Click on a name to jump to the bio and abstract.
Tanveer Ahmed (she/her) is senior lecturer in Fashion and Race at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London and also Course Development lead for MA Fashion and Anthropology, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London. Tanveer’s research recognises the urgent need to explore alternative justice-oriented forms of fashion design by centring plural fashion narratives inspired by pre-colonial concepts of fashion. Tanveer’s PhD titled 'Pluriversal Fashions: Towards an Anti-Racist Fashion Design Pedagogy' investigated how white normativity works to racially hierarchise fashion design epistemologies and used alternative decolonial feminist frameworks to counter dominant exclusionary definitions of fashion design. Tanveer is currently working on a monograph, Fashion and Anti-Racism, forthcoming Bloomsbury.
UNDOING FASHION
De-tooling fashion: tape measures of brutality
In his history of measurement, journalist James Vincent associates tape measures with brutality; why should this matter to students of fashion design and to fashion design education? Expanding upon fashion theorist Sandra’s Niessen’s term ‘defashion’, there is scope to shift fashion making practices away from standardised, heteronormative, racist uniform classifications created using tools such as tape measures, towards liberatory and inclusive fashion making practices: what might inclusive approaches to measuring mean in fashion education and how could they be created and employed?
This presentation will question how fashion’s making processes are built upon and reproduce dominant colonial concepts of the body that measure, classify and construct bodies as plus size, disabled or petite, for example. Discarding these concepts in fashion education is needed to help create and design alternative equitable, anti-racist and inclusive fashion designs. Such processes could help to question why certain fashion design practices hold authority and to speculate on ways to disrupt them.
The presentation will discuss the challenges for re-thinking fashion design education without standardised measurement practices and rethinking the classification of bodies and persons by speculating against monohumanist concepts of the body and towards using alternative fashion tools to support the creation of new and decolonised fashion practices.
Ben Barry is Dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design. His current research, funded by the Ford Foundation, explores how to redesign fashion education and the fashion industry to cultivate disability culture and enable disabled designers to thrive. He holds a PhD in Management from Judge Business School, Cambridge University.
Instagram: @BenDrakBarry
DESIGN JUSTICE
How do we, as fashion educators, enact accessible fashion pedagogies in our courses? How do we move away from dominant teaching logics and transactional accommodation processes, and towards practices that value the wisdom, creativity and transgression that Disabled students bring into the fashion classroom? I share findings from interviews with 35 Disabled students at 10 U.S. fashion schools about their learning experiences. Drawing on the framework of “curricular cripistemologies” (Mitchel and Snyder 2015), I demonstrate that current approaches to support Disabled fashion students do not recognize studio teaching and reinforce compulsory able-bodiedness/able-mindedness in fashion pedagogies. As a result, Disabled students have to engage in self-advocacy and create informal networks to fulfill their needs. I offer strategies for fashion educators to welcome Disability into their pedagogies. My recommendations are guided by the belief that educators must honor how Disability radically reconfigures how we understand, practice and teach fashion.
I’m a Cultural/Historical Studies lecturer/researcher at UAL: London College of Fashion with a recently completed PhD. I’m also co-creator of a cross creative arts institution ‘Solidarity Space’ - an online space for working class academics.
I’ve presented worldwide and published on social class, masculinity, femininity, costume, clothing, and representation.
UNDOING FASHION
The space where learning takes place is semi-public and semi-private (Lefebvre, 1991) it is constituted as an abstract and often fractured (Raey, 2018) space that exists within and throughout each individual learning journey exposed to and experienced via different educational settings. As those individual educational journeys unfold, historical socio-political conflicts around ‘doing’ and ‘thinking’ or theory and practice gain traction and come to dominate the curriculum. It is at this point through the (re)production of legitimized knowledge that the abstract space of learning can be and often is used as a tool for domination. Within this space students experience the attempts that are made to destroy difference and impose homogeneity around what constitutes valuable knowledge. Clearly this reinforces disadvantage.
This presentation will discuss the fractured space of learning, challenge legitimized modes of knowledge production and suggest alternative practices that foreground a space for expression, progress and belonging.
I’m a Cultural/Historical Studies lecturer/researcher at UAL: London College of Fashion with a recently completed PhD. I’m also co-creator of a cross creative arts institution ‘Solidarity Space’ - an online space for working class academics.
I’ve presented worldwide and published on social class, masculinity, femininity, costume, clothing, and representation.
