Alexandre Lordelo was born in Santos, Brazil. A city where he grew up surfing. He ended up in the textile industry where he has worked throughout the entire value chain and run his own clothing store in Sao Paolo for six years. With a genuine interest in design, Alexandre wanted to create his own collections and then discovered the problem of complicated and elaborate processes in the supply chain. Twelve years after he decided to tackle the problem, he has moved into FashionInk and is close to a solution with his digital platform T-Studio.
Alexandre Lordelo in one of Borås Incubator’s conference rooms
Although Brazil has a fashion industry in full bloom, logistics in the industry is a well-known problem which, among others, H&M experienced when they after two years of efforts decided to shut down their establishment in the country. Alexandre Lordelo became aware of the problem early in his career and through a course in 3D design he got the idea of digitizing the creative process to simplify it for all parties.
– I started designing my own clothes, but when I realized how intricate logistics was to get patterns and fabrics and sew up collections, I changed focus and began developing a system to simplify that process, Alexandre says.
Alexandre, who also has a Portuguese passport, moved to Portugal where it is easier to start a business and develop the idea. He also applied to H&M’s global contest Global Change Award. Out of 3000 ideas, Alexanders was chosen as top 20 and go to go to Stockholm to pitch. In Stockholm Alexandre got in contact with people who advised him to contact FashionInk to further develop his idea.
– I contacted Simon (Business Developer at FashionInk) and after just one meeting between us, I decided to move to Borås. In early August I got the keys to my own office in the Borås Incubator’s office hotel and now my full focus is on starting a company in Sweden. Simon and FashionInk are an invaluable resource in gaining a structure in that process.
T-Studio, which is an abbreviation of Textile Studio, is a digital platform for all actors in the design process when developing new clothing collections. Everything from students to large companies. It will also serve as a social network where designers can buy and download patterns and fabrics directly into the software, design on avatars (artificial humans), print prototypes in 3D printers while communicating with sellers and buyers. Everything on the same platform.
– Imagine what you as a designer do in the process of developing a new collection. Everything from going shopping to creating prototypes, but you handle it digitally and don’t have to travel worldwide to get the same job done.
Alexandre divides his journey in three steps. First, he wants to digitize the design process in the fashion industry. In two months, he releases his first beta version to test it on fashion design students at The Swedish School of Textiles, as well as one of the world’s largest fashion companies. Step two is to connect all players in the fashion industry and gather them on the platform. This way he will decentralize the entire industry in step three.
– We can no longer travel across the globe to buy fabrics, visit factories and meet dealers, it is not sustainable – neither economically nor environmentally.
Alexandre enjoys Borås. He appreciates the proximity to everything and the beautiful scenery and tranquility. In a week, his wife who also has resigned from her job in the financial industry in Sao Paolo, moves to Borås – the textile capital of Sweden. Not least, Alexandre likes Textile Fashion Center. Here he finds everything he needs to develop his idea to its full potential: The Swedish School of Textiles, research and networks. And mostly the business development service at FashionInk, which is crucial in Alexander’s process of starting a company in Sweden at this point, to what hopefully will revolutionize the world’s fashion industry.