Lace from tradition to innovation

8 April 2010. The textile industry put its stamp on St.Gallen – and today, St.Gallen lace is still the epitome of high-quality embroidery. A series of public lectures at the University of St.Gallen (HSG), which will start on 12 April 2010, will be looking into the past, present and future of this industry.

Symbol of luxury
St.Gallen lace: a long and successful textile history characterizes St.Gallen’s worldwide image as much as the aesthetics and atmosphere of this Eastern Swiss city with its opulent architecture. The establishment of the HSG, too, is closely related to the textile industry. What lay people simply regard as “lace” is actually the result of masterly embroidery. St.Gallen lace embodies at once myth and desire; it is a symbol of luxury and an avowal of beauty – and isn’t it more newsworthy at present than ever before?

Crisis as opportunity
Particularly in times of crisis, which also always provide opportunities, top-class textiles constitute a necessary antithesis to run-of-the-mill mass products and the accompanying desensitisation to aspects of quality. After all, it is both the essence and the function of fashion to identify trends and “materialize” them as positive stimuli.

And the competencies of St.Gallen enterprises have long made extensive forays into the field of high-tech fabrics for technical and medical applications. The “fine textile” tradition gives rise to equally multi-layered visions of future top achievements.

Personalities from the textile industry
This series of lectures will therefore provide a platform for leading personalities from the textile industry. It not only aims to outline the historical dimensions of sophisticated Eastern Swiss fabrics but, in particular, to illustrate the present significance of the industry and the outlook for the enterprises, which continue to be based in St.Gallen.