The City of Prato with more than 190,000 inhabitants is Tuscany’s second largest city and the third largest in Central Italy, after Rome and Florence. Prato is famous worldwide for its textile district, which represents about 3% of European textile production. 3.500 textile enterprises, and more than 4.000 clothing enterprises employ about 33.000 workers in what is considered an industry at the service of the big fashion brands but also the production of fast fashion, a sector in which Prato is the European leader and reference big organised distribution.

Prato is a city where many cultures live together and which, with contradictions and problems, integrates knowledge and lifestyles, forming a melting pot that has always characterized it. The strong migration flows are closely tired with the entrepreneurial vocation of Prato that in 60 years has doubled its population, from 98,000 at the end of the 50s to almost 200,000 today. Coming mostly from neighboring towns until the early ’60s, then from the regions of Southern Italy, especially Puglia and Basilicata, and finally since the early 80’s from more than 124 countries in the world, men and women have settled in Prato, a city that has been able to welcome them among thousand contradictions, evolving its own identity and becoming an integration place. Today, only one out of two was born in Prato, 33,000 come from other countries with a predominance of citizens of Chinese nationality, almost 19,000 residents registered at the registry office.

The presence of a large Chinese community, settled mainly in the so called “Macrolotto Zero” area but now spread in other areas of the city, is a strong characteristic element of the city, not only for the relevance of the presence, almost one citizen in ten is of Chinese nationality, but also for the peculiarity of the settlement. The biggest part of Chinese citizens work as manufacturing entrepreneurs, especially in dressmaking and ready to wear industry, but also in more traditional sectors of the textile industry; the typical business activities of other cities are widespread but mostly to their community service. Innovation is in the DNA of Prato’s textile district. Prato companies have an age-old wool-processing tradition, and over time they have stratified their technical knowledge, learning to address new and different scenarios in the textile-clothing sector. It is this ‘know-how’, combined with its entrepreneurial spirit and attitude to change, that have made it possible for this area to keep its vocation alive for over a thousand years.

In recent decades, fashion changes, the rise of new manufacturing centres, technological transformations and international competition have led companies to step up their research and development activities. The objective is that of addressing the market of textiles and fast-moving fashion with low technical-quality content, moving towards aesthetic and technological productions with high value-added.

Highly specialized fashion and new sectors
Manufacturing specialization, a characteristic feature of this district, has intensified: while companies dedicated to clothing concentrate on the use of new fibres, yarns, machining and finishing, others have decided to apply the knowledge acquired in the fashion sector to new areas, such as security and protection, sports and functional clothing, engineering, architecture, and medicine.

Established in 1945, the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts Łódź is a public university for all those who would like to enter a profession in the field of fine arts & design. The Academy includes the following faculties: Graphics and Painting; Textile Art and Fashion Design; Industrial and Interior Design; Visual Arts; Sculpture and Interactive Actions, it offers 7 courses & 15 artistic and design majors including nationwide unique programmes in fashion design, jewellery design & theatre, film and television techniques. The institution’s educational offer includes a wide variety of postgraduate courses & PhD studies. The Academy is also active in organization of exhibitions, prestige artistic contents & scientific conferences.The Academy was leader of the EU project „Fashion Promotion Center; Claster of textile & fashion sector”. The aim of the project was establishing co-operation and joint activities in the areas of culture, education, entrepreneurship and scientific research.

MODACC promotes the competitiveness of the Catalan fashion ecosystem through individual and collective value-added initiatives focused on companies from the sector.

The principles that define us are research for knowledge, cooperation, and dynamism between companies and individuals from the cluster to improve and anticipate the future.

Our scope of action goes from design to fashion product distribution, going through industry, logistics, and all those activities that belong to the fashion value chain.

For MODACC, fashion means all those activities and businesses that:

1. Focus intensively on design and creativity
2. Follow a cyclic process: products and services are subjected to a continuous innovation
3. Resulting products and services are linked to the personal equipment

ROOTS IN CATALONIA, BRANCHES TO THE WORLD

We focus our activity on the reinforcement of the fashion ecosystem’s competitiveness in Catalonia, through the cooperation with international companies and institutions.

