At least half of the employees in Canada’s needle trade work here in Quebec. In 2002 alone, the province had 55% of the industry’s jobs; approximately 46,000 employees. That year the industry generated nearly $4 billion in sales, with almost half of that being exports.
Montreal, the industry’s nerve centre and the third-largest apparel manufacturing location in North America, is an absolute fashion showcase: Dubuc, La Senza, Parasuco, Peerless and Marie Saint-Pierre are some of the city’s world-famous labels.
Facing increasing competition, Montreal designers distinguish themselves through their originality, style, quality - and innovation. And there’s nothing more innovative than the interactive fashion apparel being designed here, in the XS Labs at Concordia University.
After working for more than ten years in the electronic textile sector, Joanna Berzowska decided in 2002 to leave her startup company in the Boston area, where she had studied at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for a teaching and research position at Concordia University. She had several reasons: “Montreal is a marvelous city in terms of diversity, culture and quality of life,” she said. “ In my field, fashion, it is also the only city that has a creative thrust, an unusual approach, and an eclectic aesthetic. As well, the Hexagram Institute at Concordia has provided the resources and infrastructure to instigate one of the world’s few interactive clothing laboratories within a research/creation context.”
The very first interactive garments designed at XS Labs, housed at Hexagram, made a big splash in the media as early as 2003, and are destined for a brilliant future. Generally speaking, industrial applications for these textiles focus on specialty clothing (military, health, sports) and electronic product add-ons, like the recent partnership between Apple and Nike, but XS plans on seeing its fabrics on the catwalks and on the stage.
At XS Labs, you can see this technology applied to clothes that change colour or shape, or versatile electronic textiles, like Berzowska’s Kukkia dress, which has flowers that slowly open and close on their own. This innovative approach already interests a number of companies, like Cirque du Soleil, Jacob and Parasuco, but Berzowska would like to collaborate with many players in the Montreal performance and fashion industries. “I think this is an asset that will ensure Montreal’s world-wide influence in this field.”
Hexagram’s research in wearable technologies brings together the age-old power of garments to communicate and the pleasure of display with the potency of new materials and functionalities. Joanna Berzowska is at the centre of a Canadian movement for innovation in fashion and new materials in a country increasingly known for creative excellence, research savvy and economic dynamism.
Dr. Sara Diamond,
President,
Ontario College of Art & Design
Page Title: Competitive Cluster - Textiles and Clothing - Joanna Berzowska - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Page URL:http://www.concordia.ca/clusters/textiles/index.php
Date Printed: Thu February 9, 2012
