Keeping it Local
What if your clothes didn't come from far away, but from your own city? And what if you knew who made your jumper and what story was woven into it? In Keeping it Local, researchers, students and makers are working together on a new fashion system that focuses on local production, co-creation and sustainable consumer behaviour. The project investigates how craftsmanship and innovation can reinforce each other in an urban context.
Goal
Keeping it Local is set up as a living lab, where they're looking into how local making processes and collective involvement can help make the fashion system more sustainable.
The key question is: How can local, demand-driven production lead to a more sustainable, meaningful and connected approach to clothing?
By bringing design, production and sales within a single urban ecosystem, the project aims to show that sustainable fashion can also be produced close to home, while maintaining quality, identity and cultural significance.
Tradition meets technology
The contemporary jumpers developed by Maaike Feitsma and Leslie Eisinger are inspired by traditional Dutch fisherman's jumpers. Between 1875 and 1950, these jumpers were knitted by hand in fishing villages along the coast, and each pattern told its own story – about origin, community and identity.
In Keeping it Local, these patterns are reinterpreted. The designs combine historical craftsmanship with digital design techniques, enriching traditional knitting patterns with computer-generated motifs. The result is sweaters that not only refer to the past, but also reflect on the future of sectors such as fishing, fashion, ICT and cultural heritage.
Locally produced
What makes the sweaters produced by the AUAS researchers unique is that they are knitted in one piece using advanced 3D knitting technology. Whereas clothing is normally manufactured in low-wage countries and sewn together, this technology enables local, sustainable production.
The entire chain, from design and production to sales, is integrated within the Amstel Campus of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. The distance between the design studio, the 3D Knitlab and the University Store is only 300 metres. This makes it possible to immediately investigate and optimise the impact of each step in the process.
Only fitting models are presented in the shop, so consumers can view and try on the jumpers and then order a custom-made version. This prevents overproduction and minimises waste. Every jumper is unique, knitted for and with the owner.
Collaboration and co-creation
The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between various educational programmes and partners in the field. Researchers and students are working together with Amsterdam's last commercial North Sea fisherman, Hendrik Kramer, and his crew. Students from Cultural Heritage (Reinwardt Academy), HBO-ICT and AMFI (Amsterdam Fashion Institute) are also participating.
Together, they are investigating how stories, data and technology can come together in a garment that reflects the identity of a community. The collaboration between such diverse disciplines shows how design, heritage and technology can jointly contribute to a more sustainable future for the fashion industry.
Sustainable clothing use
Keeping it Local not only investigates how clothing is made, but also how we treat it. What happens to the bond between wearer and garment when someone is actively involved in the design process? Does this lead to greater appreciation, more careful use and a longer lifespan?
By managing the entire chain internally and integrating it physically, the project offers a unique opportunity to experiment with sustainable interventions – from production to consumption. Researchers track the garments after sale and analyse how personal involvement and local production influence sustainable clothing behaviour.
The project demonstrates how education, research and practice can reinforce each other in the development of innovative, local production systems.
NewTexEco
Keeping it Local is a project of the broad NewTexEco community, in which ArtEZ, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Saxion University of Applied Sciences and more than 30 partners are working together on the transition to a circular textile chain, with design as the driving force.
Research groups and study programmes
Fashion Research & Technology
Fashion Design & Identity
Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI)
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences – HBO-ICT
Partners
North Sea fisherman Hendrik Kramer and crew
Reinwardt Academy – Cultural Heritage
ArtEZ University of the Arts (NewTexEco)
Saxion University of Applied Sciences (NewTexEco)
Amsterdam University of the Arts
National Warm Sweater Day
Metanoia