UNDOING FASHION
The space where learning takes place is semi-public and semi-private (Lefebvre, 1991) it is constituted as an abstract and often fractured (Raey, 2018) space that exists within and throughout each individual learning journey exposed to and experienced via different educational settings. As those individual educational journeys unfold, historical socio-political conflicts around ‘doing’ and ‘thinking’ or theory and practice gain traction and come to dominate the curriculum. It is at this point through the (re)production of legitimized knowledge that the abstract space of learning can be and often is used as a tool for domination. Within this space students experience the attempts that are made to destroy difference and impose homogeneity around what constitutes valuable knowledge. Clearly this reinforces disadvantage.
This presentation will discuss the fractured space of learning, challenge legitimized modes of knowledge production and suggest alternative practices that foreground a space for expression, progress and belonging.
Ashley Stevens Chenn is a PhD student in fashion business at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research focuses on digital marketing and entrepreneurship pedagogy. She currently researches how fashion brand can effectively measure consumer engagement in Web3 environments as well student entrepreneurship, with a focus on women students.
DESIGN JUSTICE
Women overwhelmingly comprise the fashion industries customers, low- to mid-level employees, as well as fashion school graduates, however, graduates’ progression into leadership roles remains disproportionately scarce. While DE&I initiatives hold promise for correcting these imbalances that hinder both women and the collective fashion industry in terms of untapped potential and unexplored market opportunities, some critiques indicate that DE&I may be inadvertently creating more sophisticated and covert barriers to inclusion. Addressing this challenge, this presentation explores strategies to empower women students to both overcome and cease perpetuating these barriers. Through interviews with female leaders in the fashion industry, we identify actionable mentoring and guidance tactics aimed at preparing female students for leadership positions within the industry. Industry-informed pedagogical training will realize both the benefits DE&I initiatives intend to foster and position women graduates to lead in the fashion industry.
DESIGN JUSTICE
Women overwhelmingly comprise the fashion industries customers, low- to mid-level employees, as well as fashion school graduates, however, graduates’ progression into leadership roles remains disproportionately scarce. While DE&I initiatives hold promise for correcting these imbalances that hinder both women and the collective fashion industry in terms of untapped potential and unexplored market opportunities, some critiques indicate that DE&I may be inadvertently creating more sophisticated and covert barriers to inclusion. Addressing this challenge, this presentation explores strategies to empower women students to both overcome and cease perpetuating these barriers. Through interviews with female leaders in the fashion industry, we identify actionable mentoring and guidance tactics aimed at preparing female students for leadership positions within the industry. Industry-informed pedagogical training will realize both the benefits DE&I initiatives intend to foster and position women graduates to lead in the fashion industry.
Lucia Cuba is a Peruvian designer, visual artist, and scholar. She is an Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Social Justice, and the Donna Karan Director of the MFA Fashion Design and Society at Parsons. Cuba approaches wearable forms as performative and political devices at the intersection of social justice, design and art.
DEFINING FASHION
Where are the children in fashion?
Children’s dressing and wearing practices are often neglected in fashion design studies, theory, and education; their wearing practices as subject-making performances are shaped by oppressive ideologies such as adultism, the sexualization of children’s fashion, and colonialism.This presentation will explore how diverse forms of fashion education - formal and non-formal- often depict children and their relationships within the fashion system. The presentation will draw from specific case studies and place in conversation the importance of the role of fashion education to subvert these oppressive practices and reclaim a space to relocate children within the fashion systems.
Giovanna holds a PhD in Plant Pathology from Cornell University. She is an Associate Professor at Universidad de los Andes in the School of Architecture and Design. Her teaching, research, and mentoring in biodesign have resulted in a variety of projects winning awards and the emergence of biobased sustainable start-ups.
UNDOING FASHION
Transforming Fashion Education for Climate Justice and Sustainability
The rampant fossil fuel consumption has precipitated a surge in atmospheric CO2 levels, causing a climatic emergency with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, humans, and economies, especially in the Global South. The fashion industry is a significant contributor, predominantly reliant on non-renewable carbon sources for production. Addressing this urgent reality necessitates a paradigm shift in fashion pedagogy, aligning education with the imperative for transformative action. The real challenge stems from how to develop biotech solutions while moving from a consumer-centric demand for fashion. Our proposed approach emphasized student-led initiatives grounded in problem-solving methodologies emphasizing empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing to create innovative solutions. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to showcase projects that bridge design and science, yielding sustainable solutions for fashion's supply chain challenges. Projects like Woocoa, SauColors, Sauria, and Filling Green represent the potential of design students to effect meaningful change within the linear fashion paradigm.
