transformative impacts—that is, essentially having the potential to become a ‘general purpose technology’, a term that has been used in reference to major innovations, such as electricity, computers, and the Internet.”28 However, the report stressed the impact on future national capabilities in the sector of the so-called “Valley of Death” or “Manufacturing Middle.” To illustrate, this refers to a graphic downward curve experienced between a funded research phase, supported by government and universities, and the manufacturing phase, invested in by the private sector. The Valley of Death, named after this graphic descendent curve, is the innovation gap, represented by the problem of translating a strong knowledge base into marketable goods and services.29 The report goes on to analyze concerns that the United States is not targeting this prototype development gap as effectively as other advanced countries, such as Russia, China, and, to an extent, the European Union, who have all developed public policy guidelines. In an example of these policy guidelines, the European Commission considers that opportunities for competitiveness can be addressed by innovation in products made through KETs, but that the greatest benefits, societal and economic, will be derived from processes that integrate a number of these advanced technologies. Innovation factors will then be multiplied and the

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

87

combinations of KETs, which may well be adopted so widely as to take on the US definition of general purpose technologies, will offer greater opportunities to nurture innovation and create new markets.30 This cross-over innovation will come about if clusters of companies and stakeholders strengthen a culture of collaboration. Linking the discussion of KETs with artisanal production in a community of Harris Tweed weavers may not seem immediately obvious. However, discussion of research around the innovation gap and the key strategies identified as able to sustain growth and job initiatives offer a model with which to review the approaches that may empower, long-term, artisanal clusters at risk of fragmentation. In the exploration of the historical challenges in the Harris Tweed production, the case study has highlighted problems linked to the rigid interpretation of regulatory and branding standards. Partly for this reason, innovative practices were not pursued, either in product or in the organization of the weavers and the other elements of the supply chain. The fall in demand for the product increased fragmentation of the artisanal manufacturing community and reinforced the problems of an isolated location and poor recognition of shared issues across the industry. While KETs are not applicable to this artisanal context, there may be a case for thinking of the solutions adopted by the Harris Tweed cluster as key enabling practices.

Conclusion: Value of the network and value for the community To address the issues facing the sector, Harris Tweed has had to embrace a range of practices that depended on a new situation of collaboration and shared leadership. Technology has not been the driver in its recovery but rather the action of the cluster led by HTF. A large part of the success of the cluster has been the understanding and recognition of the value of the knowledge economy; intangible assets such as generational weaving expertise and the recovery of cultural identity linked to traditional working lifestyles have all contributed to the growing success of the industry. Solving the challenge of depopulation and de-skilling (a weakness in the future-proofing of the industry) required collaboration between unfamiliar education and training organizations. New qualifications and accreditation of knowledge were developed as part of a strategy to demonstrate to the weavers the value of their knowledge and reestablish pride in their skills. A further example of an enabling practice may be seen in the facilitation of business management expertise for staff in mills and factories. Harnessing their experience to create a pool of more confident leaders at various levels of the industry has improved organization of the cluster and enabled the managers to evaluate their knowledge

88

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

assets and exploit existing and new markets. Finally, a model of cooperation and collaborative leadership has been embraced to grow the industry and to take it into the new century. The evidence so far supports that the HTF strategy is succeeding. If the expected best benefit of KETs is to be achieved not through individual but integrated technologies, the integration between the different factors at play in the Harris Tweed industry, design, production, marketing, supply chain, education, innovation in human capital, and intangible assets, has similarly provided a best practice model for a forward-thinking shared future. This approach has produced economic value for the community, recovering and sustaining a society in decline. The islands in general are still a designated fragile area, but the societal benefits of the return of a thriving local Harris Tweed industry have been measurable in the rise of new entrants to the profession. Significantly, the collaborative leadership of the cluster has gained recognition within public policy circles, and the industry has gained greater value as one of the cornerstones of local cultural and creative life. Collaboration has created stronger social capital networks, where relationships of trust are accepted as the driver for future prosperity and have replaced more fragmented, individually prescribed interests. Leadership and planning, centered on the value of the network for the artisanal community, appear to have successfully coalesced around a vision of shared purpose. This vision overcame individual differences, establishing the network as the principal force behind a comprehensive model of training and regulated innovation. This model of collaborative leadership, supported by a range of enabling practices, seems to have reversed the previous downward trend in Harris Tweed manufacturing. Working together on integrating a number of industry, training, and global market demands, the cluster, as it is now possible to define it, has invested in its social capital by recognizing the strengths of the community’s culture. The shared value of the cluster is demonstrated through the success of the Harris Tweed product and the cohesion of its community. The actions of the cluster have led to innovation, retained regional distinctiveness, and a strong specialist niche market. Competitiveness has been reestablished through collaborative practices that favor social sustainability. If we follow Porter and Kramer’s thinking, Harris Tweed’s new success demonstrates that business working with society to cooperate on solutions to common needs can bring about mutual benefit.

Notes 1

“Harris Tweed Authority,” (2016), available at: http://www.harristweed.org/about-us /heritage-and-history/ (accessed March 23, 2016).

2

Catherine Harper and Kirsty McDougall, “The very recent fall and rise of Harris Tweed,” Textile: The Journal of Cloth & Culture 10, no. 1 (2012): 97.

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP, PROVENANCE, AND THE POWER OF PLACE

3

“Harris Tweed Act,” (HMSO, 1993), available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk /ukla/1993/11/pdfs/ukla_19930011_en.pdf (accessed November 12, 2015).

4

“Harris Tweed Authority.”

5

Harper and McDougall, “The very recent fall and rise of Harris Tweed,” 93.

6

“Harris Tweed Skills Audit,” (2010), Upper Quartile, available at: http://www .upperquartile.co.uk/case.php?id=31 (accessed November 13, 2015).

7

“Outer Hebrides Creative and Cultural Industries Strategy 2012–2015,” (Highlands and Islands Enteprise, 2012), 19.

8

Michael E. Porter, “Clusters and the new economics of competition,” Harvard Business Review (November–December 1998), 78.

9

Porter, “Clusters and the new economics of competition,” 79.

89

10 Harper and McDougall, “The very recent fall and rise of Harris Tweed,” 85. 11 Ewen MacAskill, “Cia agents look better in Harris Tweed: How Argo revived a scottish classic,” The Guardian (April 9, 2013), available at: http://www .theguardian.com/film/2013/apr/09/harris-tweed-argo-cia-tony-mendez (accessed November 13, 2015). 12 “Socio-economic briefing on rural Scotland: Identifying Fragile rural areas. Paper 5,” ed. Office of Chief Statistician (Scottish Government, 2010), 6. 13 “Harris Tweed Industry Strategy,” (www.cne-siar.gov.uk: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, 2010), 1. 14 “Harris Tweed Industry Strategy,” 2. 15 Harper and McDougall, “The very recent fall and rise of Harris Tweed,” 94. 16 Alistair Munro, “Fashion fans itching for Harris Tweed Style,” The Scotsman (January 6, 2014), available at: http://www.scotsman.com/news/fashion-fans -itching-for-harris-tweed-style-1-3256978 (accessed November 23, 2015). 17 Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, “Creating shared value,” Harvard Business Review 89, no. 1/2 (2011): 62–77. 18 Porter and Kramer, “Creating shared value,” 4. 19 Porter and Kramer, “Creating shared value,” 12. 20 “Harris Tweed Industry Strategy,” 3. 21 Dominique Foray, “From smart specialisation to smart specialisation policy,” European Journal of Innovation Management 17, no. 4 (2014): 492. 22 Foray, “From smart specialisation to smart specialisation policy,” 497. 23 Foray, “From smart specialisation to smart specialisation policy,” 495. 24 “Harris Tweed Industry Strategy,” Appendix 1, 2010–13, Action Plan. 25 “Harris Tweed Industry Strategy,” 7.1. 26 Kristy Dorsey, “Plea for Harris Tweed samples hints at sales lift,” The Scotsman (October 24, 2015). 27 “Ket’s: Key enabling technologies,” European Union: European Commission, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/key-enabling-technologies/index _en.htm (accessed November 26, 2015).

90

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

28 Timothy M. Persons, “Nanomanufacturing: Emergence and implications for U.S. competitiveness, environment and human health,” (Online: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2014), 13. 29 Persons, “Nanomanufacturing: Emergence and implications for U.S. competitiveness, environment and human health,” 17. 30 “Communication from the commission to the European Parliament, the council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions,” in A European strategy for Key Enabling Technologies—A bridge to growth and jobs (Brussels: European Union, European Commission, 2012), 9.

4 ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE: RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION IN THE DENIM INDUSTRY PAUL WHITTAKER

In addition to engaging with the importance of eco sustainability, this chapter develops the theme of social sustainability through an example of industry innovation that works to the benefit of enterprise but also the well-being of the workforce. Acknowledging sources that have built awareness of the ecological risk in the supply and manufacture of textiles and fashion, the chapter considers how the social well-being of industry workers can support ecological and business imperatives. Additionally, the chapter sets out how the impact of some manufacturing, outsourcing, and finishing processes has influenced technology innovation. To provide a context, the first part of the chapter considers how the European Union policy has been designed to identify methods to address future societal challenges such as public health and water and energy supply, as well as climate change. We then set out how technological innovation, linked to entrepreneurial knowledge, is considered a cornerstone of the modernization and diversification strategy of the European Union and, by extension, a significant element in reducing issues arising from environmental impact and safety practices in the industry. In the second part of the chapter, we note the European Union policies of smart specialization, technological innovation, and new thinking around economic models designed to assist and facilitate industrial competitiveness while sustaining community and societal needs. In this context, we study the Portuguese company Pizarro, which has invested in the research and development of innovative technological processes in the fashion supply chain that add value to the product while sustaining the safety and well-being of its workforce.

92

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

The final part of the chapter focuses on the added value of innovation. Evaluation undertaken by the European Commission notes that Europe has very good research and development capacities in some key technology areas but that it has not so far been very successful in translating these research results into commercialized manufactured goods and services. The chapter concludes by reinforcing the concept that socially informed challenges can be drivers for change and new technology development that have social benefits. Local innovation that meets the challenge of social and ecological sustainability can provide a global advantage to the manufacturing communities of the textiles and fashion industry, as well as support a greener economy.

The drive for innovation and the value of the workforce In a study on the restructure and reconfiguration of the European textile and clothing industry, sociologist and business management author Ian Taplin outlined the pressures experienced in the industry during the 1990s, to cut costs and meet increasing demands for improvements in quality while achieving shorter production and logistics deadlines. Taplin provides data that demonstrate national variations in the traditional textile manufacturing regions of Europe, for example, the Netherlands, with the highest productivity for the sector, and Portugal, with the lowest.1 In the period between 1999 and 2002, the Netherlands appeared to be a capital-intensive labor market, while Portugal, based on a labor-intensive model, evidenced a lack of incentive to mechanize and to introduce productivity-enhancing measures due to the market trend for low wages in the sector. Analysis of the data in 2006 offers a historical snapshot of the diversity present in European industrial practices in the early years of the twenty-first century, a picture often aggravated by competitive pressures from other international lowwage economies. Nevertheless, particularly in locations with a tradition of laborintensive models, such as southern and eastern Europe, Taplin, citing Stengg (2001), noted that where SMEs are “typically … concentrated in particular regions, [they] … assume a cultural and social cohesiveness function.”2 In some regions of Europe, manufacturing relied on extended social, familial type connections in the local community so as to create a core workforce with the required tacit knowledge to facilitate the business. These working communities, as we outline throughout the book, have traditionally enabled the production of high-quality products through increasing specialization achieved over time and what might seem quite basic processes. The value added to the products they produce usually, but not exclusively,

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

93

emerges from successive refinements of existing practice. This chapter’s approach to social sustainability reflects on the range of pressures that can force the reconfiguration of the industry and its established labor communities, including outsourcing, awareness of ecological impact, and concerns regarding ethical production. Within a labor-intensive model of production, as indicated by Portugal above, the ability to produce and thrive rests on the skills and knowledge of a workforce strongly connected to the company by generational ties, locality, and extended family links. When the labor in question involves large-volume chemical or design-led abrasive processes, such as the dyeing or sandblasting prevalent in the manufacture of denim and jeans, complex regulatory issues of health, safety, and wastewater treatment can severely affect a firm’s productivity and brand recognition. The Pizarro case study offers an example of how a duty of care sparked technological innovation and strengthened the company’s ability to compete internationally through its intellectual and human capital assets.

Entrepreneurship and technology: The smart specialization strategy Recognizing SMEs as the “backbone of Europe,” the European Commission has publicized its role in supporting their growth potential through a number of policies. These policies include support for technological breakthroughs, new processes and business models, non-technological innovation, and innovation in the services sector. The European Commission notes that “these [support policies] must be combined with creativity, flair and talent, or innovation in its broadest sense.”3 The strategy for growth and the improved competitiveness of European industries is based on Europe becoming a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy. Practical guidance to facilitate such an economy was provided in 2012, through the establishment of a Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization platform (RIS3); it aims to make innovation a priority for all the regions of Europe. At a time when Europe faced continued competition for talent, ideas, and capital, and fiscal austerity required governments to narrowly focus scarce resources, “most regions [could] only acquire a real competitive edge by finding niches or by mainstreaming new technology into traditional industries and [so exploit] their ‘smart’ regional potential.”4 The European Union’s response to this situation was to require all regional authorities across Europe to design smart specialization strategies to underpin entrepreneurial discovery, so that the European structural and investment funds could be used to best effect. The European Union notes that smart specialization strategies can be powerful instruments to support entrepreneurial innovation and also help to tackle social, environmental, climate, and energy challenges.

94

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

The principle of RIS3 has been further refined. In the context of the Europe 2020 plan, RIS3 is now a smart specialization strategy that focuses on developing excellence in specific sectors or market niches, emerging areas of activity that will benefit from place-based innovation policies.5 This regional approach to innovation now encompasses broader definitions of enterprise activity; that is, it aims to “not only [invest] in research or the manufacturing sector, but also [build] competitiveness through design and creative industries, social and service innovation, new business models and practice-based innovation.”6 The refining of the RIS3 project has taken into account a number of lessons learnt through the first iterations of the policy. It is now explicit in guiding regions to consider primarily their unique assets and capabilities, firmly rooted in local knowledge economies and the entrepreneurial discovery process. Evaluation of previous innovation programs found that, without this approach, weaknesses arising from imitation, poor transferability, and lack of consideration of the distinctive local skill set led to poor results. In addition to these enhancements, more has been made of the role of the entrepreneur. The knowledge base of the entrepreneur is not limited to the specialist area of subject expertise or production, but aggregates a number of capabilities including resourcing the corollary of goods and services needed to establish an enterprise and the capacity to take risks. RIS3 aims to bring together this previously fragmented knowledge through localized synergies and mutually reinforcing strengths. Cooperation is seen as a significant advantage when transmitting skills and knowledge, as is the ability of industry clusters to enable growth in new unique domains. A cooperative approach helps regions create the conditions for the development of a knowledge-intensive economy. The incremental steps in cooperation and innovation in related fields or areas of expertise are known as related variety.7 Related variety can optimize the outcomes of connections between entrepreneurs in different regional and national contexts, and is one of the mechanisms advocated to generate exchange of specialist knowledge and skills, advancing innovation and economic transformation opportunities.

KETs to support innovation and societal needs The 2008 economic downturn and the subsequent financial austerity programs of European governments led to refocused policy priorities that encouraged Europe’s SMEs to drive economic development. SMEs are at the center of the European Cohesion Policy. Much of the intended support for SMEs is designed to enhance their ability to access innovation support services, be this to develop their human capital through mentoring programs or by facilitating technology incubators.8 Boosting the specialist knowledge and unique goods and services within companies, regions, and the countries in Europe is dependent on the availability of tools that can sustain the modernization of practices, particularly

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

95

for traditional sectors. In this respect, RIS3 foregrounds the role of instruments that, through their transformative applications, may generate substantial step changes in industry. These are identified as KETs. According to the European Union, KETs provide the best basis for innovation in a range of products across all industrial sectors. They can underpin the shift to a greener economy, be instrumental in modernizing Europe’s industrial base, and drive the development of entirely new industries.9 The European Union’s identified KETs are micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, advanced materials, photonics, and advanced manufacturing technologies. These six technologies have many applications in numerous industries. KETs are “knowledge intensive and associated with high research and development intensity, rapid innovation cycles, high capital expenditure and highly skilled employment. They enable process, goods and service innovation throughout the economy and are of systemic relevance. They are multidisciplinary, cutting across many technology areas with a trend towards convergence and integration. KETs can assist technology leaders in other fields to capitalize on their research efforts.”10 Assessments of Europe’s SMEs’ capacity to innovate through the use and application of KETs suggest that these small and medium-sized companies find it difficult to access both the technologies and the organizations that can facilitate these technologies, sometimes known as KET platforms. This can be “due to the SMEs’ limited size or financial capacities, the preference of the platforms to work with national companies, or because the SME is not aware of the platforms that exist in their field.”11 The technology platforms offer a range of services including rapid prototyping, production in short runs, or access to specialized laboratory processes. Access to these technologies and services can enable proof of concept testing, which can lead to smaller up-front investment and exposure to risk. The interdisciplinary applications of KETs perhaps offer the biggest opportunity for SMEs. Technologies that individually offer great scope for innovation can be maximized when their potential is shared through their application in different contexts and industry fields. By exploiting creativity in thinking and integrating different technologies, companies can establish even greater opportunities for innovation and create solutions to benefit a wider range of customers. An acknowledged task for policymakers, enterprise associations, and regional governments is therefore to enable better take up of “cross-cutting KETs.”12 This can be achieved not only by providing better information to more people but also by establishing a rhizome-like system of collaborative networks within an extended supply chain. The European Union anticipates that those companies

96

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

and regions that can adopt single or cross-cutting KETs will find themselves leading the competition and employing the most advanced applications of the knowledge economy to provide sustainable development.

Optimization and the duty of care Environmental issues, outsourcing in textile businesses and in the production of denim New advanced practices within a knowledge-intensive economy, underpinned by the use and development of KETs, are one aspect of the European Union’s drive to achieve a competitive future. As mentioned above, however, it is a challenge to modernize those established sectors that rely on more traditional, sometimes low-skilled manufacturing processes. The textile and clothing sector encompasses both ends of this spectrum. It is at the forefront of smart materials development, using KETs such as nanotechnology to manufacture textiles for medical and aerospace applications. Concurrently, it employs large numbers of individual workers to produce and supply products to the luxury and fast fashion chains. In recent years, a foremost concern for the textiles and fashion industry has been assessing the impact of production processes on both the environment and the well-being of the workforce. The control of quality and the management of the supply chain to ensure ethical practices and the ethical sourcing of fairly traded goods have gained increasing attention. The growth of such concerns has been prompted by, in no small measure, the practice of outsourcing lowskilled processes. The decision to outsource is based on a number of factors that are not always linked to the reduction of costs. The value chain provides a means to understand the strategic decisions companies take when subcontracting activities in the supply chain. The value chain is understood as the value added activities in the process of production that support the end use of a product. The underlying argument in a value chain perspective is that the level of value added and the degree of tacit knowledge in an activity affect the decisions of a company when subcontracting. The lower the level of value added and the less tacit knowledge the activity requires, the more likely it is that subcontracting will take place.13 An observed trend in the textiles and clothing industry is that the supply chain for goods is increasingly organized as an integrated production network, a network within which production is divided into specialized activities. Each activity is located where it can contribute the most to the value of the end product. When companies decide on the location of each activity, important variables of the decision-making process include costs, quality, reliability of

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

97

delivery, access to quality inputs, transport, and transaction costs.14 Looking at global developments, such as the deregulation of international trade in goods and services and the evolution of a global transport and communication infrastructure, has led to improved commercial prospects for industry. For the European textiles and clothing sector, these changes have created strategic opportunities and some threats, not least by making it possible for textile companies to move their activities to locations that offer the best possible combination of benefits, for example, additions to the value chain and cost reductions to the company. For instance, in the past two decades, the European textiles and clothing industry has experienced a high degree of nearshore and offshore outsourcing to low-wage environments such as Eastern Europe, India, and China. This is due to the availability of labor, the high proportion of available jobs for unskilled labor, the ease of transport, and the relatively low requirement for high, up-front investment costs.15 In a context of growing expectations regarding ethical production practices and the ethical sourcing of fairly traded goods, it is increasingly the case that garment and related industries, such as sportswear, consider duty of care for their workers and responsible action when outsourcing abroad. The denim industry has seen a number of high-profile incidents that followed poor production practices and or a lack of duty of care for workers. The catastrophic Rhana Plaza collapse of 2013 provided examples of poorly regulated infrastructure, compliance processes, supervision in outsourced manufacturing, and their far-reaching impact. In November  2011, an article published in the medical journal Chest reported a  link between the textile finishing process of sandblasting denim with silicosis and premature death in Turkish textile workers. Silicosis is an incurable disease. It is characterized by a buildup of dust in the lungs, which results in a scarring of the lung tissues. In the retrospective study carried out by  Nur Dilek Bakan, MD, and colleagues, it was found that six of thirty-two patients diagnosed with  silicosis between 2001 and 2009, at the Yedikule Teaching Hospital for Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul, died of the disease. All six patients had been employed as denim sandblasting workers in small textile shops. A link between silicosis and sandblasting in the textile industry had previously been suspected. Indeed, there have been a number of other studies and articles investigating the effect on workers of the design demands of the denim industry. “In 2004, a doctor in a village in the Bingol region in the east of Turkey became suspicious after conducting medical tests on a group of young men about to start military service.”16 Against expectations, the doctor found that dozens of the men were suffering from silicosis and all had been working in denim sandblasting factories in Istanbul. Silicosis has long been associated with industries such as mining or construction, but this was “the first time that the illness had been found within the garment industry.”17 When the first Turkish

98

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

case of silicosis surfaced in 2001, denim sandblasting with silica sand was an unknown occupation. As medical pulmonologists became more aware of the increasing incidence of silicosis, they alerted Turkish labor authorities; the Turkish Ministry of Health eventually banned sandblasting of denim jeans in March  2009.18 According to research carried out for the British Broadcasting Company, “to date, forty six garment workers have died from silicosis in Turkey, and there are 1200 registered cases, though doctors suspect the true number of people affected is much higher.”19

Pizarro: Research and innovation The emergent safety issues associated with achieving denim with a distressed appearance required that the European textile industry address the challenge of meeting a market demand while complying with new health and safety regulations. One family-owned and managed textiles company called Pizarro addressed this challenge in an innovative manner. Pizarro is based in Guimaraes, in rural northern Portugal. The Pizarro factory reveals itself as a large complex. Its entrance is unadorned but memorable for its traditional simplicity and a small shrine accompanied by a vase of flowers. Inside the factory, it is clear that it is a place of hard, physical work. The noise of heavy manual processes combines with sophisticated precision treatments, such as the use of lasers to engrave patches on new jeans. Pizarro offers a full range of textile services and garment finishes for companies such as Inditex and its subsidiaries (Zara, Pull & Bear). It is a very large employer in the region where it offers a welcome alternative to predominantly agricultural work. Pizarro has the capacity to, each day, wash 25,000 garments, dye 10,000 kilograms of cloth, provide a finishing service to 15,000 denim and 15,000 knit, wool, or mohair garments, and print around 10,000 items. In a context in which washing and dyeing factories are closing in Europe, Pizarro remains competitive. Vasco Pizarro, a second-generation Communications Director in this family business, identifies some of the factors that contribute to the success of Pizarro as a good balance between the lowcost textile market and higher-level brands, and an adaptable operational structure that enables the company to respond very quickly to its clients’ requirements. For example, the finishing and logistics aspects of the business enable the company to receive raw, unfinished garments, and have them ready to go to the stores in two to three days. The cost of labor in Portugal is not as high as the rest of Europe, so production costs can be kept low. Pizarro has had an ongoing commitment to innovate, particularly through technology. In 1993, Pizarro was the first European textile company to automatize the dye-house.

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

99

For the Chief Executive of Pizarro, the incidents of silicosis in Turkey and the impending consequent changes to health and safety regulations in Europe represented a challenge but also a motivation to search for new technologies that might safeguard the workforce and benefit the business. In 2011, the company embarked on an ambitious environmental and design-led innovation project to achieve a new process for large-volume denim finishing. Jeans with a distressed, already-worn look have long been popular. Although the effect is commonly achieved through sandblasting, there are other techniques to produce the aged effects, for example, scraping by hand or machine scraping (Figure 4.1). Based on the company’s market preferences, Pizarro began to look for techniques similar to the sandblasting process that might achieve the same vintage effects. A budget of €1 million was identified to build the first machines. A range of pilot methods using different materials and equipment were trialed but with limited success. For example, high-pressure water was tested as a blast agent but the effects achieved were insufficient and not commercially viable. Frustrated, Pizarro decided to consult and collaborate with a long-term family friend and manufacturer in Italy. Together, they explored the potential of using ice as an abrasive. Ice had the potential advantage of achieving surface erosion through friction while offering no obvious health risk. Having discovered the potential of abrasion through ice,

Figure 4.1 Scraping denim. By Fahad Faisal (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Fahad Faisal.

