RadiciGroup-POLIMI partnership for the design of high-performance sailing wear

Creating a mini capsule collection of caps for both professional and amateur yachters and regatta sailors. That was the objective of the UV Protection and Innovative Cap Design workshop, which recently took place at the scientific-technological university Politecnico di Milano for students enrolled in the Fashion Design Master’s programme.

As in the Sportswear Design workshop held in the autumn of 2017, the participating students from countries around the globe were split into 4 workgroups with the goal of developing collection proposals and presenting prototypes.

Besides RadiciGroup – which introduced the students to various yarns that could be used for the specific application –, two other companies collaborated on the workshop: Master Italia S.p.A., a cap and hat specialist, and Slam S.p.A., a manufacturer of sailing sportswear. 

“After the positive experience of our collaboration with POLIMI on the design of garments for the Alpine Rescue Corps of Lombardy, in the second workshop we continued our  young designer training programme starting from the knowledge of raw material characteristics,” noted Marco De Silvestri, marketing director of the RadiciGroup Comfort Fibres Business Area. “The students chose their materials from the range of synthetic fibres proposed by RadiciGroup. They matched the functions of the different parts of the cap with fibres not only ensuring high UVA, UVB, and UVC protection, but also capable of retaining their high-performance characteristics over time.”