The talk is about our project to develop software and hardware tools for a fair and environment friendly garment and textile production and how we break down the locks that exists on every level in the industry from design, to software, machines and distribution.
The talk is about our project to develop software and hardware tools for a fair and environment friendly garment and textile production and how we break down the locks that exists on every level in the industry from design, to software, machines and distribution. We want to set up our own personalized open textile production line and offer an alternative to the unethical ways most of our clothes are produced today. At the talk we will present the first successes of this endeavor in our community - Open Source pattern making software, sewing robots, next generation knitting machine upgrades - and challenges that are ahead. Democratizing digital textile production and offers the chance for a fair and environment friendly production of garments and textiles at home and in the industry. Just as 3D printers enable more and more people to become makers we want to enable digital garment makers to create their own clothes, share them online and produce it where-ever they are. Members of our projects include software developers, fashion designers, pattern creators, knitters, textile manipulators, hardware hackers, and even industry experts. We started a FashionTec Working Group about two years ago after the annual Libre Graphics meeting in Madrid. The traditional industry is in a state of complete lock on all levels: * digital fashion design locked to competing proprietary formats and software * production locked to machines of producers accepting formats * distribution lock - locked to existing large distribution channels in order to be a viable business The Free and Open Source community has taught us that it is possible to overcome a complete proprietary lock down. Let’s repeat this success in the textile and garment industry. We need Free and Open Source software, Open Formats and Open machines. With todays development tools successes are just a short step away. Our talk will give you insights and hopes to inspire more people.
Speakers: Hong Phuc Dang