100

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

the further development of the technology brought together a range of other stakeholders. Pizarro’s own research team collaborated with the chemistry and textile engineering departments of the University of Minho and partners in Spain. Funding from the North Portugal Regional Operational Programs, 2007–2013, and the European Union structural funding for Portugal, were applied for, to sustain innovations. The task of applying granulated ice to abrade surfaces continued to not be without its challenges. Indeed, the first test machines failed to secure a reliable process and/or acceptable effect. However, through trial and error and continued perseverance, a fully effective machine was created and delivered to the Pizarro factory for implementation in September 2012. The machine, known as IceLite, uses CO2 to create the ice. The equipment granulates the ice, which is stored in the machine at −70 degrees, and the small particles are then blasted out of a hose under intense pressure. Submitting the garments to ozone and laser washes further enhances the vintage effect. Pizarro now refers to the combined process of ozone, laser washes, and IceLite as EcoWash.

EcoWash: Modernization for a greener economy The development of the EcoWash process is a good example of the advanced manufacturing technologies the European Union has in mind when it aims to support the regional entrepreneurial process of discovery, in that, it aims to modernize and innovate industrial process in a way that underpins a greener economy. The IceLite treatment is the product of a journey of modernization prompted by the recognition of a potential negative impact on the Pizarro brand, the sustainable financial health of the company, and the health and safety of its workers. The combined treatments that constitute EcoWash are highly efficient in respect of resource requirements. The EcoWash treatment requires only 70 liters of water per garment and 150 grams of chemicals; so the process is both efficient and environmentally sustainable when compared with more traditional textile-finishing techniques. Pizarro’s further commitment to innovation in achieving commercially viable sustainable practices can be demonstrated by its ambition to utilize the wastewater created by other textile processes in the factory to produce the CO2 needed in the IceLite process. This will have the additional economic benefit of significantly decreasing the consumption of natural gas and provide an opportunity to sell on any excess CO2 produced by the process.20 Overall, the EcoWash innovation is estimated to annually save the company 600,000 kilograms of chemicals and 280 million liters of water (Figure 4.2). This will have an obvious economic advantage to the company but also make a valuable contribution to lessening the ecological impact of the textile industry.

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

101

Figure 4.2 Washing denim. By Fahad Faisal (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) ], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Fahad Faisal.

Pizarro’s investment in research and development is consistent with both the aspirations of the European Union and also the traditions of continuous improvement that we have seen demonstrated by other textiles and fashion SMEs. As the founder of a dyeing company, Vasco Pizarro’s father was familiar with the engineering challenges of the washing and dyeing processes. The problems of accommodating ever-increasing volumes of garments and achieving the ever-changing requirements of designer finishes required that, to be competitive, Pizarro be both flexible in their working methods and capable of adapting its equipment to meet new challenges. The development of IceLite demonstrates very well an already-established commitment to respond creatively to business problems by altering established processes to meet new demands. By adapting established know-how to meet new challenges, and by working within a network of specialists, its approach has delivered benefits to Pizarro and also its workforce. In a new technology context, EcoWash constitutes a refinement of thinking, a KET, that demonstrates it can be commercially and socially beneficial to try to achieve a more sustainable textiles and fashion industry.

102

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

The added value of innovation The benefits of local diversification: Technology as one of the solutions to grand societal challenges Recent European Union evaluation of innovation activity in SMEs indicates that companies like Pizarro that prioritize innovation experience the highest increase in financial turnover. The 2015 Innobarometer report, a measure of innovation activity across SMEs in the European Union, found that almost one in ten companies in the survey stated that innovations introduced since 2012 accounted for 26–50 percent of turnover. A further 9 percent of companies commented that 51 percent or more of their financial turnover was a result of innovative goods or services.21 Iterative data from the Innobarometer report seem to confirm that, though technological innovation is desirable, it is not always easy to achieve. Some smaller companies, for example, experience a range of difficulties when developing innovation or when trying to successfully convert innovations into valuable competitive advantage. Up to 71 percent of surveyed small companies, consisting of one to nine employees, found that such research and development activity suffered through a lack of finance or access to external financial resources. In a paper published in the Journal of Research Policy, 2004, “Moving skills from hands to heads: does importing technology affect export performance in textiles?,” the authors observe the positive impact on the European textile sector of imported new machinery.22 Their study argues that importing new machines and equipment impacts on the learning and skills of the local workforce. The  enhanced learning and improved skills, measured as a minimum level of skills required to operate the machines, are then observed to provide an increase in quality products, that is, products that are more sophisticated and that have a higher added value. The process of learning in conjunction with technology also leads to a higher unit value for each item produced, and is shown to contribute to a company’s improved economic performance and growth.23 Pizarro’s development of new machinery, dedicated to improving the long-term sustainability of the business and the health of the workforce, is complementary to this report. Invention of the EcoWash process was accomplished through experimentation and the import and exports of machinery and shared knowledge between project collaborators; the new EcoWash technology is now available to add value to denim products and their producers. The technological development demonstrated by Pizarro that links commercial competitiveness, social well-being, and support for a greener economy constitutes a narrative that has an increasing resonance in the textiles

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

103

industry. Forecasters suggest that consumers are increasingly concerned about the long-term consequences of their product preferences and that they increasingly value fairness. Public awareness of financial inequality is driving a sense that change is needed and that brands should understand better the need for longevity in the lifecycle of products. For example, Rabobank, a Dutch cooperative bank specializing in food and agribusiness research, supply research to inform design industry forecasts that suggest the rise of the so-called “hybrid consumer.”24 These are individuals trading up to premium, high-end products that offer more of an emotional and social connection to consumers. In a conventional sense, the jeans and garments produced and finished in the Pizarro factory through the EcoWash process are high-quality products but they also, in our view, come with the added value of a social narrative and sustainable practices preferred by such consumers. Pizarro’s denim products can carry the distinctive narrative associated with EcoWash and successfully support more ethical consumer choices.

Well-being and communities: The clean clothes campaign The development of sustainable industry practices exemplified by Pizarro can be seen to resonate with the discourses articulated and actively promoted by a number of fair trade, corporate social responsibility, and environmental bodies. The critical mass of these organizations has been able to exert some influence over industry practices. One of the organizations that advocate better standards of production in the textiles and fashion industry is Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC). This is a Europe-based alliance of autonomous national coalitions with an international secretariat. Each national coalition includes nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), individuals, institutions, and trade unions, who meet regularly at a European level. CCC has been instrumental in raising awareness of the ongoing human cost of industrial accidents, and in securing continued support for survivors and relatives of industrial accidents. The organizing principles of CCC are to improve working conditions and to support the empowerment of workers in the global garment and sportswear industries. Founded in 1989, CCC has worked to help ensure that, by educating and rallying consumers, lobbying agents and governments, supporting workers in demanding better working conditions, it is ensuring respect for the fundamental rights of workers. The campaign acts to inform and influence consumers to act responsibly and to know how their garments and sportswear are produced. It promotes transparency about how factory owners, agents, manufacturing companies, corporate brands, retailers, and others ensure good labor practices. It states:

104

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Trade unions and NGOs should cooperate nationally, regionally and globally to improve conditions in the garment and sports shoe industries and facilitate worker empowerment, without resorting to protectionism. Such cooperation should be based on mutual respect for each other’s different roles and methods, open and active communication, participatory consensus building and constructive criticism.25 Pizarro’s self-initiated development of EcoWash supports the production of textiles in a greener, sustainable process, while facilitating safe working conditions. EcoWash has enabled Pizarro to continue to be competitive in the denim market despite what might have been constraining health and safety regulations; the company has also retained product-finishing processes within Europe that might otherwise have been outsourced to non-European-based providers. Operating in way that is consistent with CCC can be seen to add value to the products Pizarro produces, that is, added value over and above that enabled through the social and eco sustainability narrative of EcoWash. Given that Pizarro’s innovations are self-motivated and for the most part the consequence of self-investment, the challenge for the European Union and regional governments is to identify funding and programs that can sustain the modernization of the textiles and fashion industry for companies that cannot invest in or easily develop necessary technology innovations. As an established company, Pizarro was able to build research and development activities on a firm foundation but, as indicated above, small companies are often not able to support their business in this way and therefore struggle sometimes to be commercially competitive or to easily comply with the principles advocated by CCC.

The commercial challenge: To share or not to share and under what conditions A cornerstone of the modernization and diversification strategy in the regions of the European Union is the synthesis and integration of technology advancements with business awareness. In the concept to product, and product to shelf life cycle, added value output is achieved through exploration and exploitation. According to Stella Bezergianni’s research on innovation and entrepreneurship, exploration is a creative process through which the original idea is tested to assess its viability, that is, whether it will work as envisaged. Unlike conceiving the idea, this second step in the life cycle of product development can require significant effort and resources and is therefore often the main focus of attention for companies and regional public policies. For example, idea exploration can include experimentation, establishing proof of concept, techno-economic

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

105

feasibility, scaling-up to an industrial commercial scale, etc., and can, as a result, require considerable financial investment through either private funding or specialist policy instruments. It is notable that the more an idea is explored, the less the risks of failure during the remaining steps of the concept to product life cycle. Exploitation is designed to enable the materialization of the original idea into a successful product or service. This means being able to put a product ready for sale on the shop shelf. The exploitation of the concept-tested idea ensures the competitiveness of the final product or service. In order for the exploitation step to be successful, careful business planning, as well as technology licensing and patents, is often required. Even though this last step is in many respects the most straightforward and has the potential to provide the much soughtafter high-profit margins, its value is not always considered in the concept to product life cycle, nor have the factors that best support the commercialization of a product been an obvious priority for policy makers.26 By way of illustration, commercialization is usually conceived as directly converting research results into a product available to the market. However, a recent analysis of a sample of European Union Framework Five and Six Projects showed that there were only a few cases where the conversion of research knowledge and development could be shown to directly lead to market success without including major additional development steps. An alternative pathway to the conversion of knowledge into a product is identified as the transformation of knowledge, a nonlinear, complex relation between a research and development project and a technology, product, or service available to the market.27 An example of such a process, referred to in Bezergianni’s paper consisted of achieving a new green technology for producing diesel from residual oil feedstocks, which was conceived and developed in the Centre for Research and Technology, Hellas. With Pizarro and the development of EcoWash, we see evidence of a transformative approach to knowledge. Pizarro demonstrates the application of research undertaken and applied through technologies and services available through other providers,  and cooperation with consortia without which the IceLite process would not have been developed.

Sustainability, social, and economic benefit Exploitation of the potential commercial value of a product can sometimes be achieved through unexpected applications best anticipated through the scrutiny and ideas of others. In some cases, once shared, research can even become commercially successful without a company having to further invest in technological innovations. In a competitive business environment, however, small added value gains, let alone large-scale innovations that involve intellectual property, are rarely offered to potential competitors without substantial financial returns.

106

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

For Pizarro, a forced change in industry standards exposed the company to risk, both human and economic. This led to an evaluation of the long-term challenges to the business, and to a search for solutions that might guarantee the sustainability of the company. EcoWash is the product of its research, innovation, and investment. The process of innovation included sharing information and working with others, often in other countries. The outcome of this process is that EcoWash now enables Pizarro to achieve high-quality products that have the added value of being produced through a technology that is safe for the workforce but also environmentally friendly. EcoWash is a technological innovation that respects the workforce and enables greater sustainability of both the product and the working community: product and workforce benefit mutually. EcoWash is now itself a commercial product, available to other denim and textile-focused companies that require processes to achieve surface finishes economically, while also remaining complaint with health and safety regulations and sensitive to the pressure of, for example, CCC. A socially sustainable workforce and an environmentally friendly technology are now available to Pizarro’s competitors but in a commercial environment and, not unreasonably, only at a price.

Conclusion: Creating shared value and societal benefits In the Big Idea: Creating Shared Value, the authors observe that, to be successful, it is often assumed that a company must demonstrate a distinctive value proposition that meets the needs of a chosen set of customers.28 It is also assumed that, to be competitive in its chosen market, a company should focus on how it might best achieve efficient production. In concentrating a narrow focus solely on a company’s internal practices, conventional business thinking can overlook the opportunities inherent in addressing the wider societal issues that also affect business processes. This is because, “at a very basic level, the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are closely intertwined.”29 If businesses are intertwined with their communities, then it follows that they may mutually benefit from a sharing of values. Porter and Kramer’s thinking recognizes that societal needs, not just conventional economic needs, define markets. Their thinking also recognizes that social issues frequently create internal costs for companies and that by addressing these external factors companies can, through innovation, increase their productivity and expand their markets. The concept of shared value as proposed by Porter and Kramer is not therefore constrained to personal values, nor a model of redistribution, but expresses instead an interconnected

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

107

enhancement of the total economic and social environment, an environment that is self-sustaining and, in the case of Pizarro, able to sustain a greener economy and the well-being of its manufacturing community.

Interview with Vasco Pizarro, director of marketing, Pizarro, Guimaraes, Portugal, September 9, 2014 The interview with Vasco Pizarro gives an insight into the origin of Pizarro and the entrepreneurial drive that has made the company successful. The discussion engages with the connectivity between Pizarro and its local workers, as well as the family ties and supply chain professionals that have supported the company for many years. The interview presents a picture of a company that is very much aware of ecological innovation and the enduring value of its workforce as critical factors in maintaining competitiveness in the textiles manufacturing industry. As the interview makes clear, the company evidences eco and social sustainability practices while always retaining focus on ensuring a future of continuing profitability. Respondent: Vasco Pizarro Interviewer: Paul Whittaker RES:

INT: RES:

When my father was young he came back to this region after working abroad and found a job in a textile company. My father really liked the work but he wanted to try new things that the company was reluctant to try out so he decided to start his own company with my Mum. They started out in a small garage below the house they lived in and with only rudimentary tools like a home standard washing machine. Was it important to your father and his new business that the region had a tradition for textiles production? Yes. This region has a very strong textile tradition, not only for garment production but also textiles manufacture. The region has over recent years seen many textiles companies grow and adapt to the changes in the industry while of course others have not been so fortunate. The textile companies that could prepare themselves for the changes in the textile industry, such as TMG, have adapted their core business, evolved and now they prosper. In the case of Pizarro, my father really has evolved an individual approach to garment production that is based on his broad understanding of the industry. He knows about printing, dyeing,

108

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES:

INT:

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

washing and finishing. On top of that, through the years, he has learnt a lot about the mechanical engineering that enables textile production. For example, if you consider all the machines that you see here, rather than except just what they are capable of, it is my father’s passion to modify them, to apply them to achieve new things. He has a team of people with the technical know-how to maintain but also to adapt the machines to serve a new purpose. When we buy a new machine for Pizarro, our technicians go to the company to learn how to integrate the new machine to our in-house systems, they do this so as to achieve, from the start, the best fit and efficiency. It’s a real benefit to Pizarro to have someone that has the knowledge of how to make a factory capable of dyeing and washing fabrics but also what you need mechanically to achieve that goal. My father’s interest in all aspects of the garment production cycle is really how Icelite came about. You are painting a picture of someone who is passionate about something; someone that had the vision to recognize that it is wise to not concentrate on a single aspect of the business; someone that is capable of perseverance. Would you say that it is critical to have someone like that to drive the business? I think it’s critical. It is probably critical to have a leader with these qualities in any industry. In the textile industry, it’s critical to have people who want more and want to achieve more. It is our good fortune to have my father lead us here, from 8am to 8pm, every day! Following on from your description of how Pizarro evolved through a passion and interest in all aspects of garment manufacture, how closely do you work with local suppliers, people that provide other necessary services in the region? Well, the guy that built my father’s first machine still works with us today. He’s local and lives not more than 40km from here. Of course, sometimes we need machinery that you cannot find in either the region or Portugal but otherwise our production is mostly reliant on Portuguese suppliers with whom we have developed a strong working relationship. Even though we have an in-house team of technicians capable of adapting machinery we don’t build technology. Our suppliers instead help us achieve what we need by learning how my father wants things. It is easier to succeed when you have people that understand what you are trying to do and are prepared to help you accomplish what you need. So it works well when skill sets, what they can do and what you need, match. But is it also the case that things work well when people work together to solve a problem with an outcome that no one anticipated?

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

RES:

INT: RES:

INT: RES:

INT:

RES:

109

Yes. For example, in the ‘90s, against assumed knowledge, my father wanted to mechanically automate all the valves in the factory. This was a very big endeavor and at the time there wasn’t a Portuguese company to work with but by working closely with our chosen partner we were able to achieve the first fully automated dye house in Europe. In fact, Pizarro is probably still one of only five fully integrated and automated dye houses in Europe. We have a brilliant system. Last year we processed 18 million garments of which 7 million were garment dyed. We currently have the capacity to dye 11 tons of garments every day with five persons per shift; we operate with a margin of error below 5%. Essentially Pizarro has different providers for different things. My father selects which provider to work with on the basis of the effect that he wants to achieve. If we could now focus on the development of Icelite, what was the motivation to develop Icelite? Well the motivation was to create a process that involved 0% of chemicals. Our drive was to develop an alternative fabric treatment to sandblasting that is free from chemicals and which was, as much as possible, future proofed against changes to Health and Safety regulations. One very positive obvious benefit of IceLite is the reduced exposure of the workforce to silica. Another benefit is the reduced reliance on water. Could you expand a little on the benefits, for example, the water saving? When you use Icelite you save a lot of water. We are talking about saving 70 litres of water per garment. Sandblasting to create a textile finish requires you to first neutralise the fabric, which means you have to wash it. We might neutralise 100 garments in a 700 litres washing machine; then finish the garments, re neutralise them, and then soften the fabric. There are several water dependent processes involved in achieving textile finishes through sandblasting but there are not so many when you use Icelite. Comparing EcoWash with traditional processes, you can save 100% on natural gas; you can save 55% of electrical energy; you can save 89% on water usage; and 87% of wastewater. In many respects, Icelite is an amazing process. Is it your view that the most successful eco developments come about when a practical challenge is recognized and the best way of resolving the problem happens to be an eco-friendly process? Of course. We cannot do all the things ecologically but we can do most of them. And we do what we can. For example, in our dryer section, the dryer tubes are filters and, at the same time, a heat

110

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES:

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

recovery system. So when you first start a dryer you re use, or re cycle, the heat of the other dryers. Heat is therefore not lost and you save energy. It seems to me that employing practices, which are more eco-friendly, can actually help your business be competitive. I mean you would be careful not to do something that would undermine the business but actually, it might be cost effective to work in an eco-friendly way and even good for business. Yes, that’s for sure. And if you think long term, for instance, we may not be able to do something in a particular way now, because we don’t have the technology, but we can predict that we will have the technology in the future so we can plan accordingly; this will undoubtedly benefit the company in all aspects. Also, in the Scandinavian market for example, we have clients that when you offer them the ecological or the traditional approach, they always pick the ecological, always, always, and always. They have initiatives for their own brands such as the plain-clothes campaign; they have initiatives between their brands that aim to support the ecological approach. I think they are a good example of how some bigger or smaller brands are trying to work ecologically, sometimes in a way that conflicts with the larger trend of say fast fashion. And it’s a way to work. It would seem from our research that a number of European textile companies are increasingly engaged in collaborations. They not only use a service or a skill provided by an external agent but also actually work together to produce something. Does Pizarro have any collaborative partners? Yes, for sure. We work with some of the biggest chemical companies in Europe. In terms of machinery, as I said to you earlier, we work with some of the best companies in the world. If you surround yourself with the best, eventually you also become the best. In our showroom, in that wood table that we have there, it has a lot of names. The names are the companies that help us create our showroom. The T-shirts that you see in our show room are supplied by some of our clients. The T-shirts show our finishes but also the cut and sewing skills of our partners. On cut and sewing, we want to show what our clients do and to help them be competitive. It’s better for us to work with a successful business in Portugal, as they eventually will come to us for any work they need doing; and people that come here from around the world will see [through the table,] that in Portugal it is possible to do good knits, good jackets, good shirts, good pants.

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES: INT: RES:

INT: RES: RES:

111

When you were collaborating, working with experts in other fields, people who are trying to achieve their own benefits, do you actually share real research and development data? Yeah, we share a lot, especially with a chemical companies. Of course, when we are talking about sharing, it’s not always an easy thing to do. When we sense that there is market sensitivity we are always very clear: we cannot share. We once had a client that asked if they could use the Pizarro natural dying process to dye 30,000 garments. We have the capacity to process such a quantity and so agreed. It soon became clear however, that what the client actually wanted was to split the dyeing between us and another dye house. This would have required us to share our recipe with the other dye house and this was of course not something we could agree to. That’s not what we think of as sharing! Technology is obviously really, really, important to the company. Technology is everywhere, and everyone talks about it, and one can of course never keep up. But I guess, with a company like this, you must have a fairly extensive research and development group of people? Yes. Or is that your father? It sounds like it might be your father! No, fortunately we have a very, very good research and development team, and most of the people are working here more than at least 7–10 years. For us it’s very, very good, to have such a team. If you really have a strong politics on research and development; on ecological politics; on advanced network politics; if you have that, I think it can only benefit the company. But don’t be mistaken, this may be a high technology business but we will always need to work with our hands. This is because there are things that you can only do with the hand; I will give you two examples; one backwards, and one towards technology. We had for 10 years, one machine working 24 hours a day: it was a robot, doing scraping. For all those years the machine worked 24 hours a day, until the clients started to say that they like the effect but they prefer natural scraping by hand. They could tell the difference? Yeah, you can tell the difference. So that’s a case when you have technology and people say they prefer the hand. Of course there are other things, like the garment dyeing that we have, when automation leads to having fewer people on the line. You don’t need people to put dye in the machines by hand; you don’t need them to do any weighing, you just need them

112

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT:

RES:

INT:

to load the machine, in put the code of the dye, close the machine and wait for 4–6 hours! Changing the direction of our conversation a little, the European Union is very active supporting industry to develop and utilize new technology so have Pizarro taken advantage of working with local authority initiatives or initiatives promoted by the European Union? Although working locally is very important to us we have mostly only benefited from European Union funded initiatives through our partners; that is, partners that have had projects that have informed their product development or services. Most of the things that we have here were self-financed by Pizarro. Sometime back we did apply to the European Union for funding to support Icelite but we are still waiting for an answer! I think that was my last question. Thank you very much.

Notes 1

Ian M. Taplin, “Restructuring and reconfiguration: The EU textile and clothing industry adapts to change,” European Business Review 18, no. 3 (2006): 175.

2

Taplin, “Restructuring and reconfiguration: The EU textile and clothing industry adapts to change,” 172.

3

“Growth-Internal market, industry, entrepreneurship,” (2016), European Commission, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/innovation/index_en.htm (accessed February 13, 2016).

4

“National/Regional Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (Ris3) Cohesion Policy 2014–2020,” (2014), European Commission, available at: http://ec.europa .eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/informat/2014/smart_specialisation_en.pdf (accessed May 20, 2016).

5

Dominique Foray et al., “Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (Ris3),” (European Union, 2012), 8.

6

Foray et al., “Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (Ris3),” 13.

7

Foray et al., “Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (Ris3),” 17.

8

Foray et al., “Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (Ris3),” 70.

9

“A European strategy for key enabling technologies—a bridge to growth and jobs,” in Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions (Brussels: European Union, European Commission, 2012).

10 “A European strategy for key enabling technologies—a bridge to growth and jobs,” 2.

ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL VALUE

113

11 “Ket’s: Key enabling technologies,” European Union: European Commission, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/key-enabling-technologies/index _en.htm (accessed November 26, 2015). 12 “Ket’s: Key enabling technologies.” 13 Stig Yding Sørensen, “EU textiles and clothing sector: Location decisions,” (European Monitoring Centre on Change, 2008), 3. 14 Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås, “The global textile and clothing industry post the agreement on textiles and clothing,” (Geneva, Switzerland: World Trade Organization, 2004), 3. 15 Nordås, “The global textile and clothing industry post the agreement on textiles and clothing,” 6. 16 Cordelia Hebblethwaite and Anbarasan Airajan, (2011), “Sandblasted jeans: Should we give up distressed denim?,” BBC News, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk /news/magazine-15017790 (accessed November 17, 2015). 17 Hebblethwaite and Airajan, “Sandblasted jeans: Should we give up distressed denim?.” 18 Bakan et al., “Silicosis in denim sandblasters,” CHEST 140, no. 5 (2011): 1303. 19 Hebblethwaite and Airajan, “Sandblasted jeans: Should we give up distressed denim?” 20 Jose Machado and Gabriel Pontes, (2013), “Ecowash good practice,” www.plustex .eu, available at: http://www.plustex.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/AMAVE-GP -ECOWASH-PROJECT.pdf (accessed February 20, 2016). 21 TNS Political & Social, “Flash Eurobarometer 415 ‘Innobarometer 2015—the Innovation Trends at EU Enterprises,’” ed. European Union: European Commission (Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, 2015), 19. 22 Giorgio Barba Navaretti, Marzio Galeotti, and Andrea Mattozzi, “Moving skills from hands to heads: Does importing technology affect export performance in textiles?,” Research Policy 33, no. 6–7 (2004): 882. 23 Navaretti et al., “Moving skills from hands to heads: Does importing technology affect export performance in textiles?,” 890. 24 Marc Kennis, “The rise of the hybrid consumer to polarize food sector,” (Online: Rabobank, 2013). 25 “What we believe in,” (2015), Clean Clothes Campaign, available at: http://www .cleanclothes.org/about/principles (accessed February 20, 2016). 26 Stella Bezergianni, “Conceiving, exploring, and exploiting innovative ideas: From waste cooking oil to diesel,” Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2, no. 1 (2013): 2. 27 “Innovation—How to convert research into commercial success story? Part 3: Innovation management for practitioners,” (Luxembourg: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2013), 5. 28 Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, “Creating shared value,” Harvard Business Review 89, no. 1/2 (2011). 29 Porter and Kramer, “Creating shared value,” 66.