Our origins date back to the Catalan textile tradition and we are open to different cultural perspectives: we use our past as a jump to the future.

DATA REGARDING THE FASHION ECOSYSTEM

IN CATALONIA
+70.000 professionals
15.351 million Euros
2.800 companies
8% of the Catalan GDP

IN EUROPE
1.634.000 professionals
163.400 million Euros
172.756 companies
Source: Euratex

INTERNATIONALIZATION

Internationalization provides companies with the opportunity to expand and grow in a global market.

MODACC helps companies locate customers interested in their products and services around the world: business missions, attendance to fairs, own commercial offices in several countries, market information and guidance as well as technical and legal advice. These are some of our international services.

INNOVATION

“Success is not being the best, success is being different” Michael Porter

Fostering collaboration between technology centres, universities and other partners is a key enabler to create new products and processes focused on the consumer and new market opportunities.

To drive our innovation platform at MODACC, we have decided to focus on the following key areas: the consumer’s knowledge, Internet, building sustainable businesses, functionalization of clothing products or digitalization of industrial processes.

INDUSTRIALIZATION

We are working on recovering a new fashion industry in Europe: flexible, digitalized, sustainable and highly competitive.

We are aware that it is essential to have an industrial base in Catalonia to become a competitive and innovative territory in the fashion sector and, therefore, we develop initiatives that encourage the industrial base such as promoting industrial aptitudes and fairs to connect producers and distributors.

TRAINING

 “Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act” Albert Einstein

MODACC develops training initiatives for new professionals.

We facilitate the development of new competences for the professional growth of the sector workers.

We build bridges between companies and schools in order to attract talent to the sector.

NETWORKING

“Alone we can go faster, but together we can go further” Txarango

We want to transform reality, turn difficulties into opportunities and make dreams of the companies that trust us come true. We want to grow and improve the sector.

To make this possible, we promote business meetings and enriching professional relationships. We actively work to create business between companies that belong to the cluster.

Borås is becoming everyday a more vibrant and dynamic city: Cafés and restaurants are popping up on every street-corner, not to mention one of the best zoos in Sweden, indoor and outdoor pools in the middle of the city and a beautiful countryside within easy reach.

A city with a textile heritage
At fashion and textile fairs across the world, Borås has enjoyed a solid reputation for decades, even centuries. The same applies to shopping; Knalleland is one of the best known shopping areas in Sweden, as well as all the strong brands that have headquarters in the city. Borås is also known by the city´s sculptures and street art.

Borås, founded in 1621, started to develop a textile industry in the middle of the 19th century. There were textile industries and cotton factories in every neighbourhood. This was a trend whick developed, over time, in combination with trade. Nearly all Swedish mail order companies are or have been located in Borås. In percentage terms, the region has a larger foreign trade than Hong Kong.

Borås is sometimes called knallecity. Knallar were pedlars, who, already in the 16th century, travelled by foot from door to door, selling handicrafts and textiles. They were a welcome part of people´s everyday life, not only because of the merchandise they offered, but also because they brought news. The pedlars also had a secret language called “månsing”.

The Textile Fashion Center
Together with the University of Borås and the business community, the Municipal Executive board made a joint decision to gather all of the city’s textile activities under a single: the Textile Fashion Center.

The textile heritage is an important part in the identity of the city Borås, home for textile production for almost 100 years. Textile Fashion Center represents a creative centre for science, culture, innovation and business, mainly within textiles but also within other areas, a meeting point for creative businesses within textile, fashion and design..

Textile Fashion Center includes a range of independent companies that come together in a textile cluster. It is collaboration between companies, research institutions, education, and organizations working for innovation and development. Here you find potential for new businesses, companies, products and research but also education and collaboration between culture and education through co-location. The parties form the basis of the cluster, which cooperation is known as triple helix: the city of Borås, the University of Borås and the trade and industry in the region. also adding culture in Borås with the The Textile Museum of Sweden located in Textile Fashion Center, attracting visitors to the area.