In June 2019, Vienna Textile Lab attended the sixth annual innovation summit of Wear It Berlin, an event dedicated to wearable technology. Conferences like these can be a crucial turning point for startups, as they have the power to assemble people who share visions, interests, ideas and sparks.
Wear IT is a Berlin based rapid product development agency with the mission to implement the technology of tomorrow into today’s cross-industrial collaborations. Their annual summit, sometimes referred to as „Europe’s leading conference for professionals in the wearable technology business“, invites start ups and innovators to present their game-changing research and development to a diverse audience across the wearable industry. As we believe in the urgent need for the textile industry to take a leap towards sustainable fashion, we enjoyed the revolutionary, forward-thinking approach to work wear, health, fashion and textiles very much.
Karin, CEO of Vienna Textile Lab, gave a presentation, was invited to a panel discussion and had the chance to network her way through a variety of industries. One of the people she immediately connected with was Loreto, a Berlin based designer and founder of the sustainable fashion label anima, who’s energy and determination sparked Karin’s interest. „Loreto stood out to me as an accomplished designer and someone who learned the trade by teaching and traveling to places where she could learn from people who have worked with particular materials for generations. I think this determination is her most successful characteristic, I was very impressed“, she says. At the time, we had been looking into collaborating with fashion designers and introducing our microbial dyes to the design industry. However, we lacked the experience and network, so this is what Loreto walked into.
Within the same year, we had decided to collaborate with Loreto on a fashion project and invited her to our lab, as we believe that co-creation works best through sharing knowledge and creating space for new ideas at the intersection of experience and new challenges. After a first lunch date at Museumquartier, Laura introduced her in the lab to our bacteria cultures and showed her step by step our dyeing process. Her curiosity and excitement was very contagious so we were more than thrilled to embark on this new project, learn from each other’s field of expertise and create wonderful pieces of sustainable fashion together.
Wear IT is hosting several live events this year check here.