Fiona Dieffenbacher is Associate Professor of Fashion and Associate Dean in the School of Fashion at Parsons. Author of “Fashion Thinking: Creative Approaches to the Design Process” (Bloomsbury 2020), her research is located at the intersection of dress, embodiment and spirituality, focusing on the 'space in between' theory and practice.
Instagram: @fionadieffenbacher
INDUSTRY IMPACT
What tensions and gaps exist between the fashion industry and academia?
How do we preserve and/or invent generative fashion systems within the context of current industry?
How can/do we collaborate with the fashion industry to drive change within fashion practices?
The Size Inclusion in Fashion Lab challenges conventional limited-sizing practices by removing the barriers for industry, and normalizing size inclusivity throughout the curriculum—in design and technical classes as well as in the way we are guiding students to create fashion imagery and communication strategies.
Our guiding questions are:
1. How can we reframe designing for plus-size bodies from a form of activism or solving ‘fit problems’ to a desire to create beautiful clothing for larger bodies?
2. How do we create desire and intrinsic motivation in students to design for and create imagery and communication strategies featuring Fat and plus size bodies?
We will discuss how we have begun to build this foundation - the learning cultures utilized within the Fat Fashion and Fashion Collaboration electives, special projects and collaborations with Smartwool and Universal Standard. We will also discuss the VVEAVE x SIF Lab competition, designed to cultivate the skills that are unique to creating a well-fitting plus product.
DEFINING FASHION
How can/do we encourage students to undo preconcieved ideas about fashion?
This presentation intends to provide macro and micro perspectives on fashion pedagogy. By offering a brief overview of the evolution of fashion education at Parsons over the past two decades, it aims to highlight the responsibility of fashion educators to undo harmful stereotypes perpetuated within our educational and curricular frameworks and the challenges of doing so at scale. From a micro perspective, I will present assignments from Design Studio 1 - one of the first core courses in the BFA Fashion Design program, as an example of an approach that seeks to help students undo harmful perceptions of fashion and identify sources of influence. Rooted in a theory/practice methodology, students are encouraged to confront personal biases, stereotypes of beauty and bodies along with ableist approaches to design via a series of readings that inform their practice. Written responses and group conversations offer space for reflection and recognition that real change begins with the individual.
Daniel is an Assistant Professor of Fashion Management and Social Justice at Parsons School of Design, serving as Associate Director of Curriculum for the MPS Fashion Management program. Their work in digital fashion and identity centers on empowering intersectional queer communities to celebrate and explore their identities in virtual spaces.
Instagram: @danieldrakbarry
Reimaging Fashion Management: Opportunities and Challenges at the Intersection of Business and Justice
The discipline of fashion management is uniquely positioned to address complex social, environmental, and economic challenges. By addressing this in fashion education, we facilitate a nuanced exploration of pressing issues and topics within scholarly discourse while also ensuring their meaningful integration into industry as we prepare leaders of tomorrow.
This session delves into the dynamic realm of fashion management education, overviewing the shift of a traditional fashion management program into one that champions social and environmental justice in the MPS Fashion Management program at Parsons School of Design.
Narratives and experiences about faculty and students dedicated to social and environmental justice principles in their work will be shared, highlighting the challenges they have encountered and the transformative opportunities that have arisen. The reality of the crossroads of business and justice in conjunction with our curricular and co-curricular offerings will be overviewed, alongside our reimagining of a Fashion Management program.
BIO
Steven Faerm is Associate Professor of Fashion at Parsons. He recently released his 3rd book, Introduction to Design Education: Theory, Research, and Practical Applications for Educators (Routledge, 2023). Steven is a graduate of Parsons (BFA), Bank Street College of Education (MSEd), and Harvard University (EdM).
