Living Cultural Heritage: Exploring Fashion Heritage within Corporate Archives

Federica Vacca

doi:10.6092/issn.2611-0563/20700

Autori

Federica Vacca Politecnico di Milano

She holds a PhD, and is Associate Professor and Faculty Member of the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano. She is co-founder of the Fashion in Process Research Lab at Design Dept. and Deputy Director of the Gianfranco Ferré Research Center, Digital Innovation for the Creative and Cultural Industries. Her research interests concern handcraft-driven creation processes for enhancing local culture knowledge and design-driven innovation in "culture intensive" industries, specifically focusing on the fashion sector. She is a fashion heritage specialist, curator of corporate archives, and an expert in fashion heritage management through digital technology.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/20700

Parole chiave:

Living Cultural Heritage, Corporate Archives, Disruptive Heritage Model, Fashion Digital Technologies, Fashion Design

Abstract

This article was conducted to explore the concept of the corporate archive in the fashion industry as a Living Cultural Heritage and to investigate the different approaches that are emerging within companies in the industry to take advantage of the potential that their archives offer. Indeed, while archives in fashion are used habitually for marketing purposes to reinforce a brand’s identity and authenticate its collection, they can provide a significant competitive advantage if integrated into the design and production processes as a generator of expertise and knowledge. Through the analysis of relevant case studies, the article presents and discusses a theoretical framework that examines current strategies related to cultural heritage within corporate archives. Through the definition of four scenarios, the archive’s specific value as a generative/transformative tool will emerge that is able to inform a company’s material and productive culture and will have a profound influence on the way that actions and interactions between artifacts, stimuli, and inspirations are conceived, designed, and planned in contemporary contexts while rooted in the brand’s legacy.

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Living Cultural Heritage: Exploring Fashion Heritage within Corporate Archives

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