5 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOR MARGINAL OR MIGRANT POPULATIONS PAUL WHITTAKER

This chapter aims to consider social sustainability from the perspective of the knowledge exchange increasingly facilitated by governments, business, universities, and other stakeholders, to encourage the economic growth agenda at national and European level. In particular, the chapter explores circumstances in which business-led knowledge exchange can foster the conditions through which commercial interests and workforce communities can become more socially inclusive. An increasing number of start-up and more established textiles and fashion companies are taking an interest in combining entrepreneurial activity with the added value of traditional skills held in resettled immigrant communities. To  address the aim of the chapter, we will focus on how the textile traditions and skills embedded in migrant and refugee populations have been supported by policies that directly or indirectly facilitate aspects of social entrepreneurship. The chapter will seek to demonstrate how a migrant workforce can become more socially cohesive, empowered, and benefit from economic advantages. Our chosen case study, Fashion Enter, located in Haringey, northeast London, represents the journey of a small fashion company that, through expert and determined leadership, has become a champion for local manufacturing, local

116

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

youth skills programs, and apprenticeships. Fashion Enter demonstrates how knowledge clustering can successfully facilitate innovation in textiles and fashion products but also reciprocally aid the community. Before engaging with the Fashion Enter case study, it is useful to first provide a context to the development of the company and its connectivity with the community.

The knowledge exchange initiative and incubating start-ups A 2013 report commissioned by the European Union’s S3 on the role of universities in their regions notes that to address many business problems or societal challenges there is a need for multidisciplinary research and management skills. In identifying the existing capabilities and productive assets of the region, universities are an element in the knowledge economy that can provide research, skills, and a link with the private sector; it is however the companies themselves who possess the knowledge for business implementation.1 According to the theory of smart specialization, universities, with their three missions of teaching, education, and research, can operate in a way that is similar to textiles museums such as Museo del Tessuto in Prato, Italy, explored in Chapter 1, that is, as knowledge hubs in their regions. Universities can be a key element in facilitating innovation through collaboration, although the success of such collaborations is dependent on universities providing leadership, contributions to knowledge creation, and skills developments that benefit the communities. For instance, the Solent region of the UK, with a population of more than 1.3 million (2011)2 and more than 50,000 businesses, has four regional universities whose activities widely engage with the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The Solent LEP’s Strategic Plan 2014–20, Transforming Solent, notes that the region’s higher education institutions “if harnessed, can anchor knowledge intensive economic activity and employment in the area.”3 The Solent LEP strategy also states that its plan is to encourage regional partnerships that can sustain greater social inclusion, greater social investment, and greater equality for a more sustainable economy. An objective associated with this aim is the facilitation of “business start-ups and social enterprise in difficult to reach and economically inactive communities, through close working with business leaders, social entrepreneurs, universities and civil society organizations.”4 The report indicates that this can be achieved through a focus on skills, connecting with young people and by embedding enterprise and entrepreneurship in a number of educational settings. Case studies that demonstrate a university’s contribution to innovation, entrepreneurship, economic prosperity, or the ability to influence public policy

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

117

facilitate the evaluation of research impact. In the field of arts and humanities, impact case studies can include research that is focused on the well-being of the creative industries through, for example, the development of new products and services, influencing the preservation of cultural heritage or helping professionals adapt to changing cultural values.5 An increasing focus on the importance of research impact coupled to the drive to embed the student employability agenda into university curriculum has led to the development of student enterprise hubs in some universities. In these enterprise hubs, the expertise within the academic community and a network of industry employers is made available to students to help support the development of new start-up companies or business ideas. It is now not uncommon for universities to also offer students business incubation support to additionally advantage the knowledge networks of academic staff. University enterprise hubs may appear to benefit only the obvious stakeholders of the higher education sector, academics, and students, but the innovation engineered through these hubs can also benefit the wider community, the unemployed youth and local immigrant communities. In February 2015, the UK’s Office of National Statistics classified almost 1 million 16–24-year-olds as not in employment, education or training (NEET).6 These figures showed some improvement on the previous year but the unavoidable conclusion drawn from the report is that youth unemployment is a major labor market challenge in the UK, a challenge that impedes the growth agenda not only in the UK but also in many other European countries. A study of the geography of NEETs interestingly reveals some UK regional variations. For example, the northeast area of London is the area most affected by youth economic inactivity. This confirms the findings of an earlier study in 2011 called Off the Map, A Geography of NEETs, which claimed that in the London boroughs of Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, and Westminster, 20 percent of young people could be classified as NEETs.7 A series of recommendations were made in the same report. One recommendation was that local governments ensure better coordination of services and activities from locally embedded organizations so as to engage young people and enable a better-shared knowledge of what might work to facilitate more employment.

Empowerment and the value of social capital Recent social policy in the UK has promoted an approach that “privileges homogeneity, cohesion and consensus over approaches that emphasize material and cultural difference.”8 The UK policy also promotes the concept of social capital, that is, the network of bonds between individuals and communities as the basis for social cohesion.

118

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

In “Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: A Critical Review,” 2007, Cheong, Edwards, Goulbourne, and Solomos consider different forms of social capital and how it might stimulate cohesion between multicultural groups. The authors note three types of social capital networks. Bridging networks most often refer to a horizontal, rhizome-like network between individuals, social groups, and external associations based on sharing common interests and values. These networks appear to have the most stabilizing effect in promoting social cohesion. Other forms of social capital networks, referred to as bonding networks, focus on exclusive social ties, as in the case of some minority ethnic groupings. This exclusive, homogenous form of bonding can hinder social cohesion because participation is moderated by strict cultural norms, religion, language, literacy, and family expectations.9 Finally, linked social capital networks occur when the network helps individuals gain access to formal institutions to enable social and economic development. In a context of smart specialization and social capital networks, we might ask to what extent can institutionally led, government-inspired knowledge exchange resources create the conditions for social communities to benefit from linked social capital networks? The discussion in response explores examples of knowledge exchange and enterprise that support the mutual benefits of economic success and empowered communities, focusing on the often culturally diverse and difficult-to-reach marginal communities in the UK and overseas. In the culturally diverse east end of London, the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, spin-off business called the Designer-Manufacturer Innovation Support Centre (DISC) was developed to help newly graduated and young business ventures in fashion by offering resources, expertise, planning toolkits, and short-run manufacturing. Although not motivated by a mission to provide social inclusion, DISC actively helped to sustain young fashion designers in the community by offering shared innovation in production and services, access to sampling, and the ability to produce small, affordable collections. The Centre was a direct result of research by the University of the Arts London, Centre for Fashion Enterprise, which investigated the needs-based decision for early career fashion designers living in London to have to outsource their sampling to factories outside the UK. A range of sponsors, including the European Union, Hackney Council, and Centa Business Services, supported the original launch of DISC in 2012.10 Southampton, in the southeast of England, is a multicultural port city with a large number of migrants. The city is home to two universities that are involved in enterprise activities designed to assist students and graduates with knowledge of the enterprise and business process. In 2008, one of the advisors to a university student enterprise scheme started a cooperative lingerie company called Who Made Your Pants. She was inspired by an Open University documentary about the dangers of sweatshop labor, a passion for the product, and the desire to

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

119

create jobs for women. A unique selling point for Who Made Your Pants was its use of end-of-season fabrics sourced from suppliers to established underwear companies. A more unique feature of the enterprise’s mission was, however, the aim to empower women in the large refugee population in Southampton. Who Made your Pants described the profile of its women workers as “primarily refugees, from Afghanistan, Somalia, the Sudan—often places where there have been wars … Their needs are all different and our training and support varies in relation to [their] need. We used to find potential workers through other refugee support agencies but now we have a waiting list.”11 The training provided by the cooperative helped its workers with literacy and employability skills, assisting the process of integration and self-sufficiency through a safe environment for skills acquisition. Every trainee, once past the probation period, had a right to become a member of the cooperative and have a say in the way it was run. Ultimately the business model or, perhaps more precisely, the product of this social enterprise failed. Who Made Your Pants ceased trading on October 9, 2015. Nevertheless, over a period of seven years, the cooperative enabled a number of women from marginal social groups to integrate into extended social networks, receive training and skills, and develop personally through paid employment. A number of other models of the integration of migrant and refugee communities, assisted through public policy and entrepreneurship initiatives, can be found in the international social enterprise landscape. In Australia for example, The Social Studio (TSS) and The Social Outfit are sister organizations focused on developing new knowledge networks and working to benefit enterprise and the community (Figure 5.1). Founded in 2009, TSS is a pioneering association based in Melbourne. Its aims are to provide a safe place of belonging that strives to create awareness and change public perceptions of people who have experienced being a refugee.12 To do this, it works with community leaders, development workers, and design and industry professionals, to create and market fashion collections produced by its members and trainees. The income generated is reinvested to support the TSS education mission. Emphasis is placed on mutual learning within the manufacturing team and the acquisition of industry skills. The  success of TSS can be measured by the quality of its projects, which address education, social inclusion, and environmental gains. Based on the success of TSS, another organization was created in Sydney, The Social Outfit. The Social Outfit, operating as a legally separate entity, benefits from the supportive partnership of TSS, expands the knowledge network of TSS, and works with its stakeholders by inspiring a belief that fashion and creativity can lead to learning and empowerment for refugee and new migrant communities. Some of the stakeholders include the Red Cross migration programs, asylum organizations, and a local high school that supports intensive English programs. The business model, which reflects the successful setup of TSS, includes a shop, manufacturing center, and sewing school (Figure  5.2). The Social Outfit

120

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 5.1 The Social Outfit Newtown Fashion Show, Sydney, Australia. November 2014. Copyright The Social Outfit Incorporated, 2014. Photo: Mark Sherborne.

Figure 5.2 The Social Outfit. 2016. Copyright The Social Outfit Incorporated, 2016. Photo: Anna Kucera/Time Out Sydney.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

121

enables accredited vocational training and employment in clothing production, retail, design, and marketing, integrating “the traditional and cultural strengths of [their] diverse community.”13

Empowering niche communities: Fashion Enter Designer-Manufacturer Innovation Support Centre, Who Made Your Pants, TSS, and The Social Outfit are examples of community-based enterprises that illustrate well the often very distinctive demographics that can be found in the textile and clothing sector. These enterprises differently create the conditions for employee self-sufficiency, for the sustainability of work in what amount to niche communities and, directly or indirectly, extended family networks. Who Made Your Pants and the two Australian social enterprises, in particular, demonstrate not only the value of developing skills but also the value of those skills for enabling the social inclusion of people who may otherwise feel marginalized from the larger community. All three entrepreneurial initiatives link individuals to workbased resources for their social and economic benefit and show how the links of trust that tie particular communities together can be differently motivated. Supporting individuals and organizations to access training and work-related learning can be a critical factor in a textiles and fashion enterprise. According to the British Fashion Council, in 2014, the fashion industry contributed £26 billion to the UK economy.14 An earlier 2010 report titled, The Value of the UK Fashion Industry, highlighted, however, some key sustainability challenges facing the sector. These included limited awareness among young people and career advisers of the diverse opportunities in the fashion industry and the long-term need to incentivize and encourage growth of the UK manufacturing base.15 An east London-based company, Fashion Enter, demonstrates well the mutual value of community-based skills development, social capital, and successful fashion entrepreneurship. Fashion Enter is a company committed to the renewal of UK manufacturing. Its chief executive officer (CEO), Jenny Holloway, was the 2013 Ernst and Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year and a former senior fashion buyer and consultant (Figure 5.3). Now located in the north London borough of Haringey, Fashion Enter is a not-for-profit social enterprise, which strives to be a center of excellence for sampling, grading, production, learning, and the development of skills within the textiles and fashion industry. One of its aims is to revive garment making and machine technology skills in Britain. The business invests profits back into training young people in a range of skills such as sewing and pattern cutting. While the Fashion Enter approach addresses several sustainability concerns, the

122

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 5.3 Fashion Enter. 2015. Copyright Fashion Enter. Photo: Teri Pengilley.

focus of its work is to manufacture products for large UK-based companies such as ASOS, the UK’s largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer, and Marks & Spencer. The company responds to the fashion industry’s increasing need for fast turnaround times, short supply chains, and the opportunity to sample and manufacture in locations closer to its retail outlets. In line with the ambition to up-skill and train new entrants to the fashion industry, the structure of Fashion Enter is such that it has the capacity to manufacture while supporting an education mission. The company includes a Fashion Studio, launched in 2008, which works with clients and designers on sampling and short runs, and the Factory, established in 2010 with support from ASOS. The Factory employs up to forty machinists to work on large orders, mainly womenswear.16 On visiting the Factory for the first time in 2014, most of the machinists employed were migrants from Eastern Europe. These machinists had acquired their sewing and machine skills while manufacturing for Italian couture and diffusion line labels in factories in Romania and Bulgaria. The demographic of the workforce reflects the ethnic mix of Haringey. In 2013, Fashion Enter added to its portfolio by launching the Stitching Academy (Figure  5.4). Financially supported by ASOS, the Stitching Academy offered the UK’s first national apprenticeship in fashion and textiles apparel scheme, as well as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in stitching, which had not existed previously.17 A new section of the Fashion Enter enterprise followed in 2015, named the Fashion Technology Academy.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

123

Figure 5.4 Fashion Enter, Stitching Academy, 2016. Copyright Paul Whittaker, 2016. Photo: Paul Whittaker.

The learning and development offered by the Fashion Enter Stitching Academy and Fashion Technology Academy is founded on offering a range of different qualifications. The innovation demonstrated by these two academies is in the fact that the skills are learned within a commercial manufacturing environment. Learning in an industry context enables students and trainees to gain invaluable

124

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

experience of intensive industrial production and the grading and quality control measures that are vital to a commercial fashion manufacturer. Indeed, as Holloway stresses, the importance of delivering vocational training that is knowledgeable of the challenges of manufacturing is vital for the UK industry. This knowledge, in her view, has become detached from the design-led priorities of teaching in higher education. It is a priority for the Fashion Enter academies to try to rebalance this trend. The two Fashion Enter academies provide different education pathways. They both offer introductory qualifications aligned with the Level 4 NVQ frameworks that lead to advanced practice. The qualifications cover the entirety of the garment life cycle, including stitching, production, and pattern cutting. Additionally, Fashion Enter offers a fashion and textiles apprenticeship program, available with staged qualifications. The apprenticeships combine on-the-job training alongside more experienced staff. The apprenticeship program can benefit employers and individuals by developing a long-term relationship and by reinforcing the mutual trust needed in all successful businesses. Bearing in mind the value of trust ties when developing a business, we might ask who is involved in the Fashion Enter education portfolio? The launch of the Stitching Academy was achieved through the insight and hard work of Holloway and it has subsequently won the backing of Haringey Council and the Government Department of Work and Pensions. As a result, the Haringey borough can now offer and attract local school leavers into skilled work through a route to on-the-job apprenticeships and qualifications. Accreditation of the technical expertise taught by the stitching and technology academies has been acquired through the industry skills body, Creative Skillset. These factors contribute now, Holloway notes, to “place Haringey at the heart of a ‘Made in Britain’ revolution.”18 The stitching and technology academies, with the apprentice program, support local skills development and individual empowerment in a constituency with low career expectations. By extension, the up-skilled local workers sustain the education portfolio and Fashion Enter business through their skilled contributions to the team. However, the most significant contributor to Fashion Enter and its education portfolio remains ASOS. ASOS continues to support Fashion Enter by investing, by being a stable client, and by championing ethical and sustainable practices in global fashion production. The ASOS business model depends on a large and varied supply chain that can manufacture the large range of products that has made it a global online retailer. It has invested in marketing eco brands, and its published ethical standards prioritize suppliers whose standards comply with the Ethical Trading Initiative. The company’s ethical trade information provides a comparative analysis of the barriers young people experience when trying to fulfill their potential. In the UK, the ASOS research identifies the lack of confidence and the lack of education and

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

125

qualifications, as well as social exclusion, as the main influencers on future career prospects. In India, the main factors that negatively influence career progression include extreme poverty, homelessness, and social attitudes towards young women; in Africa, the main influencers on young peoples’ ambitions for a productive future are a subsistence lifestyle, no secondary education or access to training facilities, and the difficulty for local companies to develop a sufficient market to trade with.19 ASOS has launched a range of community initiatives through its Charitable Foundation to address some of these basic challenges. These initiatives include a Kenyan Stitching Academy project, which will enable young people to train, set up new businesses, and work for local suppliers. With regard to the ongoing ASOS collaboration with Fashion Enter, in 2013–14, ASOS published a figure of 106 unemployed people who have qualified at Level 1 in stitching skills through the Stitching Academy.20 It notes that more than half of those who achieved NVQ Level 1 have subsequently found permanent employment. The scale of ASOS allows it to engage in a range of projects that can have a significant impact across a number of locations and social groups. As we have seen in these chapters however, micro companies and SMEs across the world are transforming the textiles and fashion industry by working with a range of stakeholders in ways that engage with societal challenges. The examples of community development enabled through fashion production at TSS and The Social Outfit in Australia, the recovery of community quilting skills that has made Alabama Chanin a niche luxury company in the United States, and the South American and Mongolian nomad communities that supply luxury alpaca and yak fleece for Teixidors point to a consistent message. Developing supportive networks of people determined to consider environmental and sociocultural sustainability as essential business values can stimulate and enrich business.

Business-driven, policy-driven, skill set initiatives Both enterprise and the community can benefit from adopting the linked social capital network model, where companies partner with government and independent stakeholders for greater access to resources. For example, connected commercial and education activities are a cornerstone of the Fashion Enter commercial enterprise but they also help Haringey, its local government borough, meet some of its stated policy objectives. These include support for a learning and work environment that provides confidence and self-esteem, clear and high expectations, evidence of success, and the economic benefits that arise.21

126

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Fashion Enter’s innovative approach to support the education of the industry’s future workforce was a self-initiated project. The CEO has worked hard to influence government and professional bodies to work with Fashion Enter and its academies. By way of illustration, Creative Skillset accredits the Fashion Enter education programs. This is a professional regulatory organization and is the UK-wide strategic skills body that works with employers, individuals, trade associations, learning and training providers, Government, and its public agencies, to ensure that the UK’s creative industries have continued access to the skills and talent they require. The Creative Skillset mission is to support skills and training “by influencing and shaping policy, ensuring quality and by securing the investment to help individuals and businesses grow.”22 Its remit encompasses a large number of creative industries and specialist subjects including fashion; its broad offer includes free online courses, available to help professional development and enhance skills, of which some are developed in collaboration with the UK Universities. In response to employers and industry increasingly requiring specialist knowledge to compete within a global context, Creative Skillset focuses on trends in industry that impact on available study provision and the way employers can positively engage with the creation of curricula that will best prepare young people for work. In its analysis of Fusing Creativity, Technology and New Business, Creative Skillset notes that industry is calling for multidisciplinary approaches to address the “interwoven challenges such as technological convergence and divergence, the impact of digital networks, and lower barriers to market and globalization.”23 A number of suggestions are made in its text to provide a road map for a new type of learning, that is, learning through project management, science and art encounters in problem-based learning, learning by introducing skills that may be outside of the course or institution. The latter suggestion resonates with the approach taken by Fashion Enter. That is, the introduction of non-institutional skills into a conventional learning framework is rethought by Fashion Enter. Its stitching and technology academies relocate learning from an education context into a manufacturing environment to gain greater effect. For the company and the people working and training in the factory and stitching and fashion technology academies, this innovative partnering brings prospects, opportunity, and personal growth potential.

Smart specialization: How the creative sector can have a positive social impact From the interview with Jenny Holloway, it is clear that the linked social capital demonstrated by Fashion Enter grew out of a bottom-up approach. Commercial needs drove initiatives and connections with external partners such as ASOS

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

127

and Creative Skillset. Although not directly connected, the way in which Fashion Enter and its CEO work with an understanding of the issues of the Haringey region, capitalize on its existing expertise and work to promote innovation compares well with the main concerns identified by the European Commission’s 2014–20 Cohesion Policy. In the context of the Cohesion Policy, the European Union’s S3 aims to build on each country’s competitive advantage and focus policy support on the needs of knowledge-based development. To promote a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy, the S3 guidance requires that stakeholders and policymakers consider the three attributes as integrated and interconnected. Creating synergies and better governance to improve the innovation process is noted as a responsibility for all the stakeholders in the European regions, uniting under a shared vision. S3 aims to act as a facilitator to build competitive advantage, matching research and innovation strengths with business, and guide areas of investment.24 The S3 platform contributes to the European Union RIS3 to improve competition and export better goods and services. A RIS3 Guide, published in May  2012, notes that the focus on the role of entrepreneurs to recognize areas of competitive strength and emerging trends should be matched by policy that enables favorable conditions for further developing the creative and cultural industries (CCIs).25 A concurrent 2012 Policy Handbook by the European Union Open Method of Coordination Expert Group on Cultural and Creative Industries regards the creative and cultural industries sector as interdisciplinary; it naturally creates a link between culture and the economy that can produce great potential for growth and economic benefits to the wider economy. The benefits CCIs bring can in turn have a positive effect on the sustainability of the environment, social inclusion, and well-being, as well as education and innovation. For the European Union, the creative industries have a tendency to effect a greater impact on their region and community because they typically employ different levels of skilled labor and because the creative industry professions tend to be early adopters of new technologies. Our research has not found many schemes in the UK that have enabled the two worlds of business and creative culture to benefit from each other. Young entrepreneurs in the creative industries have, it would seem, tended to find support and funding by vertically accessing the cultural sphere with which they are familiar, while loans and financing from the economy sector have been hard to negotiate because of a lack of confidence in the business planning and financial management skills of young creative entrepreneurs. In time, this situation may change. Recently, in the UK, new bridging organizations have emerged that offer funding and business support. One such bridging organization is Creative United. Originally an Arts Council spin-off, Creative United works with private equity partners, universities, industry, and policymakers to provide creative

128

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

businesses with a range of business and financing services, to build a resilient creative economy.

Social enterprise, creative arts, and community development as knowledge ecologies The networks that have enabled the success of textiles and fashion enterprises such as Fashion Enter are sometimes complex and extended. The initial inner cluster can be simplified as a collaboration between entrepreneur, fashion industry backer, and a local community of skilled and unskilled, sometimes migrant, workers. Around this nucleus, there is then a wider, diverse cluster of local government, enterprise agencies, education and skills organizations, including universities, who are then in turn connected and supported by national and European policies such as the Europe 2020 Strategy. In “The Luxury Industry and the Knowledge Economy,” Dominique Foray, a leading academic expert in the economics of innovation and economic policy, identifies the typical networks of organizations that work on the provision and production of knowledge as not simply networks but knowledge ecologies. The decision to define enterprise and innovation networks as something like an environmental science illustrates the type of interconnected relationships that Foray and others judge necessary for the continued and thriving existence of innovation and creativity.26 That is, the networks are not merely connected but interdependent; success is sustained through the network and benefits are shared, if not always equally. For Foray, sustainable innovation and knowledge ecologies of interdependent participants are enabled by a number of factors, which include the promotion of intellectual abilities to mobilize knowledge, and a structure of organizational governance that encourages change but perhaps more importantly, decision making that is governed by a long-term vision. This is because a business built on a long-term vision can more effectively consolidate a network of knowledge ecologies and provide a stable context in which skills are preserved and developed.27 The examples of textiles and fashion enterprises presented in this chapter are not producers of luxury goods. However, the factors identified by Foray as crucial to continued innovation in the luxury industry can help define the partnership models in this chapter as what might be termed well-functioning knowledge ecologies that produce benefit for their knowledge communities. Stimulating training, knowledge, and know-how affects the young people and immigrant workers of Fashion Enter in the same way that they empower the refugees and migrants who work in TSS in Australia. The context of people, companies,

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

129

education providers, and services that collaborate with Fashion Enter, and for a time sustained the Southampton refugee cooperative Who Made your Pants, all contribute to a local ecology, a place where ideas, skills, production, creativity, and innovation contribute to a narrative of interdependent benefit. In a more detailed example, the impact of Fashion Enter on community development can be seen through the variety of activities it has generated through its factory and skills Academy. Fashion Enter offers continuing professional development, competitions through which the winners can train with experienced garment technologists, factory sample sales, open days for designers, advice for startups, and school visits. This last activity encourages local teachers and pupils to tour the Factory and the Stitching Academy so that they can witness the manufacturing process and the employment opportunities of a vocational education. The Fashion Enter skills agenda is further foregrounded through public presentations, in-work training, and online partnerships, for example, with Uni’s Not For Me, an online careers development resource where young people can find alternative routes to work or business entrepreneurship. The social well-being and creative and cultural development cultivated by the founder of Fashion Enter in her local community have been recognized and studied by a range of government and social enterprise agencies. This has led to her participation in a number of events, steering groups, and development activities, where the Fashion Enter story is disseminated to influencers and policymakers. The positive outcomes for the London Borough of Haringey have been seen to be a model of commercial and social action that is transferable to other parts of the UK.

