Hommage à l‘ère industrielle takes its visual point of departure from the photographic and cine- matographic works of Edward S. Curtis, Sebastião Salgado, Thomas Struth and Nikolaus Geyrhal- ter. Using a documentary approach, they deal, amongst other things, with the misery and the »beauty« of technological progress; the frictionless order of modern world systems, and the loss of control over the ever-expanding technological environment. The collection manifests the said philo- sophical and sociological subjects in its design concept. It is a tribute to the industrial age, the people and their work that has shaped the present cultural landscape. An imperative precondition and ideogram for heavy physical labour is robust and functional clothing, which is designed to the requirements of certain fields of activity. The broad design spectrum within functional workwear un- derlies the main principles of construction. Hommage à l‘ère industrielle takes the conventional standards of fabrics and workwear as its impetus, and redefines the aspects of functionality.