Fashion Education in Sustainability in Practice

Abstract

This paper sets out the experiences of and critical reflections on devising and delivering a Masters level fashion education course in sustainability at London College of Fashion, UK. The course, first established in 2008, has been created from a collaborative, participatory, ecological paradigm and draws on an approach to fashion education that is oriented towards process, action and creative participation in all aspects of the transition to sustainability: social, environmental, economic. This stands in contrast to conventional educational models that concentrate on product or outcome and the preparation of students for economic life. The paper describes the Masters course's broad disciplinary approach and its theoretical framework, drawn from design for sustainability. Through reference to student work, the paper goes on to set out some of the opportunities and challenges that working in this way has presented, including among others; bridging of epistemological differences at an institutional level; new roles for designers working within a framework of sustainability; and emerging ways to visualize the process and practice of sustainability.

Fashion Design Education and Sustainability: Towards an Equilibrium between Craftsmanship and Artistic and Business Skills?

“…Studies on fashion design education from the perspective of the introduction of sustainable fashion issues into the activities and curricula of fashion schools are relatively numerous, but have so far focused on Western Europe (e.g., Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Italy) (e.g., [22][23][24][25]), East Asia (e.g., South Korea, Singapore, and India) [18,26], or non-European Anglo-Saxon countries (the United States, Australia, and New Zealand) [11,27]. In the Polish context, the few existing studies on sustainable fashion have mainly pertained to the demand side of the market-attitudes and behaviours of fashion consumers or activities of particular brands [28][29][30]-rather than offering a broader picture of fashion education.…”

Research on the Dilemma of Sustainable Fashion Design

“…Since overseas education of sustainable fashion design began earlier, there are more abundant resources, and the research achievements made by scholars represented by Professor Frances Corners and Professor Kate Flatcher at UAL, Centre for sustainable fashion have attracted the attention and discussion of the international community of fashion design. However, since the education of sustainable fashion design involves many fields, such as art, engineering, philosophy and sociology, and the educational practice is mainly concentrated among graduate students, large-scale education of sustainable fashion design is still difficult to carry out [12].…”

The Significant of Fashion Ethics Education on Young Fashion Designers and Entrepreneurs

“…Even some are using ethical concepts just for marketing, boosting profit, or following the trend. To make a real change and impact in the fashion industry, designers and entrepreneurs need to have the right understanding and paradigm toward ethical fashion (Armstrong & LeHew, 2013;Faerm, 2012;Fletcher & Williams, 2013). The researcher believes those right paradigms could be thought.…”

“…However, it can be a start to change people's perspective, create a smarter and more ethical fashion people. It helps to make young fashion designers and entrepreneurs understand, make appropriate choices or decisions on their creations and businesses, and be able to engage and contribute the ethical concepts into practice (Fletcher & Williams, 2013;Landgren & Pasricha, 2011).…”