Integrating migrant perspectives and the value to the community The examples of textiles and fashion enterprises presented in this chapter tell a story of the integration of marginalized, immigrant, and refugee communities. Their stories represent an intersection of different paths, where various social groups become connected through education projects, up-skilling, confidence, and aspiration building. The cultural perspectives of the different social groups are, however, often not surprisingly unfamiliar and dissimilar from one another. This lack of cultural familiarity leads to a necessary translation process between old and new cultures, traditional and new skills, that facilitate the everyday work of production but also add value to the business and the product. Fashion Enter, for example, built its initial success on the skills of Eastern European immigrants who had retained knowledge of textile and fashion manufacturing gained prior to leaving their home countries. At the Fashion Enter Factory, traditional skills are now preserved and developed through training and apprenticeship programs that guarantee continuity of knowledge transfer across generations while

130

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

safeguarding future innovation enabled by a broad skills base. The Social Outfit and its mentor organization, TSS, similarly engage with immigrant and refugee communities to combine strengths and add value through a retained heritage of skills that have become championed by these companies. The Social Outfit disseminates its vision as affirming the belief that “fashion and creativity can lead to learning and empowerment. By working from traditional and cultural strengths we aim to build up lasting skills.”28 In this way, an integrated community of migrant and marginalized workers can add value to the business in the form of skills retained, transferred, and learned. To assess the added value of learning and integration to the marginalized, immigrant, or refugee communities, it may be useful to consider Eric Kong’s 2011 investigation of the role of social enterprise in facilitating the settlement of immigrants in Australia.29 In his investigation, Kong argues that resettlement is hardest for those who are from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESBs). These groups appear more vulnerable to the effects of the breaking of economic and family ties and struggle most with successful integration into the labor market. This leads to them experiencing economic and social barriers to their resettlement.30 Having identified the trials faced by those most challenged, Kong goes on to explore the relatively underresearched role of social enterprise in Australia as a facilitator of the integration of NESBs. In Kong’s findings, he notes that NESB migrants are more likely to have a: [happier, more confident life if they are involved in social enterprises during settlement, as they have opportunity] to practice day-to-day English, gain necessary skills for social interaction and networking, advance their knowledge and skill for employment or of becoming entrepreneurs, and participate equitably in society.31 Kong’s findings identify social enterprises as the prime movers for achieving three key attributes for marginal groups: confidence, self-esteem, and emotional stability. These attributes are reminiscent of the barriers and challenges faced by young people when trying to fulfill their potential identified by the ASOS research. Other challenges to marginal groups include access to training, a lack of qualifications, and poverty. If we follow Kong’s thinking and place it in the context of our above findings, social enterprises can offer value to the integrated community in a number of ways. As we have seen, social enterprises value and encourage knowledge transfer and skills development among the local community to the extent that, in some cases, they go on to develop education programs with accredited qualifications. Training offered by these social enterprises enables it to access the skills it needs for commercial success and the marginalized community to access employment and a career. Perhaps more importantly, through their

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

131

integration into the world of work, employees from otherwise marginalized communities gain confidence and self-esteem that can transfer to their families and the extended community. The value to the integrated community might be thought of as confidence-driven, secure social cohesion, empowered families, and long-lasting economic advantage. In textiles and fashion social enterprises, each stakeholder gains from this way of encouraging social sustainability, whether it be the entrepreneur CEO, trainee, machine worker, or the local government and community.

Conclusion: Social bricolage In this chapter, we have seen through Fashion Enter how knowledge exchange can foster the conditions through which commercial interests and business communities can become more socially inclusive. From our study of Fashion Enter, it is possible to conclude that the business demonstrates an ability to adapt and improvise, as well as uphold a commitment to create social value and engage stakeholders in the business. As such, Fashion Enter not only exemplifies well the advantage to business of knowledge clustering while aiding community development but also demonstrates the positive attributes of what Di Domenico, Haugh, and Tracey refer to as social bricolage. In “Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises,” 2010, the authors take as a departure point the original concept of intellectual bricolage as that theorized by Claude Levi-Strauss in 1967.32 In the context of entrepreneurship, the idea of “making do with what is at hand” is considered as a process of resource acquisition, one that allows for the flexibility to deploy those resources when necessary.33 The social bricolage study engages with three extensively researched attributes of entrepreneurial activity: making do, a refusal to be constrained by limitations, and the ability to adapt through improvisation. When applying these attributes, entrepreneurs demonstrate flexibility and resourcefulness, deploy “personal, intangible and opportunistic” mechanisms to build competitive advantage, and pursue their vision.34 The ability to maintain focus on a vision or goal but at the same time be able to take advantage of situations and resources as they arise is likened, in the literature review, to the process of making a patchwork quilt. While a patchwork quilt may consist of a disparate collection of fabrics, some owned and some acquired through extended relationships, the final result, if constructed by an expert quilter, can be “aesthetically appealing and even a meaningful pattern.”35 Following this analogy and applying their research to the context of social enterprise, the authors of social bricolage are able to identify three new processes that emerge from their evidence-based research. These processes appear to reinforce the practices by which social networks and individual connections can enable the success of a

132

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

social enterprise, in that they create social value and stakeholder participation and are persuasive.36 The case study provided by Fashion Enter illustrates well these processes. In particular, it demonstrates how the idea of social bricolage can mobilize flexible ways of working and creative thinking that is appropriate and relevant to the qualities of intuition, reflection, and invention found in the creative industries. For example, thinking about the creation of social value, Fashion Enter has been able to make-do with limited resources, for instance specialist stitching and garment technology skills required for commercial manufacturing output. It has optimized the limited available resources and enabled commercial and community benefits through knowledge development programs that help create career opportunities for the local community. In terms of stakeholder participation, Fashion Enter has been able to adapt its own organization to take into consideration its location, involving members of the local community to be part of its governance. It has continued to foster new links and relationships that now include industry, government, and education and skills councils, recognizing the positive spillover of this enhanced network to its social value creation prospects. Lastly, it has been able to persuade others that its business is of benefit to the industry and the community. Fashion Enter’s CEO has been able to disseminate the purpose of the enterprise widely through a public profile; in turn, she has leveraged interest in the Fashion Enter social development agenda to encourage new initiatives. Through Fashion Enter, we can learn the value of social enterprise in the creative industries.

Interview with Jenny Holloway, CEO, Fashion Enter, London, March 11, 2016 The interview with Jenny Holloway provides compelling details to the real-time challenges of setting up a new business and offers insight into the sometimes competitive human context of knowledge transfer. Although critical of how potential stakeholders contribute knowledge that might benefit the textile industry and its manufacturers, it is clear from the interview that Fashion Enter is now, mostly through the efforts of Jenny and her team, a core contributor to a knowledge cluster that benefits both the industry and the workforce. Fashion Enter, in many respects, is an example of how one entrepreneur’s vision can impact on knowledge transfer within a cluster to the benefit of enterprise and the social community. Respondent: Jenny Holloway Interviewer: Paul Whittaker

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

INT:

RES:

INT1: RES:

133

We’ve read a lot about the company, but I was thinking, what was the single most significant driver for setting up the company in the first place? Well, after we’d finished working with the Government, from 2001 to 2006, we helped hundreds and hundreds of designers make a success of their business. This was with a Government initiative called the London Fashion Forum. I then realised that I didn’t want to go back to being a buyer. I was a senior buyer at the Arcadia Group previously. Actually, it’s very fulfilling and rewarding to be able to help people make a success of their company. So, I decided that when the London Fashion Forum came to a close, I would set up my own business as a social enterprise. I was very lucky because I had Jenny Sutton as an intern, and she’s still with me today after 10 years. I thought it would have been easy to attract more funding to open up a new company. That was very naïve. I had £8,000 worth of shares that I cashed in. I went to Croydon and opened a boutique in a secondary location to help young designers and we started to trade. We chose Croydon not because it’s a des-res of fashion—it actually isn’t at all. But they’d just been awarded £72 million LEGI funding from Government, and I thought surely they’re going to have a stream there for the creative industries. In fact nothing derived from that initiative and actually, where we are today, the Fashion Technology Academy, is the vision I had 10 years ago. For me, it’s been quite a frustrating journey. That said, we were masters of our own destiny and we didn’t have to jump around, ticking boxes for outputs and outcomes. We did what the industry wanted, so we are now self-sufficient. What was it like when you first started the company? We started trading in 2006 and we had no money whatsoever. We had a room that was three by three metres for all of our admin and support. It was nothing; tiny and we traded our way into a business. We took designers’ garments and we sold them and then took a commission—that’s how we grew the business. Then we started recommending factories to make samples for young designers but I would get verbal abuse on the telephone from these designers because they were being let down; they were basically being ripped off, and it was a real disappointment. I felt personally dreadful as my word is very much my bond. Here we are, as a social enterprise, trying to help young designers succeed, and actually we were recommending people that weren’t reputable. So I said that we would open our own workshop, which we did, literally around the corner from where we are today, in Haringey. We took four people

134

INT:

INT:

RES:

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

as machinists and one pattern cutter. That was a big decision to take at the time with the costs of rent, rates, space, etc. but we did it and we opened a live workshop. That’s how we started on the production route; purely because of industry demand from the new and emerging designers. So when did Social Business Trust come into it? The Social Business Trust came in two years ago, so 2014. In 2013 we were awarded the Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year: Fashion Enter, London & South Winner. That award put us on the radar for the Social Business Trust who supported us with funding of £100,000, which is how we had DS join us from Ernst & Young; SBT effectively paid for his salary and gave us a business mentor with Permira plus support from solicitors Clifford Chance. Their support has been hugely appreciated by the entire company. This chapter has got quite a bit of a focus on how businesses are working with each other, how businesses are working with the community, how businesses sometimes work with higher education or education in general. So I was wondering how much something like knowledge transfer mattered to you at the beginning and whether that’s changed? I think it’s a very disappointing term, knowledge transfer, because I find people are very protective. People may have good ideas, but they’re not always willing to share their ideas. I feel that knowledge transfer is also a very academically based term used extensively to acquire funding but does Knowledge Transfer actually work in industry? In my experience not for free! For six years, from 2006 to 2012, I kept a low profile with all Government bodies and academia because I had wasted my time with lots and lots of conversations that led to no action. We were a little workshop with some machinists, and we were successful. We never let any of our clients down; we worked really, really hard, and had very good prices because we weren’t top slicing with a large profit margin. We were working for the good of the industry offering a quality service and our aim was sustainability. Then I approached the Buying Director of ASOS.com, and I basically said, “can we make your press samples for you because we’ve got a fantastic team and we can make anything? We can create couture garments, wedding dresses, bespoke—whatever you need, we can make.” The answer was yes and this gave us a fixed weekly contract with ASOS which was absolutely fantastic. It gave us the financial planning that we needed. It gave us that security—we know that money is coming in at the end of each week so let’s go for

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

INT:

135

growth! So, we grew the team, and I think we employed 15 sample machinists and we increased our showroom capacity too. Then, I think I got a little bit carried away! I thought we’re doing all of this fantastic sampling but what about manufacturing? Why aren’t we producing core manufacturing? So, I again approached ASOS and said, “we would like to make your production for you. I believe we can make production within four to six weeks, concept idea through to delivery, using local fabric from Leicester.” After lots of discussions and lots of meetings ASOS agreed to financially support us in opening a factory and within a very short period of time we were inundated with a range of orders. Too many different types of products, too many different departments and we imploded! I personally was way outside my comfort zone, didn’t have the necessary experience for large scale production and bottlenecks and mistakes started to occur. The entire factory really struggled. I think ASOS were exceptionally patient, incredibly professional and I think they saw the good in what we were trying to achieve and stood by us and worked with us. I think they were so supportive and so patient because ASOS could see that we are such an honest and transparent company. Perhaps some suppliers would just try and hide mistakes and go for the quick buck but I can’t work that way. We didn’t hide issues with ASOS, we talked openly and honestly to them and I’m really pleased to report that, six years on, we are now one of their leading suppliers. ASOS undertake an audit called Fast Forward and we have a leading status with the audit which I believe reviews 300. We are one of only two companies that have this leading status. Today our reliability is excellent and our quality is superb. We make the Best of British for Marks & Spencer’s and we’re working on the Chelsea coat for Burberry. So going back to your original question when I really needed help on how factories work, how to be efficient, how to maximise production, did other factories or business support organisations help us with Knowledge Transfer … absolutely no! However ASOS were magnificent! They did totally support us and without their help we would not be here today. One of the things that we’re interested in is the fact that Fashion Enter has a migrant community workforce. You’ve obviously worked very hard on a number of things that have made a difference to the company. A significant part of your success would appear to be your workforce and the training programmes that build capability but I was wondering, does the wider community benefit from the work of Fashion Enter?

136

RES:

INT:

RES:

INT:

RES:

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

It’s a good question actually. I think you have to ask yourself what comes first? Did the community come first with the migrant workforce or did the production come first? The answer is the community. Where we are now is known as a production clustering area. For example, Florentia Clothing Village has 32 cut-making and trim (CMT) units. So migrants with production prowess quickly found Haringey N4 and then settled in the area because that’s where the manufacturing cluster is. People migrate to where they think they’re going to get a job and also where there is a concentration of their own ethnicity. All our machinists live within a two-mile radius of our Factory, so they’re all very local, and obviously that’s going to have a multiplier effect on accommodation and retail and schools. It also encourages the local community to consider manufacturing a progressive career too and we visit schools regularly and hold open day events to encourage the growth of upskilling a future workforce in garment production. Do you think that there are any indirect impacts on the migrant community; do you think your migrant workforce are more confident perhaps? They’re definitely more confident today because they’re together in a safe and secure environment. We really do care about our staff. Each and every one of them! When I first opened the factory I had the idea that we were going to integrate everybody from every single ethnic background and split up the machinists but that just did not happen due to language barriers. People do stay within their own communities and become firm friends. We also undertake lots of team building exercises such as BBQs, each year we take the workforce on a seaside trip at our expense, we hold ESOL classes and we have an ethos whereby it’s any excuse for a party! Life is very short, very precious and we spend more time at work than at home generally. We all have to enjoy what we do! The book is all about how there might be mutual sustainable benefit to be gained from enterprise and skilled communities working together; so what does sustainability mean to you? For the factory the sustainability is all about covering your bills. Making sure there’s a future for each employee. We don’t aim for profit but we aim for a workable surplus to enable us to keep investing and growing. I don’t know if you know how we’re set-up but we’re limited by guarantee, which means that I can never take a dividend from the company. There is no Board of Directors, there’s myself with a fantastically talented team of managers; this means we can make a decision quickly and react to changing market dynamics. Sustainability is working ethically and transparently whilst

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

INT:

RES:

INT: RES:

137

knowing that I can cover my bills at any one time and that we’re growing. I’ve a connected question, which is about investment in the community. In order for the business to prosper, can you imagine a situation where you would make decisions that might not necessarily be in the best interests of the workforce community? No. No, I couldn’t do that. I can’t think of one occasion where I would make a decision to the detriment of the group of individuals working in our local community. Like all factories we have a few freelance workers who do not want to be on PAYE and if we’re not busy then there is no work for them to come in. We also employ a few people that are underperforming but we have training programmes to support them and I have had to deal with these decisions. All factories have these unavoidable business situations. Finally, is there a question I should have asked you or anything you would like to say? I think you should have asked more about European Union funding. Does European funding really gear up to achieve what business wants? Or is it more about tick boxing! I can’t believe how Horizon 2020 has so much budget attached, is it 20 billion Euros, but I think it’s so complicated and not business savvy. What is the real worth to business or is it keeping the academics busy! Sorry I am not being rude here. I started Fashion Enter because I loved helping the designers to succeed. I’ve made mistakes in my career and learnt by them but the thought that I can stop other people making the same mistakes I made is incredibly rewarding and motivating. I have probably spent at least a quarter of a million, if not £300,000, on our online Moodle training platform, all the resources required to teach accredited qualifications at level one, two, three and four including workbooks and over 100 videos. The work has taken six years to complete and I’m happy to sell everything as an entire moodle platform with all policies, compliance etc for £20,000 because I know that’s best industry practices and the very highest of standards. This Moodle platform will save any company £100,000s. It’s taken us 10 years to open the Fashion Technology Academy, which integrates work based learning with a live factory environment. Again a huge thank you to ASOS for their support here and particularly Haringey Council who provided the grant for the building conversion. In my view education today is about work based skills, upskilling the current workforce and really understanding your learner. We have to give unemployed people options and choices, and then progress

138

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT:

them. We’ve written about eight qualifications to offer through the FTA because they didn’t exist anywhere else in the country. We wrote them with the help from Creative Skillset and they’re extremely popular because they prepare people for what industry wants. We are plugging that skills gap. I think there’s a real place for higher education. I think that we need academia to push through new working practices that can filter through business. Academia gives us the power of thought and it pushes us to a level and a different zone but Academia is not for everyone. NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training), for example, could really benefit from skills training for industry. They may not want a formal degree and may be more vocationally based but that does not and should not impede their careers—they can be core to the future of the garment manufacturing industry. Many thanks for your time and your thoughts.

Notes 1

John Goddard, Louise Kempton, and Paul Vallance, “Universities and Smart Specialisation: Challenges, tensions and opportunities for the innovation strategies of european regions,” Ekonomiaz 83, no. 02 (2013): 97.

2

“Transforming Solent Solent Strategic Economic Plan,” (2014–20), Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (March 31, 2014), 8.

3

“Transforming Solent Solent Strategic Economic Plan,” 68.

4

“Transforming Solent Solent Strategic Economic Plan,” 32.

5

St Andrews University, (2012), “Research Excellence Framework Panel ID evidence of impact,” St Andrews University, available at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media /research-policy-office/documents/PanelD_evidence%20of%20impact.pdf (accessed October 16, 2015).

6

Nick Palmer, “Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), February 2015,” (Office of National Statistics, 2015), 2.

7

Neil Lee and Jonathan Wright, “Off the map? The geography of NEETs,” ed. The Work Foundation and The Private Equity Foundation (University of Lancaster, 2011), 13.

8

Pauline Cheong et al., “Immigration, social cohesion and social capital: A critical review,” Critical Social Policy 27, no. 1 (2007): 28.

9

Cheong et al., “Immigration, social cohesion and social capital: A critical review,” 31.

10 DISC, (2015), DISC-Designer-Manufacturer Innovation Centre, available at: http:// www.fashion-manufacturing.com/about/ (accessed October 17, 2015). 11 Becky John, “Who made Your Pants,” available at: http://www.whomadeyourpants .co.uk/pages/the-jobs (accessed October 17, 2015). 12 “The Social Studio,” (2013), available at: http://www.thesocialstudio.org/studio /research-development/ (accessed October 17, 2015).

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, CREATIVE ARTS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

139

13 “The Social Outfit,” (2014), available at: http://thesocialoutfit.org/pages/philosophy (accessed November 3, 2015). 14 “British Fashion Council,” (2014), available at: http://www.britishfashioncouncil .co.uk/pressreleases/Facts–Figures-AW14 (accessed October 22, 2015). 15 “The value of the UK Fashion Industry,” (Oxford Economics, 2010), 14. 16 “Fashion Enter,” (2015), available at: http://www.fashion-enter.com (accessed October 22, 2015). 17 National Careers Service, (2016), “NVQ information. Train while you work,” Skills Funding Agency on behalf of the Department of Business, Information and Skills, available at: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx (accessed April 9, 2016). 18 Mohamed Jaber, “David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, visits ASOS Stitching Academy in Harringay,” Tottenham and Wood Green Independent (September 18, 2013), available at: http://m.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/10683202.MP_vWoSts _fashion_academy/ (accessed September 30, 2015). 19 ASOS.com, “Ethical Trade,” available at: http://www.asosplc.com/corporateresponsibility/our-products/ethical-trade/ethical-trade-programme.aspx (accessed October 22, 2015). 20 ASOS.com, (2015), “Performance and commitments,” available at: http://www .asosplc.com/corporate-responsibility/performance-and-commitments.aspx (accessed June 17, 2016). 21 “Early years policy,” Haringey Council Children and Young People’s Service, available at: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/draft_policy_and _admissions_criteria.pdf (accessed October 23, 2015). 22 Creative Skillset, (2015), available at: https://creativeskillset.org/ (accessed October 22, 2015). 23 Creative Skillset. 24 “S3 Smart Specialisation Platform,” (2015), EU Commission Joint Research Centre, available at: http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ris3-design (accessed October 9, 2015). 25 Dominique Foray et al., “Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (RIS3),” (European Union, 2012), 91. 26 Dominique Foray, “The luxury industry and the knowledge-based economy,” (Paris: Comité Colbert, 2010), 1. http://www. comitecolbert.com/assets/files/paragraphes /fichiers/20/D.% 20Foray_2010_GB. pdf. 27 Foray, “The luxury industry and the knowledge-based economy,” 6. 28 “The Social Outfit.” 29 Eric Kong, “Building social and community cohesion: The role of social enterprises in facilitating settlement experiences for immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds,” The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 6, no. 3 (2011): 122. 30 Kong, “Building social and community cohesion: The role of social enterprises in facilitating settlement experiences for immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds,” 117.

140

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

31 Kong, “Building social and community cohesion: The role of social enterprises in facilitating settlement experiences for immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds,” 120. 32 MariaLaura Di Domenico, Helen Haugh, and Paul Tracey, “Social Bricolage: Theorizing social value creation in social enterprises,” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34, no. 4 (2010): 684. 33 Di Domenico et al., “Social Bricolage: Theorizing social value creation in social enterprises,” 684. 34 Di Domenico et al., “Social Bricolage: Theorizing social value creation in social enterprises,” 685. 35 Di Domenico et al., “Social Bricolage: Theorizing social value creation in social enterprises,” 684. 36 Di Domenico et al., “Social Bricolage: Theorizing social value creation in social enterprises,” 695.

6 MADE IN ITALY: RECLAIMING SOCIAL HERITAGE AND ARTISAN KNOW-HOW CLIO PADOVANI

This chapter introduces the theme of mutual benefit to the industry of timehoned skills and sustainable artisanal communities. Some regions of Europe have been active producers of textiles for decades, while others have a history of production that began in the Middle Ages. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how the historic and frequent development of skills, together with localized capabilities and place-based approaches, offer unique opportunities for enhancing design, quality, and technical innovation in the manufacture of textiles. Unique clusters of capabilities, originally fostered in the structure of guilds and master craftsmen, have given rise to family enterprises and textile and fashion production companies that have continued to develop the specialized knowledge of their artisanal manufacturing communities. The chapter engages with the theme of social sustainability by exploring the longevity of knowledge and practice embedded in manufacturing communities as key enabling factors in the resilience and transformation of textile enterprises. It references studies on the evolution of industrial districts in Italy, the role of family firms in product innovation, and the importance of value-adding partnerships to existing textile clusters. These themes are anchored around a 2011 publication, Futuro Artigiano, that has influenced the current thinking of a range of Italian organizations, policymakers, and entrepreneurs.1 In this study, Stefano Micelli, professor of innovation technology, argues for a future renaissance of the Made in Italy brand, based on international recognition of the inheritance of artisanal know-how, quality, and innovation.

142

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Long associated with the Made in Italy brand, the family-owned and managed textiles manufacturer Faliero Sarti, based in Prato, Italy, will provide a case study for focused consideration of how the sustainability of socially based employment clusters, as well as the transmission of knowledge across generations, assists innovation, diversification, and competition in the luxury accessories market. The chapter explores how Faliero Sarti and its workers have forged a unique and valuable identity and, as such, their collaboration helps to maintain both the viability of the community and the company’s competitive edge. The industrial artisans who work at Faliero Sarti bring together the company’s traditions, a long-established design and manufacture ability, and new networks, to develop unique production clusters. Through the restoration and construction of new professional interrelations, Sarti is meeting the challenges faced by many small, specialist family producers.

