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WORTH Partnership Project
Project

Wear-Abouts Baltic Sea

Augmented-reality wearable garment that promotes tourism, culture and fashion

Wear-Abouts Baltic Sea

The project

What if illustrations could step out of books, into textile designs? What would they say about the intriguing stories that inspired their creation and how would they speak to their wearers? Through WEAR-ABOUTS we aim to explore this possibility by creating interactive children clothes with ‘a deeper meaning’. We work with local illustrators to uncover hidden local imaginaries that become printed patterns and can be read through a dedicated app to uncover more content. Our whole creation process is deeply rooted in design-driven innovation, environmental connection and sustainability, in order to restitute to the public a real immersion in Baltic Sea countries.

Storytelling

THE IDEA:

Wear-Abouts project is born about the same time as my daughter. Pregnancy and child raising has deeply changed me and helped to reveal more personal projects.
My grand-mother had very diverse 60’s vintage fabrics with very colorful graphic patterns. As well I had the chance, as a kid, to have access to very nice illustrated book for children that influenced me a lot.  
Though born and raised in Paris, I have spent a lot of free time in nature staying hours outdoors. It has allowed me to develop a very strong connection with nature at a very early age and cultivate this connection further on.

Wear-Abouts Baltic Sea - image 1
THE BIRTH OF THE PROJECT:

My generation obviously discovered the digital age. I used the first family computer when I was about 12 years old. I chose to study arts and graphic design, in a school specializing in digital technologies. I had as well a strong interest for environments and decided to study territory development and sustainable tourism. This combination of digital and natural generated in me the need to get rid of standard interfaces and bring digital outdoor in an active manner, but also to show that digital and outdoor/nature life are not antithetic, that digital is not necessary a confinement. This added to my wish to create quality experiences for my daughter that I could not find on the market.

Wear-Abouts Baltic Sea - image 2
THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

On my journey I met Ruxandra, a printmaker and digital humanities researcher originally from Romania but living in Sicily, whose love for prints and her ‘researcher mind’ determined her to embark on this adventure. Together we thought deeply how illustrations could step out of the printed medium into other materials such as clothes and accessories, in order to ‘speak’ to their users more meaningfully and educating them in a fun and alternative way.

THE COLLABORATION:

Wear-Abouts x Baltic Sea project is the result of the choice to create first prototypes and products addressing the European Macro region around the Baltic Sea, Northern and Southern shores, and display common aspects of cultures as well as differences of Nordic and Baltic countries, around the same sea. 

We invited Taina, a Design manager at Modus in Tampere, Finland, to join the WORTH team and she brought her expertise to help us address better the fashion and retail sector in these countries, to conduct research on innovative and sustainable fabrics available as well as finding further opportunities in Finland.

My knowledge about Nordic and Baltic countries through travels there, the connection to nature, the important place of design in these countries and their alternative views on education have definitely contributed to this choice.

This helped us develop our first collection on the theme of Wildfoods. The so called Nordic diet is not only healthy but brings numerous innovations to the market, while promoting a deep bond with nature. Through it we wanted to help children and adults around them reconsider the content of their plates, the origin and virtues of the products consumed and the usefulness of the direct link between the consumer and the source of the products, such as picking, cultivation or local supply. With us the local illustrators drew the story behind themes addressed, finding inspiration in the middle of nature. 

WORTH Partnership Project has allowed us to gather and bring our background and experience at the service of the project. It has also allowed us to take the concept to a next level through meetings and brainstorming, discussions with augmented reality systems developers, illustrators and cycles of tests helping to improve the different prototypes created. It gave us the freedom to take time to investigate further on to find the best combinations for our final prototypes versions.

THE FUTURE:

We are already preparing the second collection for children between 0-7 years old.

THE MESSAGE:

Wear-Abouts is the typical example of collaborative work as it creates cross sector products, involving the fields of sustainable fashion, illustration, pattern design, technology, education and sustainable tourism. It is through this highly collaborative project that innovation is fostered and helps to reach new ways of considering and experiencing fashion, education and tourism but also to address the life cycle of products and a shift in consumption models.

Wear-Abouts Baltic Sea - image 3
Projects Edition
WORTH Partnership Projects I
Project Call
2nd Call Projects
Project Sector
Textile - Fashion
Project Challenge
High-performance materials

Contact

ARKELLIA

Founded by Laetitia Barbu, aims to integrate a design thinking approach into activities and projects such as sustainable tourism development, cultural heritage and CCI activities in Europe. After graduating from the Applied Arts – Academie Charpentier and fine arts public school EESATI, where she studied graphic design and new technologies, Laetitia kept integrating her creative and artistic skills into her work.

Name
ARKELLIA
Postal address
France

EITHNE

Sicilian SME created by Ruxandra Lupu. The company’s transdisciplinary projects shape new ways of thinking and understanding culture and travel by using co-creative design operations, management of cultural heritage, artistic practice and visual communication.

Name
EITHNE
Postal address
Italy

MODUS

MODUS has established itself as a nationally-renowned and highly-regarded association that promotes professional design, arts and crafts. Modus has extensive experience in international projects and supports more than 50 professional maker-designers on a weekly basis. The design manager of Modus Ry – Taina Laaksonen has vast experience as a designer and has developed many collections based on the local cultural heritage. She is a creative producer, designer and educator, active in several fields of design, cultural heritage & digital culture. She has worked for large cultural institutions including both design universities in Helsinki, with the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (NY) and at the same time in micro-projects elsewhere in Finland and abroad. She holds degrees in design, digital culture and entrepreneurship.

Name
MODUS
Postal address
Finland