The Role of Empathy in Creating Equitable & Just Learning Environments'
This presentation examines the role of empathy in cultivating equity and justness in the design classroom. To begin, an overview of what constitutes “empathy” and the neurological relationship between emotional affect and cognitive function are provided. Following this foundation, strategic methods for developing empathic, inclusive classrooms are described. These methods include: the approaches to developing course content; the cultivation of relationships and community in the learning environment; and select practices to address students’ needs related to belonging in the community and to alleviate stereotype threats. Then, focus is given to the practice of “Critically Reflective Teaching" by discussing its purpose and fundamental tenets, the ways it can promote empathy in educators, and its subsequent beneficial impacts on both “Gen Z” student development and the advancement of equitable, inclusive learning environments. A well-cultivated and sustained inclusive classroom environment — a place where all students feel supported creatively and intellectually through mutual expressions of empathy — is fundamental to students’ well-being. Incorporating these and additional inclusive pedagogical practices will support students’ feelings of psychological safety, belonging, and inclusivity in design classrooms so they may, in turn, flourish personally, academically, and professionally.
Jane Francis is a pluricultural multidisciplinary creative practitioner and researcher with over 35 years’ experience in the Fashion Industries and Design Education.
Founder of her own fashion label, Jane has worked internationally for leading voices in Fashion including Vivienne Westwood, Tank Publishing and YSL, led, created, and advised on undergraduate and graduate educational programs for Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion, Ima Istanbul, BHSAD Moscow, University or Westminster UK, Academy of Arts University San Francisco and Parsons New York.
Janes academic and educational philosophy encourages student centered creative, progressive thinking, innovation, sustainable & socially aware methodologies in Fashion, through experimental and practical inquiry: locating the traditions and skills of practice within a contemporary fashion landscape.
Instagram: @parsons_fashionproductbfa
Instagram: @thecovertroom
Instagram: @jane.k.francis
DEFINING FASHION
Case study: Parsons BFA Fashion Design x Keds partnership –Building responsible progressive design thinking within Fashion Design curricula.
As responsible educators, we must examine the process of designing for Fashion and what is relevant, responsible and meaningful today. Enabling successful learner outcomes and personal achievement within fashion design study should be inclusive, new, exciting and relevant, underpinned by meaningful understanding of sustainable practices and future societal and ethical impacts. This paper explores these considerations further, through a presentation offering an action research-based case study of an in curricular intervention and collaborative partnership with Parsons BFA Fashion Design x Keds in Spring 2023. The study explores how conscious pedagogy and collaborative approaches can be used as a tool in helping to shape the responsible fashion designer of the future.
Sugandha Gupta is the Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Social Justice at Parsons School of Design. She is a textile artist, designer, and a disability advocate. Employing her embodied experiences as a woman with a disability, she creates sensory textiles that engage a wider audience through their senses. Her creative practice investigates materials through exploration, and transformation using traditional processes. Her research interests are at the intersections of disability, identity, and environmental justice. Gupta’s disability advocacy at museums, national conferences, and universities, redefines disabilities as opportunities and strengths.
DESIGN JUSTICE
Enabling Fashion Through Disabled Perspectives
With the push for designing with and for disabled populations palpable by the Zeitgeist of our times, there is a growing disconnect between the needs, wants, and discourses between the disabled and the mainstream design community. This presentation bridges that gap through an understanding of various models that help frame perceptions of disability such as, the medical, social, cultural and charity model of disability. I will discuss how some of these models perpetuate harm by diminishing the disabled perspectives that are ingenious, inventive and aid new opportunities for design. I will present approaches rooted in Sensory Design, Design Justice, and embodied justice to explore responsible ways of centering disability in the design process. Some of these approaches that inform my teaching pedagogy to facilitate a more equitable, and inclusive learning environment for students with and without disabilities for creating, offering, and presenting design for broader populations will also be discussed.
Olivia is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Pattern Cutting on MA Womenswear at LCF. She has experience teaching and advising on curriculum design internationally. She is a design practitioner and consultant in industry across menswear and womenswear. Olivia’s research on Fit has evolved from a critical pedagogy objective to decolonise pattern cutting curricula.
UNDOING FASHION
Fit But You Know it
FitButYouKnowIt is a practice-based research project which critiques a core concept and practice in clothing design: fit. Through collaborative workshops with fashion design educators and students, we encourage co-creation of knowledge that challenges orthodox teaching of fashion fit which ties fit to western norms. The standardisation and simplification of fit is critical to fashion's ability to sell, ship and scale products globally, and in so doing embeds hierarchies and epistemic injustice through the erasure of particular knowledges.
In this ‘taster’ workshop we will engage you in a hands-on activity, to facilitate a discussion around how, within the classroom, students can draw on their own situated, embodied, tacit and sensory knowledge to undo established ideas around fashion fit.