Community know-how: Futuro Artigiano Prato’s longevity in textile production The history of textile production in the Prato region can be traced back to the early Middle Ages and is linked to the use of water from the river Bisenzio to process wool.2 Commercial trade in textiles with other European regions grew from the fourteenth and fifteenth century to make Prato prosperous, it eventually providing nearby Florence’s affluent renaissance families with high-quality clothing and furnishing fabrics. The quality of the fragments in the collection of the Museo del Tessuto in Prato is a testament to the material knowledge and design sophistication of the Prato weavers. The production of high-quality luxury cloth such as brocades, cut velvets, taffeta, and silk satin weaves for opulent decorations, secular and liturgical garments, was the original mainstay of the region’s production. By the late eighteenth century, however, Chamber of Commerce substituted corporations. This announced a shift away from luxury goods production to more modest but profitable fabrics; for example, a new woolen mill began to produce red woolen caps for export to the Middle East. In the nineteenth century, the influence of the industrial revolution and the mechanization of looms resulted in Prato starting the production of felted and recovered wool cloth for which it was to become famous in the early twentieth century. The Unione Industriale Pratese, an organization of the district’s textile industries, documents that a “significant contribution to industrial expansion [in Prato] was … due to the lower costs of carded wool processing.”3 The recovery and repurposing of wool involved the collection and shredding of old clothes and industrial scraps to produce a composite fiber that, when mixed with

MADE IN ITALY

143

virgin wool, would provide the basis for new cloth. This low-quality fiber was initially woven into utility items. Collections in the Museo del Tessuto include, for example, military coats and kit issued during the First World War, blankets, and serviceable items aimed at national markets or the then emerging markets of Africa and India. The use of textile scraps, combings, secondhand knitwear, and clothes in the industrial recycling process has gained increased credibility and importance for the Prato textile industry. The tradition and skills that underpin this process are distinguished by a practical understanding of its material qualities and potential to produce new combinations of yarns. Carded, recycled wool is made up of short fibers rather than the long fibers used in new, worsted wool products. Producers and manufacturers have utilized this knowledge and have continuously experimented and innovated in the composition of regenerated wool. By way of illustration, “carded wool [is] more competitive and more suitable for the clothing industry’s [increasing] requirements for lighter fabrics.”4 Even with such innovations, in order to compete with the imports and the flow of high volume, low-cost cloth during the late twentieth century, the Prato manufacturers recognized the need to innovate through higher specification materials and artisanal finishing processes, and to develop new collaborations with couture fashion houses and designers. The opportunities for research and production of repurposed wool began to be seriously explored in the 1990s, when consumer interest in ecological sustainability started to again stimulate demand for Prato’s traditional regenerated textiles. Responding to consumers’ interest in products with intrinsic heritage, Prato’s textiles producers sought to adapt their skills, equipment, and knowledge, to combine established traditions of yarn recovery with innovation in the use of remainder luxury yarns such as, alpaca and mohair. This approach, typical of craft-based artisan know-how, is a feature of what is sometimes referred to as the innovation pipeline, a product development process that, in the case of Prato, has created links between traditional processes and new products.

Futuro Artigiano: Artisan know-how In Futuro Artigiano, Stefano Micelli explores the adaptation of the traditional qualities of the Italian artisan, illustrating their characteristics as creative translators, customizers, and modelers, capable of producing a tangible version of a design vision or using their know-how to solve a problem. Micelli claims that the success of Italian SMEs is driven by their “embededness in the districts that have benefited from the extraordinary mobilization of local communities,” communities that have sustained the journey through know-how, education, and financing.5 In further discussing the role of the artisan as instrumental in extending the life span of products through careful maintenance and repair, Micelli expands

144

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

this idea by citing Giancarlo Coró’s work, “L’ Artigianato Nelle Filiere Della Green Economy”.6 Reflecting on the added value that distinguishes the green economy’s supply chains, Coró’s thinking evidences how the role of the artisan, knowledgeable of manufacturing processes and a promoter of technological innovation, can enable incremental gains and sustainable practices. One example of technological and design innovation that illustrates the relationship between the traditional cultural and social sustainability of artisan communities in Prato is Cardato Recycled. Brought about through ingenuity, knowledge, flexibility, and adaptation to new contexts, Cardato Recycled, launched in Prato in 2014, has contributed to making the city the most ecofriendly production district in Italy.7 To qualify for the Cardato Recycled trademark, products must be made in the Prato district and contain at least 65 percent of recycled materials obtained from used clothing or factory scraps; companies must have calculated the impact of their water, energy, and carbon usage.8 By bringing together a traditional production process, the knowledge of textile workers, and the industry’s quest for greener credentials, the innovation of Cardato Recycled has resulted in approximately “forty companies working under the Cardato Mark in a zero carbon emissions initiative called Cardato Regenerated CO2 Neutral; [this initiative aims to] bring new fabrics to market. Among the commercially available fabrics are those manufactured by Furpile, which is up cycling regenerated wool to make jersey flannel for tailoring.”9 The development of clusters of SMEs sharing in a common strategy while maintaining the individuality of their production qualities and identity can be valuable. While most of the world’s textiles production is concentrated on cotton and polyester,10 according to the Prato region’s Industrial Union, “the know-how and facilities in carded wool processing accumulated over years do not seem vulnerable to new competitors [… this is because] in general, wool represents [only] three percent of global fiber production.”11 By pooling capability, the Prato regional cluster is not only more able to meet market preference but also dominate the production of recycled wool.

Specialist knowledge in the historical, geographical, and social district While demonstrating how artisan and technological innovation can enable sustainable, ethical practices, Cardato Recycled also illustrates the Prato system, a model of community-located textile manufacture and production, that has been extensively studied in the fields of economics and social sciences. The Prato system is based on the decentralization of production among a large number of small companies capable of adapting to specific design demands and able to produce short runs to tight delivery times. This model of collaborative competition provided the basis for the rise of luxury and bespoke manufacturing

MADE IN ITALY

145

in the region, and the global success of Prato’s textile products after 1950.12 The specialization required to produce small batches of bespoke and unusual designer fabrics rests on the knowledge embedded in the community of manufacturers and artisanal enterprise that still characterize production in Prato today. According to Harrison, in a review of the production models of Italian industrial districts, the postwar economic slump led to the closure of many factories and the sell-off, or rental to individuals and families, of small equipment, especially looms. This gave rise, in the late 1950s, to a large number of microenterprises, which prospered through the labor and skills shared between husband, wife, and family.13 These extended family teams enabled high levels of specialization and constant, localized, practice-led innovation, in a tight-knit social structure. Through trusted family relationships, haptic know-how, tacit knowledge, and traditional artisanal manufacturing, skills developed in an apprenticeship model. The specialist industry artisan or the master craftsman, trained under this apprenticeship system, remains an important figure within the Italian cultural context and is well understood by a public proud of its artisanal heritage. Specialized knowledge of the regeneration of woolen rags into recycled, recovered fibers, is a process embedded in local social and organizational memory; even though the number of traditional roles assigned to textile processes is now in decline, local Masters of Work, a title loosely related to a traditional Guild structure of Master Craftsmen, still retain and transfer their industry know-how. The work of the Master of Works can be illustrated through the specialized knowledge required for the regeneration of woolen rags into recycled fibers in the Prato woolen mills. In Prato, the gathering of rags for repurposing was once made by collecting unwanted garments door-to-door. This is now achieved through recycling centers. At the recycling centers, a first selection is made between cotton, cellulose fiber, and wool-based rags. The selected rags are then sent to woolen mills in Prato where they are assessed by specialist selectors or cernitori. The  cernitori are a labor-intensive profession of artisans that select the cloth rags from the knitted fabrics.14 The cernitori are noted to require the qualities of patience, concentration, and physical resilience, and are organized in the factory according to a model of work that has hardly changed since the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the cernitori work in groups of three with each cernitore fulfilling a specific duty; one selects the scraps, another more expert selects by color, while the third cernitore, often the least experienced, removes buttons, zips, and any other hard items. A second selection process consists of making mountains of rags according to color. The choice of color selection is given to expert workers or textile technologists who mix the various rags into piles to achieve a final color of fleece that, when spun, will not generally need overdyeing. This is because the fleece

146

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

has already been designed for the requirements of industry. Once sorted into mountains selected by color, the rags go through a chemical purification process to achieve at least 90 percent woolen fiber recovery. All the stitching, cellulose linings, and any items left over following selection by the cernitori are discarded once they have been subjected to a chemical process of carbonization, which involves intense heat and acid. The wool items are then washed, fed through large drum carders, and made into fleece and spun. It is worth noting at this point that from the 1980s to today, there has been little innovation in the equipment used in carding the wool rags. More changes have been implemented in the mechanization of the movement of goods within mills and factories than in carding, for instance, the use of machines to lift, move, and bale regenerated fibers. Moreover, in their review of the craft roles in the regenerated wool industry, Fiorenzani and Mauro note that almost no progress has been made in the technological development of machinery to alleviate the heavy working conditions for artisans in this industry.15 They also note the reluctance of young people to engage with such strenuous working conditions, the decline in the number of cernitori, and the advanced age of those that remain in employment. They conclude that the inevitable de-skilling of this part of the industry will eventually make it necessary to automate the rag selection processes. Future technological innovation opportunities currently being considered include the electronic identification of color and fibers, which will cut out the expert worker or textile technologist role.16 The retention of organizational knowledge and memory demonstrated by the cernitori, so as to confidently evidence a claim to authenticity and heritage, is an aim shared by many of today’s textiles manufacturers. The knowledge of the industrial network is a knowledge constituted by relationships and, “in Prato, the pattern of relationships has evolved over centuries and is the accumulation of past experiences and consequences of future expectations.”17 These complex social relationships reflect long-term organizational and cultural bonds of trust. This social heritage, linked to work and family, is one of the reasons why the  collaborative competition model remained successful, it providing flexible solutions while maintaining the viability of the network and its resources as a constantly adapting entity. Micelli’s Futuro Artigiano provides a possible road map toward an artisan future where the work and knowledge of the industrial network, suffused with traditional qualities of attention to detail, excellence, and customization, create value in many different contexts. Micelli finds however that textile SMEs that maintain a focus on quality through artisan practices are penalized by the higher costs of their fabric. A meter of fabric from the Barbera Mill in northern Italy can cost as much as four times that of cloth produced in Eastern Europe. According to the Barbera Mill owner, the answer to the challenge of high costs associated with industrial artisan products is to promote Made in Italy, a brand that has

MADE IN ITALY

147

global recognition and represents a philosophy of production.18 The Made in Italy brand is not only a mark of provenance, with an authenticated Italian supply chain, but also a cultural brand that speaks of tradition, knowledge, and the dexterity and time-honed ability of workers involved in the manufacture and supply of these goods.

Social heritage: Sarti Skills and pride in artisanal manufacture The complex mix of organizational memory, skills, cultural, and social knowledge development that underpins the artisanal industrial manufacture of some Italian textile companies is demonstrated well by the family-owned and managed woolen mill, Faliero Sarti (Figure 6.1). The story of Faliero Sarti provides evidence of continuous adaptation, flexibility, and commitment to the enduring know-how of the Prato region. The diligence of three generations of owners and workers is synonymous with the establishment of the Made in Italy brand. The current owner of Faliero Sarti, Roberto Sarti, took over the management of the company from his father and its founder. As a student, Roberto was

Figure 6.1 Faliero Sarti, Autumn/Winter Collection, 2013. Copyright Faliero Sarti, 2013. Photo: Fred Lebain.

148

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

trained at the Buzzi Technical Textile Institute, which encourages the integration of know-how with enterprise. His experience at Buzzi, together with the family business, provided him with social links to the extended networks of workers and other mill owners in the district. The story of Faliero Sarti is presented on their website as a professional artisanal journey, one that matured quickly in parallel with the development of the postwar Italian national identity. The narrative proudly notes that the mill purposefully targeted the luxury market, and set out to provide high-quality finishing and fast and flexible solutions to customers.19 The company’s yarn spinning manufacture was expanded between 1956 and 1976 through a dedicated weave room. The weave room contained thirty-six Dornier looms on which the weavers and technicians could experiment and produce bespoke designs. The expertise available in the managerial, technical, and industrial artisan workforce has made the company a reference point for national and international design professionals. This can be demonstrated by the fact that 90 percent of the sophisticated products that the company’s weavers produce are destined for high-quality fashion houses such as Armani and Donna Karan. Interviewed by the authors, Roberto Sarti commented on the importance of the North American market for emerging textile companies in 1950s’ Italy. In America, there was widespread appreciation for the luxury materials, tasteful elegance, and artisanal precision embedded in the industrially manufactured Italian products. In a study on Armani’s later success in the North American market and his collaborations with American cinema, John Potvin notes that “the success of … Made in Italy (as both image and label) in the 1970s’ and 1980s’, when it gained considerable currency and cultural capital, has been to translate a celebrated and respected centuries-old tradition of textile manufacturing into a marketable, iconic fashion image.”20 Potvin further notes other fashion research that established how Italy had already refashioned a postwar national identity, influenced by strong cultural and economic ties with the United States. What subsequently emerged in Italy during the 1960s and 1970s was, however, a specific “Italian look,” a visual and material fashion statement in which fashion and accessories were cohesively brought together.21 Moreover, referring to Armani’s success in promoting new textures and fashion fabrics in the diffusion line, Armani Collezioni, launched at the time of his work on the clothes made for the film American Gigolo, Potvin notes how, “by desiring to make inroads in the North American market, Armani deployed his new label to penetrate the texture of the filmic text, screen, and surface, translating his material aesthetic into a visual image and new corporeal identity.”22 It is easy to see, through the use of fashion and fashion marketing in film, how textile manufacturers in Italy were, in the 1960s and 1970s, able to capitalize on the visual and cultural narratives of an industry finding favor in the large, discerning, and wealthy American market that was ready to engage with new

MADE IN ITALY

149

symbols of style. More recently, the Faliero Sarti mill has diversified, taking its knowledge of fabric weaving, yarn spinning, and finishing techniques, into a new line of accessories: scarves. This recent product diversification strategy results from the drive to be more competitive following the 2008 economic crisis and the influence of Monica Sarti, Roberto Sarti’s daughter. Under her direction, the scarf collections have developed to be a global accessory range. Produced in the Prato factory, the scarves have become collectable objects suggestive of material history, heritage, and mementos of Italian values and social culture. These sought-after accessories started as loom widths, rectangular sections of cloth. The original idea for the scarves was to experiment with and develop something that would add value to the scrap ends of fabric from the mill. Roberto Sarti proudly recounts how his daughter, not trained in the traditional Prato route of textile education, but having instead worked as an intern at Anne Klein in New York, surprised everyone by putting the first scrap ends through the washing machine, which resulted in an unexpected light felting effect. The felted fabric, distressed and untidy, perfectly matched the then prevailing mood for a grunge inspired look, and the accessories line was born. This anecdote illustrates the creativity and resourcefulness of entrepreneurs and producers who have a lifetime’s familiarity with the materials they have grown up with. When faced with the need to adapt production because of a decline in orders for large quantities of cloth produced in the mill, the solution found was entrepreneurial, frugal, and inventive.

Scarves: Illustrating national and global identities Faliero Sarti’s accessories represent an almost unbroken thread that links heritage, tradition, locally developed knowledge and skills, and the global reach of niche products. Proud of the company’s generational link with local tradition, Faliero Sarti’s scarves can be seen to not only be the product of heritage and traditional working practices but also an expression of a value commitment. This expression is best seen in the choices of designs for its collections. By way of illustration, the inspiration for the autumn and winter collection, 2013–14 came from the domestic utility tradition of women’s crochet, and a delve into the company archives. In these scarves, the homely textures of Afghan squares and crochet fabrics created from multicolored yarns have the look of the familiar. They recall the social activity of visiting, gathering with family members, friends, and women in village communities, and can trigger a connection with the past. These suggestive memories remind us of home, crafts, and close ties. The success of this collection is that it is able to reclaim these images; in doing so, it appropriates our textures of memory and binds them to the Made in Italy brand. Other scarves show more complex compositions of geometric and colorful

150

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

patterns, a mélange of different diamonds, stripes, weave diagrams, and swirls, that suggest an exploration of the company’s manufacturing archive. The domestic and industrial traditions are shown as linked, connected by a shared social heritage of community and, once again, family ties. In these scarves, the industrial trajectory of the company is shown as indivisible from the community that sustains it, and, in turn, they become a visual language that expresses the values that underpin the company’s cultural and manufacturing Italian identity. In 2011, for the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the Faliero Sarti scarves took this approach further by launching the Icon collection. An anecdote: The first encounter we had with the Icon scarf collection was at a local airport. In the airport, returning nationals and incoming tourists were greeted by a large light-box marketing image. The Faliero Sarti logo, easily recognizable to Italians as a handwriting script commonly learnt at school, tagged the image of a draped scarf, hung from the distressed and broken panes of an industrial building. The print on the scarf was a version of the Italian tricolor, adopted by the navy and commercial shipping in 1947 (Figure 6.2). It included the crest of the four ancient Italian maritime republics, Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, and Venice. The distressed effects on the print of this tricolor suggest nostalgia, abandonment, loneliness, and a thing of memory, its hidden luxury implied by the transparent veil of woolen cloth. The aim of this image of a flag and others in the collection was not only to resonate with the Italian public, but also to insert the national symbol into a global reality, to express the concept that we can adopt each other’s flags as citizens of the globe.

Figure 6.2 Faliero Sarti, Flags, Icon Collection, 2012. Copyright Faliero Sarti, 2012. Photo: Claudio Minenti.

MADE IN ITALY

151

Figure 6.3 Faliero Sarti, Icon Collection, 2012. Copyright Faliero Sarti, 2012. Photo: Claudio Minenti.

Other imagery in the Icon collection includes vividly colored clusters of tarot cards, coral, and animal charms. These images all attest to the popular Italian fascination with a tradition of warding off evil and a conviction in special luck that comes attached to some materials. The Icon range also included images of underground maps, all taken from international megacities, and scarves that looked like large banknotes (Figure 6.3). The currency illustrated on the banknote scarves was the national currency as existed before the adoption of the Euro. These images may summon a nostalgic outlook, but the company intends that the currency images constitute an affirmation of the design identity and its importance as a global creative currency (Figure 6.4).

Family companies, Made in Italy The Made in Italy brand is synonymous with luxury, creativity, and individuality. In it, we can see the legacy of unique artisanal craftsmanship, evidenced in the creative reinvention of past designs and practices, and manufacture based on slow production principles identified in the early 1950s’ fashion and textile shows and trade fairs. In “Il Mestiere d’Arte e il Made in Italy,” Paolo Colombo’s study

152

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 6.4 Faliero Sarti, Icon Collection, 2012. Copyright Faliero Sarti, 2012. Photo: Claudio Minenti.

MADE IN ITALY

153

of the future of Italian craft traditions, he notes the cultural and social skills that have enabled a continuous process of reinvention and, in particular, their part in maintaining and solidifying the Made in Italy brand.23 Colombo indicates that (as previously noted in Chapter 1) some luxury brands promote an image of their continuous research for quality and authenticity, by foregrounding them in their communications. Gucci, for example, has developed Artisan Corners in some of its stores, where customers can experience the artisanal working process at first hand.24 Gucci, although global in scale and in international ownership, is headed by Italian designer Frida Giannini, who is firmly rooting the brand in its Italian social and cultural heritage. At Faliero Sarti, looking toward the future involves the idea of capitalizing on its continuous research and the alliance between design and materials. This work is captured by the company’s design and manufacture archive. The archive, spanning almost the entire Faliero Sarti production from 1949 to today, acts as a design resource and repository of personal and organizational memory. Turnover of staff, many trained in the same local technical institute, is extremely low. This contributes to a close-knit network of industrial expertise and longevity of skills and know-how that enables the manufacturing excellence to which the company aspires. The company community of working relationships enables the establishment of a unique culture of making, of trust in development and experimentation, and an almost unspoken understanding of the output and quality required for success. Experimentation and innovation, as in the case of the scarf production, happens in a culture of evolution. These qualities are in many instances the result of constant refinement over time; they are not the result of a singular moment of innovation but more of an adjustment within a familiar manual artisanal context. The qualities of quiet evolution over time and a consequent refined elegance are perhaps what Faliero Sarti most contributes to the Made in Italy brand. In comparing product innovation between family and nonfamily owned companies, authors De Massis et  al. note several important factors that can affect the innovation strategies of family-run companies. These are parsimony, personalism, and particularism. To illustrate, strategic decisions that might directly affect a family’s wealth can lead to a more prudent innovation process; when the personal authority of the family is conferred on the innovation project, this can ensure a high level of adoption and subsequent success; a family’s personal authority can also drive an idea forward faster when it is not constrained by management structure and bureaucracy. Particularism can mean that, motivated by their identified goals, the family’s particular interests guide the innovation process.25 The Faliero Sarti adjustment and refinement approach to product development is consistent with the De Massis business management investigation. In Sarti’s case, the innovation culture of the company appears

154

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

to be one of moderate risk taking. The resources of the company, both material and knowledge based, are seen as both the catalyst and safety net for incremental change. An informal process, a gradual enhancement, and the added value to an existing high-quality woolen fabric already produced in the mill characterized the innovation brought in by the scarf production. The total innovation process was held within the company, driven by the authority of the owners and their commitment to innovate for new markets, even though the requirements of the different collections, such as specialist embroidery or finishing techniques, may involve collaboration with other artisans or companies. The culture of applied know-how within Faliero Sarti characterizes the ongoing development of its brand. The two products, luxury woolen fabrics and fashion accessories, demonstrate an organic evolution, an industrial ecosystem capable of maintaining quality, and, through creativity, the generation of added value and intellectual and financial capital. The company’s entry into the sector of fashion accessories has increased its competitiveness and the global distribution of its products. The good practice demonstrated at Faliero Sarti, including its insistence on retaining and communicating the importance of the company’s history, balancing local production with global outlets, and reutilizing its historical manufacturing knowledge, has underpinned the company’s progress and perhaps its contribution to the Made in Italy brand.

Made in Italy In considering the emergence of the Made in Italy brand, Paulicelli cites Stefano Tonchi, editor of W magazine, who notes that “Italy is made up of multiple localities, multiple know-hows, and multiple intimacies and aesthetic sensibilities that are both product and producer of the cultural and emotional environments from which emerged a whole range and variety of cultural objects.”26 Reviewing further the multiple facets that underwrite the Made in Italy production, the fashion designer Antonio Marras juxtaposed an exploration of local traditions, craft, and culture in fashion, with a desire to express the “multilayered dimension of any idea of home that is inextricably connected with the idea and the actuality of a journey.”27 Based on Tonchi and Marras’ thoughts, we might determine that the key characteristics of the Made in Italy products are localized know-how, products marked by the intimacies and sensibilities particular to the local Italian regions, and products informed by craft, tradition, and the complexity of our perception of homeliness. Faliero Sarti acknowledges that its design and business journey through the emergence of the Made in Italy brand to the present day are connected to the peaks and troughs of an industry, which set about reclaiming a heritage of art, culture, and style, while contending with poverty, a lack of education, and

MADE IN ITALY

155

poor infrastructure. Having emerged as a competitive company, Faliero Sarti’s products demonstrate consistency with the Made in Italy brand in that they harness the long standing know-how of its workers and their knowledge of the wool industry, but also because they are molded by the esthetic sensibilities and emotional appeal that are part of the social narrative of northern Tuscany. Faliero Sarti’s products demonstrate a commitment to quality held to be important by the Prato region and system, as well as the value of networks of trust both within and outside the company. Key to securing qualities aligned with the standards expected of the Made in Italy brand is the enduring inspiration of the factory archive and utilization of the available knowledge embedded in the local community. Through the reconsideration and reinvention of past designs, mediated through the lens of a contemporary eye and innovative processes, Faliero Sarti has been able to attract customers from across the globe. An example of how the professional knowledge networks sustain the Sarti product development is that these networks have enabled the company to establish a new project with a women’s prison. Through the project, the women prisoners provided finishing and embroidery work for Faliero Sarti’s scarves. This pilot project engages with one of the region’s social challenges and offers up-skilling and remuneration for marginalized women.

Forging a uniquely valuable identity: The value of community know-how to business The knowledge community: The economic value of artisanal know-how The collaboration between Faliero Sarti and the women’s prison represents a new chapter for the Sarti enterprise and further establishes connectivity between the company and its social landscape. The project exemplifies the risk-adverse approach to innovation set out in De Massis’ previously referenced study of innovation practices and business evolution in Italian family companies. The enhancement process is achieved in small incremental changes to products, whose new characteristics do not threaten the stability of the overall enterprise. In the case of Faliero Sarti, and of many other similarly organized companies in the textile sector, manufacturing strength is drawn from a competitive collaborative organization of industrial artisanal practice, honed over decades. A community of artisan workers that is familiar with ongoing experimentation and development executes innovation in design quality and techniques, managed in controlled, well-defined parameters. To support the argument that the integration of social

156

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

heritage plays a significant part in the competitiveness of textile manufacture, it is useful to explore the financial value of communities of practice. Amin and Roberts have written extensively on how economic creativity and innovation are constructed and add value to the knowledge economy.28 The social practices, tacit know-how, and learning by doing typical of the artisanal manufacture investigated in this book are the capabilities that underpin the knowledge-rich foundations seen to enable communities of practice. Amin and Roberts cite Wenger’s original research, where three particular conditions are needed to promote knowledge generation within a community: “mutual engagement, sense of joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire of communal resources.”29 The authors then develop and compare different types of knowing in action, which engage with varying degrees of trust and related propensity toward innovation. To exemplify, task or craft-based activities usually profit from and encourage long-term social interaction, where learning can be incrementally transferred over time, in a climate of learned trust. Professional knowing in action is based on specialized expert knowledge gained through extensive, often intensive, training periods and co-location of participants. It is typically longlived and slow to change. Professional knowledge within an expert community can support incremental or equally, more radical innovation. According to the authors, the type of community activity determines the particular characteristics of innovation, that is, for example, whether it is incremental or more step-change in style. Faliero Sarti’s company approach to innovation within the luxury sector is balanced by a respect for the tradition it is situated in and an understanding of the social practices and knowledge that underpin collective success. The knowledge present within the organization, built in part on the institutional memory retained by the workforce, demonstrates “strong ties of reciprocity, trust, and dependence […] and emotional contact.”30 The knowing through doing in a culture of trust demonstrates that it is a craft-based community of practice in which the established working culture promotes incremental innovation. The financial value of the company’s incremental, craft-based approach can be demonstrated through Monica Sarti’s washing experiment with the offcut product of the woolen mill. This low-risk experiment, informed by her knowledge of the market, enabled the company to develop a new product line that has helped Sarti to position itself as a global fashion accessories company.

