Pattern to Product, Pattern through Product Traditional Tools and Process Innovation in Textile Design

The history of weaving and textile innovation follows the history of technological innovations and the evolution of socio-cultural issues in a stepwise manner. Currently, textiles and patterns are tools that characterize garments and define their unique aesthetics, becoming identity-making elements not only for a single product or a collection, but also for brands. By balancing a delicate equilibrium between brand heritage and Zeitgeist, the Italian textile industry bases its success on the capability to re-organize creative processes to generate innovation, also thanks to new relationships among textile designers and their customers. In particular, it is in the textile pattern development activity where we can find, on the one hand, interesting examples of product innovations through traditional tools, such as the company archives, and on the other hand, interesting examples of process innovations through new creative possibilities offered by high-tech fabrics. Through special case studies, this essay will analyze and define possible creative models that innovate in the textile sector.