Purpose: The on-going transition of societies and economies toward different organizational paradigms deeply informed by digital technologies is at the very center of current debates, involving scholars and impacting on a broad context of disciplines, ranging from humanities to science and technology. Therefore, the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution” has been described as a model where new modes of production and consumption will dramatically transform all major industrial systems; it has been targeted by many governmental plans as a goal for a sustainable future. While general frameworks describing 4.0 paradigm are codified and accessible, implementation strategies and their implications on specific local and sectorial systems are largely unexplored. Starting from this assumption, this paper aims to provide insights on the current state of the art and major trends of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, possibly identifying its impacts on the textile and apparel industry. Design/methodology/approach: From a methodological standpoint, the study approaches the topic from the perspective of fashion domain experts which can contribute, with a positioning essay, to better understanding Industry 4.0 (I4.0) implementation within their specific domain. This experts’ perspective is enriched by several descriptive case studies (Yin, 1984) offering examples and insights on possible implementation of I4.0 solutions in fashion industry, also showing the potential of a design driven perspective. Findings: Starting from a synthesis of I4.0 framework and principles, the paper aims at showing their impacts on business units, processes and components within the specific context of the fashion industry. Through emerging evidences detected by experts’ domain perspective and exemplified by several descriptive cases, it offers a comprehensive overview of the potential implications of the Forth Industrial Revolution on this specific business. The picture drafted clearly shows how digital transformation, properly driven, could reshape the fashion industry into a more sustainable and truly customer-driven business. But, it also underlines criticalities and slowness of adoption by traditional established brands and companies. As a result, being focused on on-going phenomena, highly unexplored, it shows possible trajectories, enabling an effective transformation of textile and apparel industry embracing the I4.0 paradigm. Originality/value: The paper has a broad perspective and could offer insights to different audiences, which could effectively contribute to a positive transition, to scholars and academics, who might want to better address the implementation of I4.0 model into real economic and social context, focusing on medium – long-term implications and showing innovation pathways which are still unexplored, second to practitioners, who are usually immersed into strict silos of competences and business functions and can start to build new bridges and interconnection within the system, taking advantages of I4.0 potential, finally to policy-makers who can better shape development frameworks targeted to specific industries whose features require peculiar approaches and actions.

Over recent years, the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) has led to the emergence of numerous tools for the creation of visual and textual content. This technological advancement, supported by increasingly robust data management systems and targeted research efforts in this direction, has driven the continuous refinement of Machine Learning and Deep Learning models. As a result, Gen AI tools have demonstrated ever-increasing performance, leading to their rapid adoption in various sectors, including the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). Here, they are being integrated into value-creation pipelines, potentially impacting both production processes and career prospects for creative professionals. As a consequence, critical questions have emerged about the widespread use of Gen AI, related to the nature of their generative capabilities, often encapsulated under the umbrella term of “computational creativity,” which has begun to challenge the traditional conception of creativity as an intrinsic and exclusive capacity of human beings, with implications across all fields in which human creativity is central, such as the design disciplines. In light of the current scenario, the presented research aims to discuss the application of Gen AI tools for image, text, and video generation in fashion design. The analysis draws on the results of a didactic laboratory entitled Artificial A(i)rchive, which involved design practitioners from the Master’s degree course in Design for the Fashion System at Politecnico di Milano. Within this workshop, the adoption of Gen AI was investigated, examining how AI was integrated at various stages of the design process and highlighting both the potential and shortcomings of applying Gen AI to support the activities of fashion designers. The article thus aims to contribute to the discussion and identification of collaborative models between fashion designers and AI, while situating the findings within a broader reflection on emerging creative practices and their potential implications.

The proposed article addresses pressing sustainability challenges, advocating for a profound transformation of existing development models, particularly emphasizing sustainable production and lifestyles. Utilizing a research method grounded in a comprehensive international knowledge base, the study explores the evolution of design for sustainability (DfS) approaches. Its significant contribution lies in systematically investigating connections among diverse DfS approaches, providing an initial framework for situating practices within the fashion and furniture industries. The research outcomes obtained iteratively involve mapping design-driven sustainability practices in European fashion and furniture companies. This mapping reveals a transition from a product-centric to an organization-centered design perspective, calling for a holistic ecosystemic framework to revolutionize business operations. The article analyzes contemporary design-driven practices, proposing an interpretative model that identifies ongoing practices fostering incremental changes toward sustainability guided by design. Furthermore, the article outlines a three-stage design-driven sustainability continuum, synthesizing potential future trajectories. Beyond contributing to the understanding of current practices, the research provides insights into future possibilities, highlighting the transformative role of design in reshaping consumeristic systems. Ultimately, the study offers valuable insights into the transformative power of design, paving the way for sustainable business practices in the fashion and furniture industries.

Branded content appears to be the most promising frontier of contemporary companies’ strategies within our hyperconnected society. This new context requires brands to demonstrate an increasing capacity to engage customers in continuous interactions and cultural exchanges through on-going narratives co-created with their audiences and perceived as authentic components of their hybrid physical-digital daily experiences. Within the physical-digital networks of interactions, (fashion) brands assume a new social role largely as original contents’ producers and editors. Products lose their ultimate meaning while narrations that deliver brands’ values become the true reason the public engages in conversation with the brands and recognises their social and cultural influence as their actual value. Maintaining distance from the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility as a mere greenwashing act, this paper presents an exemplary design practice seeded and nurtured in Mumbai and later grown globally, rooted in the idea that social innovation and culturally intensive industries such as fashion can enfranchise social innovation.

The paper approaches the subject of traditional craft and local know-how from the perspective of design practice. The specific focus is on those fields of design that produce the so-called culture-intensive goods (Hesmondhalgh, 2002; Bovone and Mora, 2003), such as fashion, home goods and food. They are the result of recombination by design of a specific cultural capital into new shapes and meanings. Thanks to "Made in Italy" best practices context selected in those fields, the paper will discuss how design shapes future artefacts rooted in the reinterpretation of the past. On one hand, accessing craft culture and its reiterative attitude of transmission of identity and tradition along times. On the other hand, recombining craft processes into reconfigured practice, encoding different meanings into new narratives.