Local artisan and global demand The concept of communities of practice contextualizes well the manufacture and innovation process of Faliero Sarti. Task or craft based, and professional knowing in action, describe the working practice of the company’s artisans. The preservation, transfer, and promotion of such knowledge are cited by

MADE IN ITALY

157

some industrialists as prerequisites in ensuring the longevity of the Made in Italy brand. Indeed, the craft-based knowledge retained by local artisans is increasingly seen as an economic advantage and a competitive asset that can enable differentiation in niche markets. Much of this knowledge has traditionally been defined by the local nature of its geographical connections, as well as its historical lineage. For example, the craft activities of knowing in action outlined earlier involve communities encompassed by a local geography and close social networks. As the textiles and fashion industry continues to require careful stabilization, customer-focused production, and careful marketing, the challenge for many textiles and fashion SMEs is to innovate and establish competitive differentiation. Faliero Sarti offers a snapshot of the tension that textiles SMEs face when trying to exploit the advantages of local, small-scale, artisan-based manufacture to meet the potential of global demand. Faliero Sarti was, for example, one of the first Prato-based manufacturers to engage with early exports to Japan. Its first Tokyo flagship store, dedicated to the sale of more than 100 Made in Italy designs, was opened in August 2014.31 The capacity of Sarti to think creatively about its local and international market taps into the glocal consumer trend, a word coined from “glocalization.” Glocal stands for “think global: act local.”32 In the textile and fashion sector, glocal refers to fashion and textiles products made locally but designed and sold globally. These products often have strong appeal for consumers interested in the historical skills and heritage of local communities. Ritu Jadwani, writing about the Glocal Nomad trend on the forecasting website Trend Tablet, notes the high economic value placed on artisanal skills by sophisticated traveling audiences. The success of this new concept of luxury, which is linked to that which has been touched, embellished, and created by hand, is helping social entrepreneurs foster cottage industries and, by extension, helping to preserve tacit knowledge in skilled communities. This preserved knowledge and specialist skills work to the advantage of the community and innovative enterprise.33 The ability of Faliero Sarti to mobilize its local, artisan, community-based expertise to meet a global market is consistent with the glocal consumer trend. Faliero Sarti’s industrial processes, completed by world-class artisans, belong to the same rubric as the handcrafted luxury products of the glocal approach. Currently the company is an international supplier and producer of fashion accessories attractive to an international market because it produces products that have qualities of creative customization, that are limited in edition, and that have the type of bespoke finishing that distinguishes them from more modest productions (Figure 6.5). In nurturing its local ties, the institutional memory of its workforce, and the narratives of its local trade origins, the company is able to promote a claim to offer superior quality and artisan innovation.

158

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Figure 6.5 Faliero Sarti, Autumn/Winter Collection, 2013. Copyright Faliero Sarti, 2012. Photo: Fred Lebain.

Craft skills: An international context Micelli’s Futuro Artigiano proposal of a reconciliation between traditional craftsmanship and industrial production as a way of future-proofing Italy’s economic competitiveness is underpinned by a recognition of the value of individualized, specialized, craft knowledge. He advocates a selective use of this craft knowledge complementary, and not antagonistic to the knowledge of industry.34 The theoretical context put forward by Micelli in his proposal of how Italy might address the challenge of growth and competition in a  globalized  economy is part of an international framework of writing and study around the resurgence of craft. Micelli’s arguments have been widely circulated  across academic, policymaking, and enterprise communities, at regional and national level, and at a time when various stakeholders are engaging with the value of artisan know-how and traditional craftsmanship. In the UK, the tradition of the craftsman, revived in the nineteenth century by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, is long and established. A highly individualized, new, skilled craft community is currently flourishing in the UK and is well informed by a range of vocational and academic

MADE IN ITALY

159

education and training opportunities. The UK craft production is championed and disseminated through a network of cultural institutions, policy and business stakeholders, as well as the press. Public and academic interest in the renaissance of craft has been extensively considered and reviewed. Of the many publications that engage with this theme, Glenn Adamson’s The Invention of Craft is perhaps most noteworthy and relevant to the themes explored in this chapter. In a study that challenges the popular understanding that craft is antithetical to the development phase of modernity, 1750–1850, Adamson engages with the concept of the industrial artisan. Adamson states that “only with the formation of modern craft did hand skill come to be seen as the domain of the ‘one off’. Previously, replication was the core business of the artisanal practice.”35 He continues by stating that the assumed understanding that machines superseded the artisans’ traditional role as copyists is an easy but inaccurate assumption. Instead, in the nineteenth century, skilled imitation and replication became ever more important. “Formerly the skill of the artisan was expended on objects produced; now it is expended on the machines, tools, and materials to produce them.”36 Adamson claims three areas of industrial craft that were crucial to the industrial revolution and that are by extension critical to manufactured products. The first concerns finishings. “In most areas of production, automated machines were used only in the initial stage of the manufacturing process. Finishing was generally done by hand, so that even very large factories continued to depend on repetitive handwork to complete supposedly machine-produced articles.”37 A second way that artisans influenced the manufacture of products was prior to their production. An underestimated feature of the industrial construction of products is the importance of patterns, prototypes, and molds. Sarah Fayen Scarlett explains that “the fabrication of cast metal objects such as stoves and machine tool parts depended on the skills of pattern carvers, a situation that flies in the face of our commonly assumed separation of traditional crafts from industrial production.”38 The pattern and mold provide a good example of the importance of craft skill for industrial manufacture where, often as not, thousands of products are dependent on a single handcrafted model. The third way that craft importantly informs the manufacture of products is the operation and maintenance of machine tools. Machines often require considerable skill not only to operate but also to keep in good working order. Maintaining production was also therefore, for Adamson, a job for artisans. He states: “the repair of … largescale machines and even small bench tools was another imitative craft, in that the goal was to restore the tool to its original, or at least its working condition.”39 Adamson concludes by proposing that the three areas of industrial craft are interdependent, that “modern craft exists in this impure state more often than not,” and that “a mass production system can increase the importance of craft skill rather than diminish it.”40

160

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Another contemporary view of the meaning of craftsmanship and its value to contemporary society is offered by the American author Richard Sennett’s 2008 book, The Craftsman. Sennett analyzes the qualities that distinguish the figure of the craftsman through time, by recalling the social role of the archaic craftsmen of ancient Greece, whose tools and skills were used for the collective good of the community. These highly skilled manual workers are identified, in the contemporary manual and industrial contexts, as those engaged practitioners in pursuit of technical expertise and quality. The skills that are still passed down in traditional communities are not fixed, but develop and change in the presence of continuous problem-solving challenges. For Sennett, the good craftsman uses solutions to uncover new territory.41 Technical understanding and evolution develop through intuition, imagination, and reflection, brought about by familiarity and the desire to break the mold of the very skill or practice the craftsman is engaged in.42 It is Sennett’s view that craft expertise is open and outward looking, and that it is best communicated through a sociable expert. Sociable expertise occurs when the tacit knowledge of the craftsman is shared through good practice. The sociable expert encourages mentoring, the upkeep of standards, and is able to reflect on what the work means to others.43 By contrast, isolated experts, whose practice is turned inward, guard their knowledge and pursue quality away from their peers and community risking destructive and short-lived work. The craftsperson, defined by Sennett as a sociable expert, circulating, participating, and mentoring within a knowledge network, has an ethical dimension. This is because the sociable expert can provide people with the opportunity to connect to an extended community through pride in their work.

Conclusion The glocal model referred to above represents a strategy that some textile and fashion SMEs, like Faliero Sarti, have been tenaciously applying. The strategy aims to achieve a balance between manufacture of artisanal high-quality products while scaling up to produce for global demand. What the reemergence of the popularity of craft and glocal point to is a change in the receptivity of consumers. In fashion and textiles, this is evident in a market shift toward a desire for more enduring textile products, textiles that display traditional know-how and craft skills, and textiles that aim to meet a different understanding of what constitutes luxury, that is, textiles products that demonstrate a care in their making, their origin, and authenticity. We have seen how literature is engaging with the return of craft skills, and how the textiles industry is benefiting from the use of artisanal know-how. Companies are succeeding when traditional manual skills, synonymous with quality and

MADE IN ITALY

161

authenticity, are valued, and skilled knowledge embedded in the social history of a company’s workforce is utilized creatively to optimize the textiles products. The benefits to companies such as Faliero Sarti appear clear. A commitment to the social value of the workforce and its community offer a business advantage. The opportunity to market a company’s history as a promise of quality offers a sustainable business model that is currently sensitive to a share of the market for fashion and textiles products. Moreover, this exploitation of community knowhow has the capacity to spill over into advantage to the community itself.

Interview with Roberto and Monica Sarti, Faliero Sarti, Prato, Italy, April 4, 2014 The interview with Roberto and Monica Sarti of the family-owned Faliero Sarti offers insight into the local skills, capabilities, and approaches that have enabled the manufacture of unique textiles. The role of the industrial artisan as a facilitator of innovation is reflected upon, as is the value of collaboration. As with other unique providers such as Teixidors, the insights offered also highlight the importance of heritage in the value of this family brand, which enables the company to negotiate the pressures and tensions of the textiles industry’s competitive environment. Interviewer: Clio Padovani Respondent 1: Roberto Sarti (President, Faliero Sarti) Respondent 2: Monica Sarti INT:

What was the motivation to set up Faliero Sarti, and what made textile manufacturing in the Prato region distinctive? RES 1: It’s important to have relationships, the will to collaborate and develop expertise together. In my opinion, this has been the keystone of the development of the initial Made in Italy concept; it came from the will of a few mill owners, not many, certainly no more than twenty in the country. With good collaborative relationships there is openness from everyone and towards everyone. This was the case with the United States, where we developed lots of good relationships with American fashion houses such as Anne Klein in the late 1960s and 1970s. There were of course weaving mills in America, but the key to our success was that by producing weaving samples on hand looms we could quickly make the changes required by clients, or provide our interpretation of the designer’s idea. Once this was approved, we could

162

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

produce the required quantity in less time and in shorter runs than the North American mills, which instead preferred long fabric runs when beginning a new project. By being both more flexible and more creative we were able to be more competitive. This helped us to establish ourselves in America as good producers in a relatively short time. When my father [the founder of Faliero Sarti] was working with Cesare Guidi, this was a collaboration that definitely helped us improve our products and at the same time build knowledge of our brand in a higher quality market. My father and Cesare Guidi formed a strong friendship and from this they had the idea of developing a “confezione” together. A collection they produced was called Simona, which was the name of Cesare Guidi’s daughter. Unfortunately the collaboration was not very successful; it didn’t take off as we thought it would. The collaboration was based on the premise that we made good textiles, and Guidi was a good fashion designer, but we were missing some important ingredients. INT: Was the problem to do with the way the product was marketed? RES 1: They just wanted to have a high quality finished item; the idea of marketing did not really exist. INT: Were your father and Cesare Guidi on the same wavelength in terms of design? RES 1: Well in those days there was no real concept of design. Manufacturers and tailors worked on developing outfits by deciding what samples looked well together and on the mannequin. Unfortunately, over time, there were a number of disagreements between my father and Cesare Guidi, partly because the confezioni or collaboration was not doing too well. Also for some more practical reasons, for example, the collection was being made near Forli, on the other side of Italy, which was then a long drive by car. This meant that once a week my father would have to leave the demands of a relatively successful business to work with one that was less successful. So, because of the difficulty of the distance between Prato and Forli, the challenge of working with different people at a distance and the need to maintain our regular clients, we decided to stop the collaboration. The positive idea that emerged out of the collaboration was that we could aim to make finished items rather than woven samples. With this discovery in mind we started by making blankets and interiors fabrics, which were the closest things we could produce to the flat piece of textile that came off the loom. Our early collections of finished products were shown at Pitti Casa, around 1970–2.

MADE IN ITALY

163

Of course this innovation had its own challenges, specifically with regard to logistics and distribution. Customers liked the products but shops would order only small numbers at a time, so we had the idea to change the products to fashion accessories. This was a very good decision as our accessories became immediately popular. We still had the tradition and background of weavers but we now produced high quality fashion accessories. When my daughter started working for the company she helped us to see how to manufacture the product but without the priority of the weaver’s outlook. INT: What training had your daughter undertaken? RES 1: No textile training. She had studied languages; then we sent her to work in New York with Anne Klein. She had always been passionate about fashion and styling, so she saw the business from the point of view of the person who is wearing the fabrics; this was an important difference. I was still coming from the point of view of the weaver. I was attentive and respectful to the rules of weaving. Traditional practice says, for example, that there needs to be a particular proportion between the warp and the weft, and the number of passes on the loom. However, one of the first things my daughter did when she started working with us was unconventional. We had produced some nice cashmere pieces and she put them in the washing machine. From this simple act we started the scarf accessory line. INT: Do your current product designers work with and benefit from your archive? RES 1: Well the germ of the idea is always from the archive, from the tradition of the company started by my father. We have the samples that we weave and have woven but also we now have examples of the Faliero Sarti Accessories. So we are creating a completely new archive from this new line of products but we still have the same approach. INT: One of the things that we are interested in is good practice policies that might help enable the future competitiveness of the European textile industry. RES 1: Well there is no good practice polices to my knowledge. From the point of view of distribution, the strongest company is always the one that has a finished product. It is the case that generally the quality of fabrics and the price of the textiles are now lower, and that this is to great detriment of many European enterprises that cannot compete in a market of lower manufacturing costs. The Made in Europe agenda, for example, is not going well because Northern European distributors, with lobbies in Brussels, don’t care where the product is made, be it China, Bangladesh or elsewhere.

164

INT: RES 1:

INT: RES 1: INT:

RES1:

INT: RES 1:

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Maybe not so much outside London and in the traditional textile manufacturing bases of the North of England? Well yes, may be. Prato in the 1950s caused the closure of several textile manufacturing companies in the north of England. At the time it was a question of quantity and price. I remember going to London and I was surprised that workers would stop for tea. This was very strange and unusual for us. As a child I remember that here we worked all of Saturday and some of Sunday morning and the cost of labour was therefore cheaper. We would also look at our suppliers if we needed to have better price in buying a yarn, we would investigate it a little. We would of course always prefer to work with the person we know and with whom we have had a good relationship. So, for me, the comparison is not simply between, for example, Italian and Chinese yarn producers. It’s about leveraging the quality of the product. For instance, we have a Chinese client in London. He is a small producer but he is expanding greatly. For our part, we try to support designers as they develop and grow. So the spirit of collaboration is still a big driver, but choosing whom to collaborate with relates to a question of shared values? Yes, we work with people that share our way of thinking. I think that there is an increasing need to plug the knowledge gap about the reality of textiles manufacturing skills and what is required in a factory setting. We don’t tend to have a lot of change in the work force. This is a good and bad thing as the world is evolving. In general we try to keep our people and we don’t have much turnover. For example, we have a technician who is essentially retired, that came originally from the Buzzi Institute when he was 18, but is now on a special contract so we don’t lose his skills. Of course, every now and then we need some injections of young people, especially when we think that it’s necessary to do something different. I cannot compete with companies in countries that have lower labour costs. So we need to be artisans! That’s interesting. I would like to know if the industrial artisan really exists? We really think that we are this type of worker. Yes, we are artisans because I see some amazing things. For example, we have made investment in an expensive warping process so we can be flexible and offer small runs of fabric. In London, there are a lot of young designers, many more than in Italy, and we are trying to work with them as some of these designers will develop and grow. I am interested in their spirit and want to work with them.

MADE IN ITALY

INT: RES 2:

INT: RES 2:

INT: RES 2:

INT: INT 2:

165

With regard to the Sarti scarves, is your social capital important in making you distinctive in the market? Yes. The creative “soul” is of course a fundamental part of the success of the product but, at the same time, it is important to have a production team that can follow the idea that you have in mind. It’s important that the group is sufficiently trained to be able to realise what is being proposed, and that they can reproduce it in practice. So your workers need to be educated and grown? Yes. The Lanificio weaves our scarves. There is a dialogue between the manufacturing part of the process and the creative part; through that dialogue the product is transformed. We don’t have a skills school but we now have the capacity to make scarves that have a very specific quality and look; scarves that are not traditional but which are the product of a vision. In the Prato region there is great potential. The region has had for many years’ production capabilities that have always been distinctive, but the world is changing and the people need to follow the change. Is this happening everywhere? Not everywhere. But this is not a local problem; it’s a national issue, maybe even a global issue. If you analyse the fashion sector, twenty years ago there was a good spread of production specialisations across Italy; Como specialised in silk, Biella in high quality menswear, and Prato in innovation. Now we see only independent but excellent enterprises. These companies have kept their good ideas and have realised them effectively for the time in which they live. If the idea is good but does not relate to its time, then it has no sense. You need to be in line with the times you live in and have an idea of a product that will be successful. For example, as my father said earlier, I started by destroying the beautiful. I  put a cashmere scarf in the washing machine to make something beautiful but “lived”: something that was relevant to a life lived. That deconstructed, “grunged” item has now been around for ten years. When I first did that it was innovation but it became fashion, so now we must be intelligent enough to analyse the market and to make something new as the world has changed. The world is now more interested in luxury, so the deconstructed is not so attractive. We can of course update the lived in so it’s more elegant. Have you ever thought about establishing a skills school? Yes, it’s obvious that in this textile context it is fundamental to train people; the problem is that we are not in London, Paris, but here in Prato/Campi Bisenzio/Florence. Even Ferragamo, who has a

166

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

INT:

INT:

INT 2:

school within the organisation, with shoemakers etc., has not been able to develop it. Do you think that there is tacit knowledge? I seem to think differently to people that have studied weaving. I don’t have rigid ideas about what can be achieved. Sometimes when I speak with people that have a background in weaving they think some things are impossible, consequently they find it difficult to interpret different or challenging visions. People need to dream, to believe, so when they buy something they need to get something that speaks to them. Buying is an emotive action, so the products that we make must transmit something. It’s the job of the weaver to translate the vision of the designer so it connects with the customer. To conclude the interview, I wanted to touch on the design ideas for the scarves. I showed the editors the scarves that were made for the 150th centenary of the unification of Italy, what are the themes you are working on at the moment? The flags were a brilliant idea, or maybe a moment of luck, I don’t know. The objective was to give to the scarf a universal language, so that whoever wore it they would be a citizen of the world. The first collection had an Italian flag with a coat of arms on it that everyone thought was from the Savoia coat of arms. Instead, it was the Italian flag of the four seafaring cities: the medieval republics in Italy. It was the flag of the navy. Then there was a flag that referred to Tibet and its prayer flags; a flag for Brazil that represented a wish for freedom; the stars and stripes of the USA which represented the American dream; and finally the Union Jack of the United Kingdom which represented tradition. We wanted to have a global view, so after the flags we did all the metros, then different currencies. Most people would recognise the American flag or the thousand lire note, so the Faliero Sarti scarf would always tie you to a context. This year we have a number of ideas under way. We have for instance tried to bring together fashion and art by making scarves with the Basquiat foundation and with Damien Hirst; and we also have a new interesting project with a women’s prison.

Notes 1

Stefano Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, L’innovazione nelle mani degli italiani (Venezia: Marsilio, 2011).

MADE IN ITALY

167

2

Rete Civica di Prato PO-Net, “Storia della tradizione tessile tessile e industriale,” PO-Net, available at: http://www2.po-net.prato.it/artestoria/storia-tessile-industriale /pagina29.html (accessed September 4, 2015).

3

“Evolution of the Prato textile district,” (Prato, Italy: Unione Industriale Pratese Confindustria Prato, 2014), 2.

4

“Evolution of the Prato textile district,” 2.

5

Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, 53.

6

Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, 140–142.

7

Roberto Cariani and Virginia Lopez, “Ecodistretti 2012,” in Politiche Ambientali dei Distretti e Cluster Nazionali verso il Made Green in Italy (Cartesio, Cluster, Aree Territoriali e Sistemi d’Impresa Omogenei, 2013), 12.

8

“Il marchio Cardato cambia pelle e diventa Cardato Recycled,” (2014), Camera di Commercio, available at: http://www.po.camcom.it/news/comunica/2014/20140718. php (accessed September 18, 2015).

9

“Green Fibres,” (February 10, 2012), Drapers, available at: http://www.drapersonline .com/trends/textiles/green-fibres/5033530.article#.Vexdj778-xI (accessed September 6, 2015).

10 “Green Fibres,” Drapers, available at: http://www.drapersonline.com/trends/textiles /green-fibres/5033530.article#.Vexdj778-xI (accessed September 6, 2015). 11 “Evolution of the Prato textile district,” 7. 12 Bennett Harrison, “The Italian industrial districts and the crisis of the cooperative form: Part 2,” European Planning Studies 2, no. 2 (1994): 168. 13 Harrison, “The Italian industrial districts and the crisis of the cooperative form: Part 2,” 164. 14 Piero Fiorenzani and Antonio Mauro, (2011), “I mestieri pratesi per la rigenerazione della lana,” Federazione Maestri del Lavoro d’Italia, available at: http://www .maestridellavoro-prato.it/Rigenerazione%20delle%20lane.htm (accessed September 11, 2015). 15 Fiorenzani and Mauro, “I mestieri pratesi per la rigenerazione della lana.” 16 Fiorenzani and Mauro, “I mestieri pratesi per la rigenerazione della lana.” 17 Kuldeep Kumar, Han G. van Dissel, and Paola Bielli, “The merchant of Pratorevisited: Toward a third rationality of information systems,” MIS Quarterly 22, no. 2 (1998): 214. 18 Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, 151. 19 “Faliero Sarti,” available at: http://www.falierosarti.com/it/lanificio/storia.html (accessed September 18, 2015). 20 John Potvin, “From Gigolo to new man: Armani, America, and the textures of narrative,” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 15, no. 3 (2011): 280. 21 Potvin, “From Gigolo to new man: Armani, America, and the textures of narrative,” 282. 22 Potvin, “From Gigolo to new man: Armani, America, and the textures of narrative,” 290.

168

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

23 Paolo Colombo, “Il mestiere d’Arte e il Made in Italy,” Quaderni di Ricerca sull’artigianato 60 (2012): 59. 24 Colombo, “Il mestiere d’Arte e il Made in Italy,” 59. 25 Alfredo De Massis et al., “Product innovation in family versus nonfamily firms: An exploratory analysis,” Journal of Small Business Management 53, no. 1 (2015): 4. 26 Eugenia Paulicelli, “Fashion: The cultural economy of made in Italy,” Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry 6, no. 2 (2014): 164. 27 Paulicelli, “Fashion: The cultural economy of made in Italy,” 169. 28 Ash Amin and Joanne Roberts, “Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice,” Research Policy 37, no. 2 (2008): 353. 29 Amin and Roberts, “Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice,” 354. 30 Amin and Roberts, “Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice,” 359. 31 “Primo flagship store per Faliero Sarti,” (2014), Prato Trade, available at: http://www .pratoexpo.com/newsdet.php?id=104 (accessed October 1, 2015). 32 “English,” (2016), in Language matters, ed. Oxford Dictionaries (Online), available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/glocal (accessed June 25, 2016). 33 Ritu Jadwani, “Glocal nomad,” available at: http://www.trendtablet.com/28307 -glocal-nomad/ (accessed October 1, 2015). 34 Micelli, Futuro Artigiano, 174. 35 Glenn Adamson, The invention of craft (Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2013), 145. 36 Adamson, The invention of craft, 147. 37 Adamson, The invention of craft, 145. 38 Adamson, The invention of craft, 145. 39 Adamson, The invention of craft, 147. 40 Adamson, The invention of craft, 145. 41 Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (Yale University Press, 2008), 11. 42 Sennett, The Craftsman, 210. 43 Sennett, The Craftsman, 249.

