Sara Savian is a digital fashion designer and creative maker based in Milan. She works mainly as a freelance professional in the field of fashion as a digital designer, she is particularly passionate about CAD patterns, vector graphics and laser cutting. She works out of WeMake Makerspace, with shared tools and a community of people with different skills allowing collaborations to develop complex creative projects. Thanks to these connections, she has been able to carry out interactive design projects that involve a variety of digital fabrication techniques.
Which are the challenges for the Fashion-Tech sector today, in your experiences?
Fashion-Tech challenges today are all about open source, I think. The way we develop different projects from the old way, how we make fashion, is what is most interesting to me about fashion and technology.
What is the future of Fashion-tech, according to your experience? What are you dreaming to design in the fashion-tech area?
The next Fashion-Tech idea that we are developing is motion wear. It’s a collection of garments made with digital fabrication that are for all the people to design together with us, it’s based on the design process and not on seasonal process, and we want to implement all different digital technologies inside our collection so, for example, digital pattern making, laser cutting, 3D printing and embedded technology garments that could be worn every day.
How does the design process change when using digital tools?
The design process is quite close to the other/classic design processes. The difference is in the speed and the prototyping way, in respect to today fashion practices. Of course, if you are experimenting different techniques the design process is longer. For instance, if you want to make the pattern cutting process faster, laser cutting could greatly help.
Can you use the same expertise when moving to digital design processes or do you need new expertise?
I think that you need more expertise and you need to collaborate with people that have this expertise. Today, I think that it’s really helpful to go online and search for how to develop a project. For example, Arduino platform is open source and if you are looking for making wearables you have many hints online to follow. even though it’s always better to have an idea that could be done and then ask to someone that really works with this technology to go deeper in the making of the final garment.
How is Fashion-Tech changing traditional fashion business models?
Of course, the seasonal business model of fashion should be changed, its very wasteful. Digital fabrication can support the generation of new business models. We can work on a local and global production that does not need outsourcing, more inclusive in some way, inclusive from a working point of view but also with the customer.
How is COVID-19 changing the Fashion-Tech sector?
Covid19 pandemic is moving digitalization faster in every sector. In Fashion-Tech we’ve been experiencing a larger use of 3D models so real that you can buy the digital version of a garment that does not exist yet. This is one of the steps towards on-demand production and key to a sustainable fashion system.
During Covid-19, what are the challenges and new opportunities for Fashion-Tech start-ups/businesses?
Fashion-tech startups and businesses must see an opportunity in this emergency, in order to develop new production and consumption models. The customer is at the center of this emergency. Co-design be the most important thing to do in order to develop a new relationship. For instance, knowledge, personal satisfaction and both ethical and environmental sustainability are key.
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