November 03, 2015
BIAAF at DWeek!
Last November 16th BIAAF was part of a unique event Bilbao Bizkaia Design Week.
For two weeks, we witnessed more than 40 different events that took place in 20 different venues with the main goal of promoting the creative industry in the Bilbao area.
Each event was open for professionals of all the creative sectors, such as architecture, handcrafting, audiovisual, communication, digital media, design, interior design, fashion and videogames. But also to the general public who wanted to be inspired by the creative world.
The Dweek couldn’t happen without the support of Bilbao’s City Hall, the Bizkaia Provincial Council and of course all the BiDC board members.
BIAAF participated with the event “Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Challenges and Trends for Emerging Designers” ,which consisted on two conferences by outstanding fashion actors that took place last November 16th, at the Torre Iberdrola Auditiorium.
“Fashion Entrepreneurship: challenges of emerging designers”
Speaker: Chitra Buckley,Course Director, MA Fashion Entrepreneurship at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
This talk explained UK fashion entrepreneurship from the perspective of high-end designer fashion businesses and the challenges faced during the early growth phase. The experience of UK premium and designer fashion enterprises were selected as the focus of this talk because this segment of the fashion industry has garnered considerable attention both in the UK and in global markets due to its profile as a leading exemplar of British creativity and design talent.
Chitra Buckley has over 20 years’ experience in the fashion industry. She has worked on curating and developing fashion collections for Fenwicks of Bond Street and John Lewis. She has also held senior roles in the areas of product development, buying, merchandising and fashion forecasting in Europe and North America including Simpson’s, retail brand Cotton Ginny, and Fashion Information. For the last 10 years, Chitra has complemented her practical experience in the fashion industry through research interaction in buying teams for incremental innovation, experiential learning for entrepreneurs and lecturing on the subject of fashion entrepreneurship. Chitra currently mentors fashion Small Medium Enterprises and has developed and coached several collaborations between Small Medium Enterprises in the UK, including including Tateossian, Linnie McClarty and Martina Spetlova and fashion students across the disciplines of business, media and design. Also she is currently in the process of identifying viable collaborative projects to accelerate their success and growth through business incubation.
“How sportswear drives innovation”
Speaker: Claudine Rousseau, Product Programme Director & Fashion Sportswear Course Leader at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
The sportswear industry has grown and been reshaped at a pace in recent years. The term sportswear defines a broad range of apparel from high performance to sports lux to lifestyle and more recently athleisure. To this end there is a blurring of the line from sportswear to fashion apparel as both industries push for space in the market.
This session looked at key developments to see how science, new technologies, fashion trends have impacted on the way we are active and engage in sport.
Working with a design consultancy, Goose Design, Claudine Rousseau found her true passion for pattern cutting, fit management and technical innovation. This included projects with Levi’s Innovation team, Puma sailing, Puma Urban Mobility, Fifa, Berghaus to name a few. From there she continued on a freelance basis to work on projects with Hussein Chalayan for Puma, Dunhill, especial Olympics project with Adidas and more.
Today, she continues to collaborate with Rapha Cycling and Christopher Raeburn. And she is the Fashion Sportswear Course Leader. Where the aim for students is to learn how to think as well as really perfecting skills. This is tested through further exploration, experimentation and research into future possibilities. As her student an interest in sport is useful but not essential, it is important to be prepared to work hard, push and test ideas. They make sure to understand that in sportswear the essentials are to truly consider the consumer, the environmental conditions and the future innovations that may contribute to exciting design solutions.
Two hundred people, between students, teachers and profesionals in the fashion industry came and create a great forum with an amazing outcome.