GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: CAROLINA TULGARA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ZIPHOUSE
Carolina Tulgara is the Executive Director of the ZipHouse, a training and workspace hub for fashion designers in Moldova. Carolina holds a Master’s degree in Fashion Creativity from Université de la Mode, Lyon, France.
Founded in 2021 at the recommendation of the Technical University of Moldova (TUM), ZIPHOUSE Design Hub is a public association that aims to enable the light industry to grow by encouraging the creation and acceleration of start-ups, and by creating new collaboration opportunities with actors in the light industry and within the creative industries eco-system, locally and internationally. Can you share with us the story of how it all started, and how the association has evolved over the last year?
The Public Association ZIPHOUSE Design Hub aim is to serve and support the development of the Moldova light industry sector by offering knowledge in innovation, digitization and new technologies, circularity and sustainability. During this year, ZIPHOUSE became the country’s most important educator of fashion and engineering talent, and focused on education, serving the industry. The Association now is more engaged and empowered to assure the implementation of different activities, based on the team’s previous valuable experience, gathered within the implementation of the EDGE Grant.
ZIPHOUSE Design Hub supports various actors, such as teachers from the academic sector, the private sector, students, and professionals in the creative industries eco-system to connect and collaborate for innovation, oriented to European and international markets. What are some of the services you are offering, and what external support do Moldovan start-ups in the light industry need most?
One of the services offered by ZIPHOUSE are the professional courses that aim at enriching the knowledge of our beneficiaries. We are very flexible when it comes to our courses because we want to deliver knowledge to everyone who is interested to learn how the fashion industry works, we have 3 main directions when we develop new programs:
· Courses for kids
Right now, among our main programs, we also focus our attention on the young generation. We want to help kids understand the fashion industry and its specifics from the very beginning of their discovery path. Through the means of our programs, we mentor them to find their creative visions and encourage self-expression;
· Courses for young designers
At ZIPHOUSE we help young designers gain all the necessary information to begin their entrepreneurial path through the means of mentorships delivered by local and international experts. Our goal is to guide them through their challenges and uncertainty;
· Courses for companies from the T&C sector
For companies that conduct a successful business in the textile industry we offer courses that would benefit their interests that are packed with insights from industry professionals;
Moldovan start-ups in the light industry need shared experience with international start-ups in order to adapt to the actual requirements of their beneficiaries. It is crucial to help them connect to international networks of start-ups where they can develop their ideas and learn from others.
Also, a valuable asset is to help create connections between local designers and international ones, this would help them benefit from external support from actors that develop marketplaces available worldwide. Designers sell a lot online, which means that their online selling journey should have access to marketplaces that are already tested.
As one of the USAID EDGE Moldova Competitiveness Transition Activity grantees and beneficiaries, together with your partners, the Light Industry Association (APIUS) and the Technical University of Moldova, you implemented “Supporting Moldova Light Industry Sector Post Pandemic Recovery Through Deployment of Knowledge-Building and Trend Setting Events” Project that aimed to bring development opportunities to the Moldovan light industry sector, support the industry during the post-pandemic recovery period and to consolidate ZIPHOUSE’s capacities. What kind of project activities were implemented in order to achieve that desired outcome?
Now, more than ever, our communities need our support. Both types, and APIUS’s and ZIPHOUSE’s need to be encouraged, promoted, exposed and engaged in different kind of fashion events. That’s why for 2022 the scope is to assure joint fashion events: a fashion show, fashion talks or pop-up shop events, all this, to help our beneficiaries to increase their sales and to be able to maintain their production processes.
As all the activities were oriented to support the light industry in the immediate post-pandemic period, many of the company’s members of ZIPHOUSE and APIUS, are now coming with valuable feedback of gratitude of supporting and encouraging them during these challenging times.
Only now, after a year that pandemic decreased, they are telling us that one of the most important aspects of our support was the psychological one, not only the financial. Because, due to the fact that they knew that ZIPHOUSE is granted to organize events for them, this was also a moment to show them confidence in their talent and in their creativity and know-how.
While the fashion industry has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses with a strong online presence and an ability to quickly adjust their merchandise were better able to withstand the pandemic’s impact. What impact has COVID-19 pandemic had on your association, and what are the lessons learned?
Since the first days of the pandemic, ZIPHOUSE was forced to reorient all physical activities to another new and unexpected format. Between the urgent mask production by our students and academic staff for the Moldovan people needs and the rethinking of all activities concepts, our team had to manage to take the lead and adapt all previously agreed activities into a new one, taking into consideration the needs of the industry.
As a team, the most important lessons learned are that we achieved competences to organize the community to work online, to manage our own team and to use this experience from now on for all ZIPHOUSE’s events.
The fashion industry has significantly evolved and become extremely digitally-savvy. Many companies are now advancing by creating visually appealing online stores, integrating payment gateways, and offering highly efficient delivery logistics. What are some of the major technology trends for the next decade in the fashion industry?
With the support offered by EDGE Project, we generated 3D Prototyping courses applied for the development of the local textile industry. Our accomplishments offered us the opportunity to organize a Train the Trainer project through the means of which participants develop the knowledge and skills they need to teach the course by themselves. The impact for the industry is visible because service providers increase their capacity to answer to requests of a higher complexity thus making the local industry more competitive and specifically making it more digital.
We would like to extend the innovation spectrum applied locally in order to determine designers to create collections that foster their creativity and individuality by combining a whole new range of practices and surprising options. Here we can mention E-textiles, computational couture, wearables, skin electronics, and soft robotics.
