Three years of work on the FashionTEX project culminated in the international FashionTEX Fashion Festival, held in Riga on 30 September and 1 October. The two-day event brought together students, lecturers and fashion professionals from 11 European fashion and design universities and offered a diverse programme including panel discussions, an exhibition and a fashion show, where the traditional physical runway was combined with a digital visual environment.
At the heart of the festival was the question of how new technologies are transforming the way fashion is created, taught and presented. The joint project gave students an opportunity to look at fashion more broadly – not only as a finished garment, but also as a process that can move seamlessly between the physical and digital worlds.
EKA at FashionTEX
The Estonian Academy of Arts was represented at this year’s FashionTEX by second-year textile design students Ethel Noortoots and Katriin Tammoja. This year’s festival also welcomed participants from the previous edition, whose work was presented in the festival exhibition alongside that of the new participants. This created a natural continuation between the two FashionTEX editions and an opportunity to see how the project and the work of its participants have developed. Returning participants included third-year fashion student Roosi Mändmaa, third-year accessory design student Katriin Raudsepp, and Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus, an alumna of the Fashion and Art Studio and winner of last year’s FashionTEX competition.
Digital Twin: From Digital Prototype to Physical Garment
One of the key principles of FashionTEX is integrating digital technology into the fashion creation and development process. Students were able to experiment with digital solutions, materials and silhouettes on virtual avatars before translating them into physical garments.
These approaches reflect a broader shift in fashion education. 3D modelling, digital textile simulation and virtual prototyping are increasingly being taught alongside traditional garment-making skills. Digital prototyping allows ideas to be tested before physical samples are produced, helping to reduce material use and unnecessary production and making the development process more sustainable.
Conference: Digitalisation and Sustainability in Fashion
The two-day conference “Digitalisation and Sustainability in Fashion: Benefits & Challenges”, which formed part of the FashionTEX festival, took place in Riga and was also available via livestream. It connected the practical work of the project with broader discussions around digitalisation, 3D design, virtual prototyping and sustainability.
Among the speakers were Ann Claes, Uwe Bodenschatz and Maarit Kalmakurki, who addressed the digitalisation of historical fashion heritage. Panel discussions featured Isabelle Udo, Isabelle Palumbo, Sara Orfali, Frank de Rooij, Piret Puppart, Agita Klauss, Katerina Skarabelova and Irena Sabari Skugor.
The second day included a panel discussion titled “Digitalisation and Sustainability in Academia”, with Ann Claes, Maarit Kalmakurki, Adele Parker, Dorette Bardos and Antonio Lo Presti. Participants also had the opportunity to explore the newly completed Riga Makerspace laboratories and the latest technologies used there.
Fashion on the Virtual Production Stage
The festival’s fashion show took place at the LED Unit Virtual Production Studio, an environment more commonly used for film and audiovisual production than as a traditional fashion runway.
A huge LED screen created digital environments around the garments, while tracking technology connected the models and physical garments with the virtual space. The result was a fashion show in which physical and digital environments became part of the same whole.
Instead of building and transporting physical sets, environments can be created digitally and changed in real time. This makes the fashion show itself part of the design process and visual storytelling.
Fashion Education Looks to the Future
FashionTEX demonstrates how fashion education is increasingly moving towards a digital and interdisciplinary approach. Digital tools do not replace traditional skills but expand them, allowing designers to move from virtual prototypes to physical garments.
For EKA, the FashionTEX project provided an excellent opportunity to train fashion 3D programme lecturers and to fund the acquisition of the necessary Clo3D software licences for two years. This helped bring 3D design and digital prototyping more strongly into fashion, textile and accessory design education.
FashionTEX: A Collaborative Project
Several international partners contributed to the success of the festival. A special thanks to the Art Academy of Latvia, which hosted the festival at its newly completed Makerspace and LED Unit, providing the project with the necessary space and technical environment.
Future Front Row from Amsterdam brought its expertise and experience in digital fashion and virtual production to the project, helping to implement the digital solutions developed during the second phase of FashionTEX.
In Riga, the three-year FashionTEX journey came symbolically full circle, bringing together previous participants, a new generation of designers, European higher education institutions, and experts in fashion and digital technology.
The project was co-funded by the European Union.