The Australian Fashion Council has today launched its 2022 FashTech Lab program, designed to bring Aussie fashion businesses together with tech companies to commercialise sustainable practices.
Supported by the City of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney, the program has welcomed 12 fashion businesses and five technology companies to experiment with 3D design technology in an effort to reduce overheads, costs, textile waste and carbon emissions in the sampling process.
The six-month program will see the fashion businesses first assess their business model to then best position themselves to explore technologies including 3D digital design with digital patterns and fabrics - resulting in final digital assets/avatars and fashion NFTs.
Each milestone of the program will be marked by a knowledge sharing session, which the wider industry can tune in to.
Delivering and facilitating the program on behalf of the AFC is Tracey Hamilton, who said the program is a direct result of passionate businesses coming together for a common cause.
"This program is just an extraordinary example of what happens when really determined folks come together to tackle the world's biggest problems in their own backyard," she said.
"This particular labs program that we've built is looking at increasing the commercialisation of sustainability through innovation for Australian fashion, and textile businesses.
"City of Sydney has a real ambition to become the destination for technology and innovation globally, and we believe that the fashion business can help catapult Australia forward from that perspective," Hamilton said.
Applications for the FashTech Lab program closed on January 14.
For industry interested in tuning into the knowledge sessions, the dates can be found below:
- Wednesday 2 March 2022: Knowledge Exchange 1, delivered remotely via Zoom;
- Wednesday 6 April 2022: Knowledge Exchange 2, delivered remotely via Zoom;
- Wednesday 4 May 2022: Knowledge Exchange 3, delivered remotely via Zoom;
- TBC June 2022: Knowledge Exchange 4 and networking event