CONCLUSION PAUL WHITTAKER

In Sustainability and the Social Fabric, we have tried to tell the story of how some key people and their companies have been able to sustain a competitive edge in the global market for textiles and fashion through the innovative use of community-based knowledge and skills. Through the six stories we have told, we have pointed toward evidence that healthy and durable communities are aiding sustained quality manufacturing and knowledge networks. We have seen through CDMT in Terrassa and Museo del Tessuto in Prato how culture and heritage can help to maintain textiles communities through their determination to support quality manufacturing and a flow of information. Teixidors showed us how narratives that accompany making can contribute to the uniqueness of products and enable, for the consumer and the community, an economically successful future. If we reflect on Teixidors, it is clear that its social impact is limited not only to the company’s extended community but also its customers. In a social enterprise such as Teixidors, consumers contribute to making the social project a sustainable business through their engagement. The customer completes the narrative and the product concept to shelf life cycle. Leadership is crucial in any successful business. The companies we have studied all have strong leadership models, witness in particular, Pizarro, Fashion Enter, and Faliero Sarti. In a socially sustainable company built on a collaborative leadership model, as demonstrated by Harris Tweed, how the stakeholders come together to move a project forward is especially critical. Leadership and planning, centered on the value of the knowledge network for the community, can bring about shared purpose. That said, if a company is to secure what Porter and Kramer might call an interconnected enhancement of the total economic and social environment, then the internal and external networks must be a selfsustaining cooperation. In business, commercial success may be the most obvious driver but sometimes, as Pizarro shows, the driver for success need not be insensitive to social challenges. While the EcoWash process developed by Pizarro

170

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SOCIAL FABRIC

perhaps most obviously demonstrates the economic value of a healthy working relationship between industry and its manufacturing community, the Pizarro case study also indicates that the know-how of the industrial artisan can be a cornerstone of sustained product development. The characteristics of industrial craftsmanship that denote the industrial artisan are well described by Glenn Adamson, who also shows how secondorder workmanship underpins the manufacture of quality products. Pizarro’s development of EcoWash via prototyping and the evolution of hand-finishing tools in the denim industry exemplify well the value of craft skills and the knowledge required to enhance the manufacture of sustainable quality products. Faliero Sarti equally demonstrates the economic advantages of industrial craft skill and tacit knowledge embedded in a manufacturing community. As we have seen, this company utilizes the industrial know-how of the industrial artisan to enable a global brand while sustaining a local heritage of design and making. The  importance of retaining skilled know-how, its transfer and application, features in each of our case studies. Each company’s case study differently exemplifies how the value of enabling practices and workers with industrial craft skills can foster the conditions through which commercial interests and business communities can become more socially inclusive. An objective of this book was to show how artisans could influence the political value of community and industry working closely together and, by extension, contribute to the development of public policy thinking. The European Commission defines corporate social responsibility as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society.” According to the Commission: Enterprises should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders, with the aim of: • maximizing the creation of shared value for their owners/shareholders and for their other stakeholders and society at large; • identifying, preventing and mitigating their impacts.1 For the Institute of Business Ethics, if a company is to be serious about ethics, it needs to establish a set of core values and principles that it and its workers will uphold. Commonly used value words for corporate ethical commitments “found in introductions/preambles to codes of ethics include: responsibility, integrity, honesty, respect, trust, openness, fairness and transparency.”2 Ethics then is where we find the political value of the influence of the industrial artisan. The industrial artisan connects product manufacture to a community and its industrial heritage and in so doing helps establish locally owned shared value.

CONCLUSION

171

The industrial artisan also underpins the commercial drive by anchoring the business to principles that militate against the negative impact of industry on the community. Perhaps more profoundly, the industrial artisan also promotes in and of itself the value of craft skill and making; that is, a way of working that can give meaning to a working life and promote well-being. Richard Sennett writes: The craftsman’s way of working can give people an anchor in material reality. History has drawn fault lines dividing practice and theory, technique and expression, craftsman and artist, maker and user; modern society suffers from this historical inheritance. But the past life of craft and craftsmen also suggest ways of using tools, organizing bodily movements, thinking about materials that remain alternative, viable proposals about how to conduct a life with skill.3 The industrial artisan can be conceived of as a positive means for establishing socially sustainable textiles and fashion businesses and can point toward a positive future way of working, sensitive to the past and present, that is beneficial to local and global communities. To echo the words of “Emergent Principles of Social Sustainability”: Social sustainability concerns the ability of human beings of every generation to not merely survive but thrive. It is reflected in Aristotle’s notion of flourishing and Jefferson’s notion of the informed and engaged polity. Social sustainability is of value in its own right. Further more it plays a paramount role in the continuous journey toward sustainability because … it is human beings, individually and in collectives that will determine economic and environmental well-being.4

Notes 1

“Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions a renewed EU strategy 2011–14 for Corporate Social Responsibility,” (Brussels: European Union, European Commission, 2011), 6.

2

“FAQ’s: What are core values?,” (2012), Institute of Business Ethics, available at: http://www.ibe.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/3 (accessed May 21, 2016).

3

Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (Yale University Press, 2008), 8.

4

K. Magis and C. Shinn, Emergent principles of social sustainability (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2008), http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edselc.2-52.0-84919569988&site=eds-live. doi:10.4324/9780203892978.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adamson, Glenn. The Invention of Craft. Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2013. “Alabama Chanin.” http://alabamachanin.com/about-alabama-chanin. Amin, Ash, and Joanne Roberts. “Knowing in Action: Beyond Communities of Practice.” Research Policy 37, no. 2 (March 2008): 353–69. “Artigiano Contemporaneo.” http://www.artigianocontemporaneo.it/eventi/. ASOS.com. “Ethical Trade.” http://www.asosplc.com/corporate-responsibility/our -products/ethical-trade/ethical-trade-programme.aspx. Bakan, Nur Dilek, Gülcihan Özkan, Güngör Çamsari, Aygün Gür, Mehmet Bayram, Barış Açikmeşe, and Erdoğan Çetinkaya. “Silicosis in Denim Sandblasters.” CHEST 140, no. 5 (2011): 1300–04. Basole, Amit. “Authenticity, Innovation and the Geographical Indication in an Artisanal Industry: The Case of the Banarasi Sari,” Working paper, 2014-09, 40. Boston: University of Massachusetts, 2014. Battista, Anna. “Driving (and Weaving) Innovation: The Textiellab@ the Textielmuseum, Tilburg.” http://irenebrination.typepad.com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2013/05/ textiel-lab-tilburg.html. Beverland, Michael B., and Francis J. Farrelly. “The Quest for Authenticity in Consumption: Consumers’ Purposive Choice of Authentic Cues to Shape Experienced Outcomes.” Journal of Consumer Research 36, no. 5 (2010): 838–56. Bezergianni, Stella. “Conceiving, Exploring, and Exploiting Innovative Ideas: From Waste Cooking Oil to Diesel.” Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2, no. 1 (2013): 1–8. Boot, Caroline, and Hanneke Oosterhof. Made in Tilburg: Design—Art: Creations from the Netherlands Textile Museum/Caroline Boot. Tilburg: Netherlands Textile Museum, 2004. Brown, Tim. Change by Design. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. “British Fashion Council.” http://www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk/pressreleases /Facts–Figures-AW14. Brusco, Sebastiano. “The Idea of the Industrial District: Its Genesis.” In Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Co-Operation in Italy, edited by F. Pyke, Giacomo Becattini and Werner Senegenberger, 10–19. Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1990. Cariani, Roberto, and Virginia Lopez. “Ecodistretti 2012.” In Politiche Ambientali dei Distretti e Cluster Nazionali verso il Made Green in Italy, 37. Bologna, Italy: Cartesio, Cluster, Aree Territoriali e Sistemi d’Impresa Omogenei, 2013. Caygill, Howard. Walter Benjamin. [Electronic Resource]: The Colour of Experience. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Cheong, Pauline, Rosalind Edwards, Harry Goulbourne, and John Solomos. “Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: A Critical Review.” Critical Social Policy 27, no. 1 (February 1, 2007): 24–49.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

173

Colombo, Paolo. “Il mestiere d’Arte e il Made in Italy.” Quaderni di Ricerca sull’artigianato 60 (2012): 41–61. Combley, R. Cambridge Business English Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.” In Regional Policy Contributing to Smart Growth in Europe 2020. Brussels: European Union, European Commission, 2010. “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.” In A European Strategy for Key Enabling Technologies—A Bridge to Growth and Jobs. Brussels: European Commission, 2012. “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions a Renewed EU Strategy 2011–14 for Corporate Social Responsibility.” Brussels: European Union: European Commission, 2011. Cova, Bernard, Robert V. Kozinets, and Avi Shankar. Consumer Tribes, edited by Bernard Cova, Robert V. Kozinets, Avi Shankar, 311. London: Routledge, 2007. Creative Skillset. https://creativeskillset.org/. De Massis, Alfredo, Federico Frattini, Emanuele Pizzurno, and Lucio Cassia. “Product Innovation in Family versus Nonfamily Firms: An Exploratory Analysis.” Journal of Small Business Management 53, no. 1 (2015): 1–36. dei Ottati, Gabi. “Exit, Voice and the Evolution of Industrial Districts: The Case of the Post—World War II Economic Development of Prato.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 27, no. 4 (July 1, 2003): 501–22. Delgerekh, Ar Arvijin. https://fairtradewool.wordpress.com. Di Domenico, MariaLaura, Helen Haugh, and Paul Tracey. “Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34, no. 4 (2010): 681–703. DISC. DISC-Designer-Manufacturer Innovation Centre, http://www.fashion-manufacturing .com/about/. Dorsey, Kristy. “Plea for Harris Tweed Samples Hints at Sales Lift.” The Scotsman 24 (October 2015), http://www.scotsman.com/business/companies/retail/plea-for -harris-tweed-samples-hints-at-sales-lift-1-3926893 (accessed November 26, 2015). “Early Years Policy.” Haringey Council Children and Young People’s Service, http://www .haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/draft_policy_and_admissions_criteria.pdf. “English.” In Language matters, edited by Oxford Dictionaries. http://www .oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/glocal (accessed 25 June 2016). Erami, Narges. “Of Ladders and Looms: Moving through Walter Benjamin’s ‘Storyteller.’” Anthropological Theory 15, no. 1 (2015): 92–105. “Euratex Key Data.” European Apparel and Textile Confederation, 2014, http://euratex.eu /library/statistics/key-data/key-data-details/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4846& cHash=a43f98d261ba88233db94846a8f7e08e (accessed December 17, 2015). “A European Strategy for Key Enabling Technologies—A Bridge to Growth and Jobs.” In Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels: European Union: European Commission, 2012. “Evolution of the Prato textile district.” Prato, Italy: Unione Industriale Pratese Confindustria Prato, 2014.

174

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Faliero Sarti.” http://www.falierosarti.com/it/lanificio/storia.html. “Faq’s: What Are Core Values?”. Institute of Business Ethics, http://www.ibe.org.uk /frequently-asked-questions/3. “Fashion Enter.” http://www.fashion-enter.com. Fiorenzani, Piero, and Antonio Mauro. “I mestieri pratesi per la rigenerazione della lana.” Federazione Maestri del Lavoro d’Italia, http://www.maestridellavoro-prato.it /Rigenerazione%20delle%20lane.htm. Foray, Dominique, John Goddard, Xabier Goenaga Beldarrain Mikel Landabaso, Philip McCann, Kevin Morgan, Claire Nauwelaers, and Raquel Ortega-Argilés. “Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (Ris3),” Regional Policy (May 2012): 117. European Union, 2012. Foray, Dominique. “From Smart Specialisation to Smart Specialisation Policy.” European Journal of Innovation Management 17, no. 4 (December 2014): 492. Foray, Dominique. “The Luxury Industry and the Knowledge-Based Economy.” Paris: Comité Colbert. http://www. comitecolbert. com/assets/files/paragraphes /fichiers/20/D.% 20Foray_2010_GB. pdf, 2010. Fotakis, Costas, Magdalene Rosenmöller, John Brennan, Liviu Matei, Roumen Nikolov, Caroline Petiot, and Jaana Puukka. “The Role of Universities and Research Organisations as Drivers for Smart Specialisation at Regional Level,” Research and Innovation (January 2014): 9. Brussels: European Commission, 2014. Glen, Roy, Christy Suciu, and Christopher Baughn. “The Need for Design Thinking in Business Schools.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 13, no. 4 (2014): 653–67. Goddard, John, Louise Kempton, and Paul Vallance. “Universities and Smart Specialisation: Challenges, Tensions and Opportunities for the Innovation Strategies of European Regions.” Ekonomiaz 83, no. 02 (2013): 83–102. “Green Fibres.” Drapers, http://www.drapersonline.com/trends/textiles/green -fibres/5033530.article#.Vexdj778-xI. “Growth-Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship.” European Commission, http:// ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/innovation/index_en.htm. “Gucci Museo Archive.” http://www.guccimuseo.com/en/gucci-archive/bamboo/. “Harris Tweed Act.” 14 (HMSO, 1993), http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/1993/11/pdfs /ukla_19930011_en.pdf (accessed November 12, 2015). “Harris Tweed Authority.” http://www.harristweed.org/about-us/heritage-and-history/. “Harris Tweed Industry Strategy.” 5. www.cne-siar.gov.uk: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, 2010. Harper, Catherine, and Kirsty McDougall. “The Very Recent Fall and Rise of Harris Tweed.” Textile: The Journal of Cloth & Culture 10, no. 1 (2012): 78–98. “Harris Tweed Skills Audit.” Upper Quartile, http://www.upperquartile.co.uk/case .php?id=31. Harrison, Bennett. “The Italian Industrial Districts and the Crisis of the Cooperative Form: Part 2.” European Planning Studies 2, no. 2 (January 1, 1994): 159–74. Hebblethwaite, Cordelia, and Anbarasan Airajan. “Sandblasted Jeans: Should We Give up Distressed Denim?” BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news /magazine-15017790. “Il marchio Cardato cambia pelle e diventa Cardato Recycled.” Camera di Commercio, http://www.po.camcom.it/news/comunica/2014/20140718.php. “Innovation—How to Convert Research into Commercial Success Story? Part 3: Innovation Management for Practitioners.” Luxembourg: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2013.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

175

Jaber, Mohamed. “David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, visits ASOS Stitching Academy in Harringay.” Tottenham and Wood Green Independent (September 18, 2013), http://m.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/10683202.MP_vWoSts_fashion_academy/ (accessed September 30, 2015). Jadwani, Ritu. “Glocal nomad.” http://www.trendtablet.com/28307-glocal-nomad/. John, Becky. “Who Made Your Pants.” http://www.whomadeyourpants.co.uk/pages /the-jobs. Kennis, Marc. “The Rise of the Hybrid Consumer to Polarize Food Sector.” Online: Rabobank, 2013. “Ket’s: Key Enabling Technologies.” European Union: European Commission, http:// ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/key-enabling-technologies/index_en.htm. Kong, Eric. “Building Social and Community Cohesion: The Role of Social Enterprises in Facilitating Settlement Experiences for Immigrants from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds.” The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 6, no. 3 (2011): 117–122. Kruger, Kathryn Sullivan. “Clues and Cloth: Seeking Ourselves in ‘The Fabric of Myth.’” Catalog for The Compton-Verney Art Museum in Warwickshire, England (September, 2008), 12–14. Kumar, Kuldeep, Han G. van Dissel, and Paola Bielli. “The Merchant of Prato-Revisited: Toward a Third Rationality of Information Systems.” MIS Quarterly 22, no. 2 (1998): 199–226. Lastrucci, Chiara, and Marco Ciatti. Museo Del Tessuto Di Prato: Trenta Anni Di Donazioni. Prato: Museo del Tessuto Edizioni, 2007. Lee, Neil, and Jonathan Wright. “Off the Map? The Geography of Neets,” edited by The Work Foundation and The Private Equity Foundation, 14. University of Lancaster, 2011. Leslie, Esther. “Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft.” Journal of Design History 11, no. 1 (1998): 5–13. MacAskill, Ewen. “Cia Agents Look Better in Harris Tweed: How Argo Revived a Scottish Classic.” The Guardian (April 9, 2013), http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/ apr/09/harris-tweed-argo-cia-tony-mendez (accessed November 13, 2015). Machado, Jose, and Gabriel Pontes. “Ecowash Good Practice.” www.plustex.eu, http:// www.plustex.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/AMAVE-GP-ECOWASH-PROJECT.pdf. Magis, K., and C. Shinn. Emergent Principles of Social Sustainability [in English]. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Chapter. doi:10.4324/9780203892978. Micelli, Stefano. Futuro Artigiano, L’innovazione nelle mani degli italiani. Venezia: Marsilio, 2011. Munro, Alistair. “Fashion Fans Itching for Harris Tweed Style.” The Scotsman (January 6, 2014), http://www.scotsman.com/news/fashion-fans-itching-for-harris-tweed -style-1-3256978 (accessed November 23, 2015). Museums Association. “Sustainability Campaign Report.” http://www .museumsassociation.org/campaigns/sustainability/sustainability-report. Museums Change Lives, 15. London: Museums Association, July 2013. National Careers Service. “Nvq Information. Train While You Work.” Skills Funding Agency on behalf of the Department of Business, Information and Skills, https:// nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx. “National/Regional Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (Ris3) Cohesion Policy 2014–2020.” European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources /docgener/informat/2014/smart_specialisation_en.pdf.

176

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Navaretti, Giorgio Barba, Marzio Galeotti, and Andrea Mattozzi. “Moving Skills from Hands to Heads: Does Importing Technology Affect Export Performance in Textiles?.” Research Policy 33, no. 6–7 (September 2004): 879–95. Nordås, Hildegunn Kyvik. “The Global Textile and Clothing Industry Post the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing,” 1–41. Geneva, Switzerland: World Trade Organization, 2004. OECD. “Innovation-Driven Growth in Regions: The Role of Smart Specialisation.” Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, http://www.oecd.org/sti /inno/smartspecialisation.htm. “Outer Hebrides Creative and Cultural Industries Strategy 2012–2015,” 21: Highlands and Islands Enteprise, 2012, http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/eds/documents /CreativeAndCulturalIndustriesStrategy2012-15.pdf (accessed November 12, 2015). Padovani, Clio, and Paul Whittaker. “Modern Alchemy: Collaboration and the Value of Social Capital.” Craft Research 6, no. 1 (January 2015): 99. Palmer, Nick. “Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (Neet), February 2015.” Office of National Statistics, 2015. Paulicelli, Eugenia. “Fashion: The Cultural Economy of Made in Italy.” Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry 6, no. 2 (November 1, 2014): 155. Persons, Timothy M. “Nanomanufacturing: Emergence and Implications for U.S. Competitiveness, Environment and Human Health,” 125. Online: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2014. Pinch, S. Knowledge communities. In, Kichin, R. and Thrift, N. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Oxford, GB, Elsevier 2009): 25–30. (doi:10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00190-5 ). Pine, B. Joseph, and James H. Gilmore. The Experience Economy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011. “Plustex.” Comune di Prato, http://www.plustex.eu/?page_id=2. PO-Net, Rete Civica di Prato. “Storia della tradizione tessile tessile e industriale “ PO-Net, http://www2.po-net.prato.it/artestoria/storia-tessile-industriale/pagina29.html. Porter, Michael E. “Clusters and the new economics of competition.” Harvard Business Review (November–December 1998): 78. Porter, Michael E., and Mark R. Kramer. “Creating Shared Value.” Harvard Business Review 89, no. 1/2 (2011): 62–77. Potvin, John. “From Gigolo to New Man: Armani, America, and the Textures of Narrative.” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 15, no. 3 (September 2011): 279–97. Prato, Comune di. “Plustex.” http://www.plustex.eu/?page_id=2. “Primo Flagship Store per Faliero Sarti.” Prato Trade, http://www.pratoexpo.com /newsdet.php?id=104. Pyke, F., Giacomo Becattini, and Werner Senegenberger, eds. Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Co-Operation in Italy. Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1990. Rakhmatullin, Ruslan. “Triple/Quadruple Helix in the Context of Smart Specialisation.” https://www.surrey.ac.uk/sbs/sar/centres/bcned/BCNED%20Files/1%20Ruslan _Rakhmatullin.pdf. Ranga, Marina, and Etzkowitz Henry. “Triple Helix Systems: An Analytical Framework for Innovation Policy and Practice in the Knowledge Society.” Industry and Higher Education 27, no. 4 (2013): 237–62.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

177

“S3 Smart Specialisation Platform.” EU Commission Joint Research Centre, http:// s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ris3-design. Sandell, R. “Social Inclusion, the Museum and the Dynamics of Sectoral Change.” Museum and Society 1, no. 1 (2003): 45–62. Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. London: Penguin, 2004. Sennett, Richard. The Craftsman. Yale University Press, 2008. “The Social Outfit.” http://thesocialoutfit.org/pages/philosophy. “The Social Studio.” http://www.thesocialstudio.org/studio/research-development/. “Socio-Economic Briefing on Rural Scotland: Identifying Fragile Rural Areas. Paper 5.” edited by Office of Chief Statistician, 8. Scottish Government, 2010. Sørensen, Stig Yding. “EU Textiles and Clothing Sector: Location Decisions.” European Monitoring Centre on Change, 2008. St Andrews University. “Research Excellence Framework Panel Id Evidence of Impact.” St Andrews University, http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/research-policy-office /documents/PanelD_evidence%20of%20impact.pdf. Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1984. Taplin, Ian M. “Restructuring and Reconfiguration: The EU Textile and Clothing Industry Adapts to Change.” European Business Review 18, no. 3 (2006): 172–86. Teixidors. “Teixidors Newspaper.” In Teixidors SCCL. Terrassa, Spain, 2013. “Teixidors.” http://www.teixidors.com/home.html#!/project.html. “Textilteca.” Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil: CDMT, http://www.cdmt.es /textilteca/?lang=en. “Tilburg Textiel Museum.” http://www.textiellab.nl/en/page/lab-intro. TNS Political & Social. “Flash Eurobarometer 415 ‘Innobarometer 2015—The Innovation Trends at EU Enterprises,’” edited by European Union: European Commission, 1–35. Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, 2015. “Transforming Solent Solent Strategic Economic Plan,” 115, 2014–20, Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (March 31, 2014). “The Triple Helix Concept.” Triple Helix Research Group, Stanford University, http:// triplehelix.stanford.edu/3helix_concept. Vacca, Federica. “Knowledge in Memory: Corporate and Museum Archives.” Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & The Fashion Industry 6, no. 2 (November 1, 2014): 273. “The Value of the UK Fashion Industry,” 105. Oxford Economics, 2010. van Geenhuizen, Marina. “Valorisation of Knowledge: Preliminary Results on Valorisation Paths and Obstacles in Bringing University Knowledge to Market.” Paper presented at the The Eighteenth Annual High Technology Small Firms Conference, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands, May 27–28, 2010. “What We Believe In.” Clean Clothes Campaign, http://www.cleanclothes.org/about /principles.

INDEX

accumulated narrative of making 10–13. See also knowledge and skills economy actors 9, 19, 26–8, 70 Adamson, Glenn 4–5, 159 The Invention of Craft 4, 159 added value 4, 7, 12, 14, 20, 27, 44, 47–8, 51, 54–6, 58, 92, 102–6, 115, 130, 144, 154 advertising campaigns 48 aerospace industry 96 Agerberth, Sofia 62–7. See also Teixidors, Terrassa, Barcelona (Spain) Alabama Chanin, Alabama (USA) 4, 6, 43, 48–50, 58, 125 sustainable design 50 Alabama quilters 4, 49 American Gigolo (film) 148 American market 76–8, 148 Amin, Ash 156 Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice 168 n. 28–30 Anne Klein 149 antique textiles 12, 24 apprenticeship 7, 26, 47, 116, 122, 124, 129, 145 Argo (film) 77 Armani 148 artisanal craft 45–6, 48, 151 artisanal industries 47, 51 artisanal know-how 143–4, 155–6 artisanal knowledge 13–14 Artigiano Contemporaneo (Contemporary Artisan) 48 artists 15, 17, 21 Arts and Crafts movement (UK) 158 Arts Council 127

ASOS 122, 124–6, 130, 134–5, 137 ASOS.com. 134 Charitable Foundation 125 austerity measures 10, 23, 93–4 authentic products 43, 60 authenticity 43–4 craft and enterprise value 48–50 creation 46–8 literary thinking 44–6 Bakan, Nur Dilek 97 Silicosis in denim sandblasters 113 n.18 Banaras (India) 46 Barbera Mill 146 Basole, Amit 46–7 Authenticity, innovation and the geographical indication in an artisanal industry: The case of Banarasi Sari 67 n.7, 68 n.8, 68 n.10 belongings 11 Benjamin, Walter on authenticity and aura 6, 44–5 Bertini, Loriano 12–13 Beverland, Michael 60 The quest for authenticity in consumption: Consumers’ purposive choice of authentic cues to shape experienced outcomes 68 n.25 Bezergianni, Stella Conceiving, exploring, and exploiting innovative ideas: From waste cooking oil to diesel 113 n. 26 bonding network 118 brand Armani 148 CDMT 15, 20

INDEX

Donna Karan 148 Gucci 13–14 Harris Tweed 6 impact on societal taste and trends 13 luxury collections 15 Teixidors 6 British Fashion Council 121 Brown, Tim 26 Change by Design 26, 42 n.30 business-driven initiatives 125–6 business innovation 5 business-led knowledge exchange 115 Buzzi Institute 13 capital-intensive labor market 92 Cardato Recycled 144 Cardato Regenerated CO2 Neutral 144 case study Centre Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT) in Terrassa (Spain) 14–15, 20, 22–3, 28–9, 34–5, 169 Faliero Sarti, Prato (Italy) 141–66 Fashion Enter (London) 115–38 Harris Tweed, Scotland (UK) 69–88 Museo del Tessuto, Prato (Italy) 15–16, 22–28, 34–40 Pizarro, Guimaraes (Portugal) 91–112 Teixidors, Terrassa, Barcelona (Spain) 43–62 Caslow, Jason. See Alabama Chanin, Alabama (USA) Catalan artists 14 Caygill, Howard 45 Walter Benjamin 67 nn.1–3 Centa Business Services 118 Centre Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT) in Terrassa, Spain cultural heritage 15–16, 28, 169 knowledge sharing 20 online archives 15 stakeholder’s network 22 unique collection 14, 23 Chanin, Natalie 49. See also Alabama Chanin Cheong, Pauline, 118 Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: A Critical Review, 2007 118, 138 nn.8–9 Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) 103–4. See Pizarro

179

Cole, Henry 13 collaboration 15, 17, 19–20, 22–3, 25, 28 social capital networks and 88 collaboration-driven change 23–5. See also Plustex project collaborative leadership 19, 85, 88, 169. See also Harris Tweed, Scotland (UK) enabling practices 70, 85–8, 170 collectors 11–13, 15. See also Bertini, Loriano Colombo, Paolo 151–3 Il mestiere d’Arte e il Made in Italy 151, 168 nn.23–4 collaborative knowledge 22–3 community-based enterprises 121 community development 7, 48,68, 75–6, 125, 128–9, 131 knowledge ecologies 128–9 community know-how 142–3 community networks 10 company museums 11 competitive advantage 5, 7, 14, 19–21, 44, 47, 58, 60, 71, 82, 84–5, 102, 127, 131 competitiveness 2–3, 19, 27–9, 44, 48, 76, 79, 82, 86, 88, 91, 93–4, 102, 105–7, 154, 156, 158 consumer society 11 Coró, Giancarlo L’ Artigianato Nelle Filiere Della Green Economy 144 corporate social responsibility 46, 80, 103, 170. See also Pizaro craft skills 2, 158–60 craftsmanship 4, 7, 14, 17, 21–2, 27, 78, 151, 158, 160, 170 creative arts 3, 7, 128–9 creative industries 3–4, 76, 94, 117, 126–7, 132 creative innovation 2, 29 Creative United 127 creativity innovation and 3, 20, 26–7, 29 sustaining networks 26–7 thinking 26 cultural heritage 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 20, 23, 26–8, 61, 117, 153, 169. See also Centre Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT); Museo del Tessuto

180

cultural identity 87 cultural resources 11 customer business management 59 customization 27, 60, 146, 157 damask weaving mill, Museum entrance 16 De Massis, Alfredo, 153, 155 Product innovation in family versus nonfamily firms: An exploratory analysis 168 n.25 denim production. See also EcoWash; Pizarro environmental issues 96–8 scraping 99 Silicosis disease 97–9 washing 101 De Ploeg 22 depopulation 87 design innovation 2, 13–14, 21, 76, 144 Designer-Manufacturer Innovation Support Centre (DISC) 118, 121 designers 4, 14–15, 17, 21–2, 28, 56, 118, 122, 129, 143 Desigual 20, 29, 33 de-skilling 69, 75, 87, 146 Di Domenico, MariaLaura, 131 Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises 131, 140 nn.32–6 diversification strategy 22, 73, 78, 91, 102–3, 142, 149 economic success 2, 8, 43, 118 economic value 59, 61–2, 80, 83, 88, 155, 157, 170 EcoWash. See also Pizarro denim products 102 ecological impact, textile and fashion industry 100–1 resource requirements 100 workforce benefit 106 Edwards, Rosalind, 118 Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: A Critical Review, 2007 118, 138 nn.8–9 emerging economies 46–7 emotional design 43–4 entrepreneurship 2, 22, 93–4, 104, 115–16, 119, 121, 129, 131 technology and 93–4

INDEX

environmental issues 96–8 Environmental sustainability initiatives 6, 46 Erami, Narges 46 Of ladders and looms: Moving through Walter Benjamin’s Storyteller 46, 67 nn.5–6 Ernst and Young Social Entrepreneur 121 ethical practices 96, 144 ethical sourcing 96–7 Ethical Trading Initiative 124 Euratex Key Data 1, 8 n.1 Europe 2020 19, 81–3, 85, 94, 128 European Apparel and Textile Confederation 1, 8 n.1 European Cohesion Policy 94. See also small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) European Commission corporate social responsibility, definition 170 key enabling technologies (KETs) 6, 85–6, 92 smart specialization strategies 6, 19 SMEs, recognition 93 2014–20 Cohesion Policy. 127 European Union Cohesion Policy 127 EcoWash process 100 employment in textile sector 1 European Union Framework Five and Six Projects 105 experimental knowledge, challenges 86 funding for Portugal 100 Harris Tweed Industry Strategy 84 KETs 95–6 manufacturing heritage and traditions 5, 9 modernization and diversification strategy 104 Pizarro’s investment in R&D 101–2, 104 Plustex project 3 policy guidelines 19–20, 22 public policy 17, 19–20 regionally based textile museums 5, 9 Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). 70, 82, 116, 127

INDEX

societal challenges 91 structural and investment funds 93 UK, outsourcing policy 118 European Union Open Method of Coordination Expert Group on Cultural and Creative Industries 127 Ex Cimatoria Campolmi, Internal courtyard 16 explicit knowledge 27, 51 Faliero Sarti, Prato (Italy) accessories 148–51 approach to innovation 153–6 authenticity and heritage 146–7 Autumn/Winter Collection 158 craft skills 158–60 decentralization of production 144–5 design resource 153 global distribution 149–50, 154 Icon collection 150–2 local artisans 156–8 quality standards 154–5 scarves 149–51, 155 selection process 145–6 slow production principles 151, 153–4 social heritage 147–9 weaving process 148–50 family companies 151–4 family networks 121 Fashion Enter, London community development 128–9 Creative Skillset 124, 126–7 cultural perspectives, social groups 129–31 education mission 122, 124–30, 132 Fashion Technology Academy. 122 innovative approach 126 knowledge exchange initiatives 116–17 learning and development 123 Level 4 NVQ frameworks 124 niche communities, empowerment 121–5 S3 platform 126–8 skill set initiatives 125–6 social capital network model 117–20 Stitching Academy 121–5, 129 sustainability approach 121–4

181

Ferragamo corporate museum 12 fibers 44, 52, 55, 142–6 Fiorenzani, Piero, 146 I mestieri pratesi per la rigenerazione della lana. Federazione Maestri del Lavoro d’Italia 167 nn.14–16 Foray, Dominique Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (RIS3) 112 nn.5–8, 139 n. 25 The Luxury Industry and the Knowledge Economy 128, 139 nn.26–7 From smart specialization to smart specialization policy 82, 89 n.21–3 freelance designers 22 general purpose technology 86 geographical indication (GI) 46–7 Geox 21 Giannini, Frida 153 Gilmore, James H. 60 The Experience Economy 59, 68 nn.23–4 global demand, local artisans 156–7 global market 46, 73, 88, 157, 169 Goulbourne, Harry, 118 Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: A Critical Review 2007 118, 138 nn.8–9 greener economy 92, 95, 100–2, 107. See also EcoWash Guarini, Filippo 34–40. See also Museo del Tessuto (Prato, Italy) Gucci 13–15, 153 Harris Tweed, Scotland (UK) American market 76–7 Authority’s role 78–9 collaborative leadership 77–9, 84–6 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar 77 commercial strategies 76 community value 87–8 European Union’s funding 84 government support 70, 75, 77–9, 83–4, 86 hand shearing 72 HTF strategy 77–8, 85, 87–8 industry model 70, 73–5, 78, 80, 82, 85, 87–8

182

leadership model 80, 85 market research 85 network value 87–8 Orb Certification Trademark 70–1, 78 rebranding 78 remote location, challenges 75–7 Scottish Qualifications Authority 84 shared value 79–81 skilled worker’s empowerment 84–5 Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) 81–3 stakeholders 70, 76–8, 80, 83, 87 weak clusters 75–7 weaving process 71–2 Harris Tweed Industry Forum (HTF) 77–8, 85, 87–8 Harris Tweed Industry Strategy 84 Harrison, Bennett 145 The Italian industrial districts and the crisis of the cooperative form 167 nn.12–13 Harvard Business Review 79 Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) 75–7, 84 HIE Fragile Areas Review 77 historical products 13 historical textiles 12 Holloway, Jenny 121, 124, 126, 132–8. See also Fashion Enter, London homelessness 125 human capital 27, 88, 93–4 hybrid consumer 103 IceLite process 100, 105 idea of collections 11 immigrants 115, 117, 128–30 imperfection 46, 54, 60 indigenous knowledge 46 industrial artisan 5, 7, 44, 142, 146, 148, 155, 159, 161, 170–1 industrial craftsmanship 170 Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm CoOperation in Italy 20 industrial expertise 10, 15, 153 industrial heritage 51, 170 industrial manufacturing district adaptability and innovation 20–1 definition 20 traits 21 industrial revolution 51, 142, 159

INDEX

innovation adaptability 20 artisanal 11 business 5 Cole, Henry’s initiative 13 creativity and 3, 20, 26–7, 29 design 13–14, 21 drivers 15 and economic success 2 ecosystem 9–10 and EU’s growth agenda 1–2, 19–20 in knowledge economy 19, 22–3 leadership and 25 negative effects 47 place-based 94 Quadruple Helix 19 regional approach to 94 social 6 soft 44 tacit knowledge 7 technological 2, 8, 21 TextielLab product 17 transfer of knowledge 27–8 triple helix 10, 17 innovation ecosystem 9–10, 27 innovation gap 86–7 innovation hubs museum leadership and 25 intangible value 11–12, 43, 47, 51, 56, 59, 83, 87–8, 131 intellectual property right (IPR) 46–7 international exhibitions 26 interview with Agerberth, Sofia (export manager, Teixidors) 62–7 with Filippo, Guarini, (director of the Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy) 34–40 with Holloway, Jenny (CEO, Fashion Enter, London) 132–8 with Morral, i Romeu, Eulalia (CDMT, Terrassa, Spain) 29, 34 with Pizarro, Vasco (director of marketing, Pizarro, Guimaraes, Portugal) 107–12 with Purrà, Jordi (manager, Teixidors) 62–7 with Sarti, Monica (Faliero Sarti, Prato, Italy) 161–6 with Sarti, Roberto (President, Faliero Sarti, Prato, Italy) 161–6

INDEX

Institute of Business Ethics 170 Italy. See also Faliero Sarti; Ferragamo corporate museum; Museo del Tessuto specialist knowledge artisans 7 austerity measures 23 manufacturing communities 20 textile museums 10, 12, 14–16, 27 Jadwani, Ritu, 157 Glocal Nomad 157, 168 n33 Japanese, concept of fashion 72 Kendix 22 Kenyan Stitching Academy 125 key enabling technologies (KETs) 6, 70, 85–8, 94–6 collaboration and leadership 85–6 cross-cutting 95–6 European Union’s identification 95 innovation support 94–6 interdisciplinary applications 95 new advanced practices 96 societal and economic benefits 96–7 knowledge clusters 10 knowledge commons 47 knowledge community 155–6 knowledge ecologies 128–9 knowledge economy 5, 9, 19, 22–3, 48, 87, 96, 116, 128, 156. See also textile museum heritage funding 15–19 innovation 22–3 smart specialization strategy 19–20 knowledge exchange 7, 20, 25, 73, 115–16, 118, 131 constraints 73–5 start-ups 115–17 knowledge hubs 28–9, 116. See also textile museums knowledge and skills 9–12, 47, 94, 149, 169 knowledge transfer 5, 19–20, 22, 25, 27–8, 75, 129–30, 132. See also textile museum development and innovation 27–8 knowledge transmission 12, 14 Kong, Eric, 130 Building social and community cohesion: The role of social

183

enterprises in facilitating settlement experiences for immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds 139 nn.29–30, 140 n.31 Kramer, Mark R. 79–82, 106, 169 Creating shared value 89 nn.17–19, 113 nn.28–9 Kruger, Kathryn Sullivan Clues and Cloth: Seeking Ourselves in ‘The Fabric of Myth’ 58, 68 nn.21–2 Kurino, Hirofumi 72 labor market 92, 117, 130 leadership 19, 25, 28. See also collaborative leadership planning and 88 Leslie, Esther 45 The Storyteller (essay) 45–6 Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft (1998) 45, 67 n.4 local artisan 27, 156–7 local community 6, 23, 49, 54–6, 92, 128–30, 132, 155 London College of Fashion 118 longing 11 luxury products 10, 12–13, 13, 15, 48–9, 55, 96, 125, 128, 142–4, 148, 150–1, 153–4, 156–7, 157, 160 Macleod, Kristina 6. See also Harris Tweed Made in Italy brand. See also Faliero Sarti; Prato artisanal craftsmanship 151, 157 international recognition 141 key characteristics 154–5 production philosophy 147 three generations of owners and workers 147 manual skills 56, 160 manufacturing knowledge 10, 28, 154 manufacturing traditions 9, 12 Marks & Spencer 122 Marras, Antonio 154 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 46 Mauro, Antonio 146 medical application 96 merchants 12, 74 Micelli, Stefano 141, 146, 158 Futuro Artigiano, 21, 141, 143, 146, 158

184

migrant perspectives 129–31 modernization 27, 91, 94, 100–1, 104. See also EcoWash; greener economy Morral i Romeu, Eulalia 29–34. See also Centre Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT) in Terrassa, Spain Morris, William 158 Museo del Tessuto (Prato, Italy) 15–16, 22–8, 34–6, 116, 142–3, 169 antique textile room 24 approach to innovation 26–7 collection process 142–3 culture and heritage 169 internal courtyard 16 knowledge transfer projects 22 new models of activity 15, 25 weaving knowledge 142 mutual benefit 5, 7–8, 9, 61, 88, 141 nanotechnology 85–6, 95–6 narratives of Alabama quilters 4 experiential design 59–60 hidden 11 idea of collections 11 industrial 23 of longing 11 of making 3, 10–13, 61–2 of value experience 58–9. See also Teixidors National Confederation of Artisans in Italy 48 National Qualification Group Awards 75 National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) 122 new models 9–10, 15, 25, 48, 56 niche communities. See Fashion Enter non-English speaking backgrounds (NESBs) 130 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 103–4 North American Free Trade Agreement 49 not in employment, education or training (NEET) 117 NVQ Level 1 125 on-the-job training 124 online careers 129

INDEX

Outer Hebrides Creative and Cultural Industries Strategy 75–6 outsourcing 10, 79, 91, 93, 96–8 Padovani, Clio, 1–8, 9–40, 43–67, 69–88, 141–66. See also interview with Agerberth, Sofia; Guarini, Filippo; Morral i Romeu, Eulalia; Purrà, Jordi; Sarti, Monica; Sarti, Roberto Paulicelli, Eugenia, 154 Fashion: The cultural economy of made in Italy, Fashion Practice 168 nn.26–7 personal narratives 4, 11, 43, 57 Pine, B. Joseph, 60 The Experience Economy 59, 68 nn.23–4 Pitti Uomo collections 48 Pizarro, Guimaraes, (Portugal) clean clothes campaign (CCC) 103–4, 106 commercial challenges 104–5 EcoWash process 100–1 industry standards 105–6 local diversification benefits 102–3 research and innovation at 98–100 Pizarro, Vasco 107–12. See also Pizarro, Guimaraes, Portugal Plustex project. See also Museo del Tessuto (Prato, Italy) collaboration with specialist community 23–5 evidence-based approach 3–5 investigations 22–3 regional policies 22 policy-driven initiatives 125–6 Porter Michael, E. Clusters and the New Economics of Competition 76, 89 nn.8–9 Creating shared value 89 nn.17–19, 113 nn.28–9 Potvin, John, 148 From Gigolo to new man: Armani, America, and the textures of narrative, Fashion Theory 167 nn.20–2 poverty 125, 130, 154 Prato. See also Faliero Sarti; Museo del Tessuto

INDEX

artisan know-how 143–4 cernitori 145–6 family companies 151–4 longevity in textile production 142–3 social heritage 146–9 specialist knowledge 144–6 preservation 10, 12, 23, 45–8, 117, 156 private identity 11 problem-based learning 19, 126 product development 13, 54, 81, 104, 143, 153, 155, 170 product innovation 47, 73, 141, 153 public archives 13–15 public collections 13, 15 Purrà, Jordi 62–7. See also Teixidors, Terrassa, Barcelona (Spain) Rabobank 103 Red Cross migration programs 119 refugees 2, 4, 7, 115, 119, 128–30 regional policy 19, 26 regional SMEs 22 regions. See also Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) entrepreneurial model of activity 17 innovation capacity and investment by EU 19 key enabling practices 85 knowledge and skills 12 long standing traditions 5, 9 museum-led projects 23 start-ups 116 textile products 3 workforce value 92 Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization platform (RIS3) 93–5, 127 Rhana Plaza collapse of 2013 97 Roberts, Joanne, 156 Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice 168 n. 28–30 sandblasting 93, 97–9 Sarti, Monica 161–6. See also Faliero Sarti, Prato, Italy Sarti, Roberto 161–6. See also Faliero Sarti, Prato, Italy scarves 149–51 Schama, Simon Citizens 4

185

Sennett, Richard 3–4, 160 The Craftsman, 2008 3, 8 nn.2–3, 8 n.5, 160, 168 nn.41–3 shared leadership 87 shared purpose 88, 169 shared understanding of value 43–4. See also Teixidors shared value 20, 27, 70, 79–82, 88, 170 beneficial business practice 79–81 commercial challenges 104–5 social benefits 106–7 Shawbost Mill 78 shelf life cycle 104, 169 silicosis 97–9 skill set initiatives 125–6 skills development 1, 6 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 2, 22–3, 44, 92–5, 101–2, 125, 143–4, 146, 157, 160 capacities assessment 95 European Commission’s role 93–4 European Union evaluation of innovation activity 102–3 innovation support services 94–5 smart growth 17, 19. See also Europe 2020 Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) 6, 19, 22, 70, 81–3, 91, 93–4, 116, 118, 126–7 creative sector 126–8 entrepreneurship and technology 93–4 European Union 2010 policy 19 university’s role 116–17 social bricolage 131–2 social capital 20, 25, 44, 57, 70, 76, 85, 88, 125–6 empowerment 117–21 linked networks 118 social change 23, 25 social cohesion 2, 43, 48, 59, 61–2, 117–18, 131 social connection 43, 103 social development 43, 60, 132 social enterprise 2,4, 7, 116, 119, 121, 128–32, 169 social entrepreneurship 115 social exclusion 125 social heritage 7, 141, 147–50 social issues 48, 106 social learning 28, 85

186

The Social Outfit 119–21, 125, 130 social project 43, 51, 55–7, 59, 61–2, 169 social responsibility 7, 23, 44, 46, 62, 80, 103, 170 social responsibility project. See Teixidors social structures 21, 56 The Social Studio (TSS) 119, 121, 125, 128, 130 social sustainability 5–7, 9, 28, 43–4, 58, 61–2, 69, 88, 91, 93, 107, 115, 131, 141, 144, 171 and collaborative leadership. See Harris Tweed and community development. See Fashion Enter and industry sensitive. See Teixidors and knowledge economy. See CDMT; Museo del Tessuto and responsible innovation. See Pizarro and social heritage. See Faliero Sarti social weaknesses 80 socially responsible initiatives 43 Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Strategic Plan 2014–20, 116 Solomos, John, 118 Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: A Critical Review 2007 118, 138 nn.8–9 sophistication 54, 142 South Kensington Museum 13 Spain. See also Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT); Teixidors austerity measures 23 textile museum 10, 27 Spanish weaving cooperative 51 special labor 44–50 specialist knowledge 56, 94, 126, 144–7 stakeholders 7, 20, 22, 28–9, 56, 70, 76–8, 80, 83, 87, 100, 115, 117, 119, 125, 127, 131–2, 158–9, 169–70 Stengg 92 Stewart, Susan 10–11, 40 n.2–5 On Longing 10–11, 40 n.2–5 successful business. 8, 110, 124, 169 sustainability authenticity 69–70 social and economic benefits 105–6 weak clusters 75–7

INDEX

Sustainability and the Social Fabric: Europe’s New Textile Industries 1, 8, 169 sustaining networks. See also Museo del Tessuto (Prato, Italy) community-held traditions 26–7 of creativity 26–7 tacit artisan 15 tacit knowledge 2, 5, 7, 14, 45, 51 54, 75, 92, 96, 145, 157, 160, 166, 170 Taplin, Ian study on the restructure and reconfiguration of the European textile and clothing 92, 112 nn.1–2 technological knowledge 21, 28 technology entrepreneurship and 93–4 local diversification 102–3 Teixidors, Terrassa, Barcelona (Spain) artisanal process 55 balanced business 56 brand development 59 customer experiences 59–60 innovation 54, 56 narrative of making 61–2 sense of authenticity 5–6, 43–4, 48, 51–5 social responsibility 43–4 socially sustainable businesses 43, 56–8 specialist craft production 47, 59 transfer of knowledge and skills 58 weaving process 51–4 textile collections 12–13 textile heritage 12, 15 textile know-how archiving of textile materials and cultural heritage 14–15. See also Centre Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT) in Terrassa, Spain corporate textile archives 13 Gucci Bamboo bag 13–14 retaining and preservation 13–15 textile manufacturers 10, 12, 15, 22, 29, 75–6, 132, 143, 145–6, 148, 157 textile museums capacity 26 corporate establishments 12

INDEX

creative innovation 29 financial difficulties 9–10 leadership 25 maintenance of heritage 10–12, 14–15, 20, 23, 26–8 new models of activity 10 role in knowledge economy 9 society’s expectations 23 Stewart’s thinking 10–12 triple helix innovation ecosystem 10 textiles and fashion manufacture 2014 turnover 1 community network 5–7, 10, 19–22, 25–9 ecological sustainability, challenges 2–3 knowledge hubs 28–9 museums’ role 9–15 Plustex project 3–5, 22–3 quality of work 29 use of industrial skills 29 textiles communities 19–20. See also smart specialization strategy Textilteca 14 Tilburg TextielLab 15, 17, 20–2 future perspectives 22 shared knowledge hub 20–2 Tilburg TextielMuseum (Holland) 15, 19, 21–2, 28 design innovation 21–2 website screenshot 18 Tonchi, Stefano 154 Toscani, Oliviero 48 Tracey, Paul Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises 131, 140 nn.32–6 tradition. See also Made in Italy; textile museum artisanal skill set 27 authentic 6,10 community-held 26 craftsmanship 17 and heritage 12, 23 of manufacturing 1, 5, 9 principles of quality and 27 of social learning and education 28 tradition and heritage 10–13, 47 2008 financial crisis 3, 9, 15

187

UK Fashion Industry 121 UK Museums Association 23 UK policy concept of social capital 117 craft production 158–9 outsourcing 118 UK’s Office of National Statistics 117 Uni’s Not For Me 129 uniqueness 43, 45, 48, 57, 61, 169 United Arrows 72 University of the Arts London 118 Vacca, Federica 11 Knowledge in Memory: Corporate and Museum Archives 11, 40 n.6 Valley of Death 86–7. See also innovation gap value added 4, 7, 12, 14, 20, 27, 44, 47–8, 51, 54–6, 58, 92, 102–6, 115, 130, 144, 154 customer’s perception 44 network. See Harris Tweed political 3, 170 value chain 56, 80, 96–7 Van Besouw 22 Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 13 vocational training 121, 124 W magazine 154 well-being. See also Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) communities 103–4 Whittaker. Paul, 91–112, 115–38, 169–71. See also interview with Guarini, Filippo; Holloway, Jenny; Pizarro, Vasco Who Made Your Pants 118–21, 129 Wilson, Brian 78. See also Harris Tweed workforce business-led knowledge exchange 115 EcoWash 106 ethnic mix of Haringey 122 Faliero Sarti’s company approach 156, 161 Fashion Enter’s innovative approach 126, 132 flexible 21

INDEX

188

Harris Tweed Industry Strategy 84 health and safety regulations 99 industrial artisan 148 migrant 115 problems of knowledge transfer 75 regulatory issues 93 tacit knowledge 92 Teixidors model 62 the institutional memory 157 value 92–3 well-being 91, 96 workshop 17, 26, 47, 51–2, 55–6, 62

yak fiber 55 yarns 17, 54, 78, 143, 149 Yedikule Teaching Hospital for Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul 97 young women, social attitudes 125 Zuzunaga, Christian 56