David Hopwood is the Acting Programme Director: Product at London College of Fashion, UAL. He previously was the Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Development. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in MA Fashion Womenswear, David has a solid and continuing developing knowledge of the fashion industry both in the UK and Europe. David has worked in several different design and production roles as well as special projects with brands, artists and magazines. David has taught and delivered workshops at a variety of universities in the UK prior to joining the course as Course Leader in 2019.
DESIGN JUSTICE
Can empathy be employed as a powerful tool for change?
As educators we are conscious of our own experiences as designers and students.
We teach, create and learn with and through empathy, embedding it within our pedagogical practices.
In this presentation, we will reflect on how we build empathy within fashion education:
o through the sharing of our positionalities
o being transparent about our experiences and vulnerabilities
o acknowledging the structures within the fashion industry
o embracing a world that is subject to change and challenge
Through empathic listening, we work to actively diffuse the power imbalances inherent within student and tutor relationships, building trust in a holistic manner.
Using student examples from BA Fashion Design and Development, we analyse and reflect on ways in which empathy-led teaching pedagogies create space for students to define fashion for themselves, leading to innovative, diverse and inclusive bodies of work that demonstrate student agency and visions of what fashion could be.
Emily’s research is focused on fashion brand strategies that center community, social and environmental justice and drive systemic change. She has an edited textbook titled Communicating Fashion Brands: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2020). Her recent publications include 'New Luxury Ideologies: A Shift From Building Cultural to Social Capital' in Fashion Theory, and 'How digital-only fashion brands are creating more participatory models of fashion co-design' in Fashion, Style & Popular Culture.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Pedagogical approaches for size inclusive design
The Size Inclusion in Fashion Lab challenges conventional limited-sizing practices by removing the barriers for industry, and normalizing size inclusivity throughout the curriculum—in design and technical classes as well as in the way we are guiding students to create fashion imagery and communication strategies.
Our guiding questions are:
1. How can we reframe designing for plus-size bodies from a form of activism or solving ‘fit problems’ to a desire to create beautiful clothing for larger bodies?
2. How do we create desire and intrinsic motivation in students to design for and create imagery and communication strategies featuring Fat and plus size bodies?
We will discuss how we have begun to build this foundation - the learning cultures utilized within the Fat Fashion and Fashion Collaboration electives, special projects and collaborations with Smartwool and Universal Standard. We will also discuss the VVEAVE x SIF Lab competition, designed to cultivate the skills that are unique to creating a well-fitting plus product.
Dr Leila Kelleher is Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Social Justice at Parsons School of Design. She works at the intersection of fashion and biomechanics centering large bodies that are often excluded by the fashion industry. Her forthcoming book on plus sized patternmaking will be published in 2025.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Pedagogical approaches for size inclusive design
The Size Inclusion in Fashion Lab challenges conventional limited-sizing practices by removing the barriers for industry, and normalizing size inclusivity throughout the curriculum—in design and technical classes as well as in the way we are guiding students to create fashion imagery and communication strategies.
Our guiding questions are:
1. How can we reframe designing for plus-size bodies from a form of activism or solving ‘fit problems’ to a desire to create beautiful clothing for larger bodies?
2. How do we create desire and intrinsic motivation in students to design for and create imagery and communication strategies featuring Fat and plus size bodies?
We will discuss how we have begun to build this foundation - the learning cultures utilized within the Fat Fashion and Fashion Collaboration electives, special projects and collaborations with Smartwool and Universal Standard. We will also discuss the VVEAVE x SIF Lab competition, designed to cultivate the skills that are unique to creating a well-fitting plus product.
Teleica Kirkland is a Lecturer in the Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion, a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths University and the founder and Creative Director of the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora; an organisation dedicated to building curricula about dress and adornment from the African Diaspora.
Where Do You Know From? – Developing Critical Pedagogy in Fashion
Ongoing conversations between students and faculty at London College of Fashion highlight adverse and distressing experiences within the learning environment. These qualitative experiences add context to quantitative data within the institution, which reveals a persistent awarding gap. Starkly racialised, this data reflects disproportionate outcomes in educational attainment and experience for students of colour.
The data alongside student-centred conversations become foundational to the development of ideas and actions to improve the learning environment, both in determining what is missing and identifying pedagogic principles to enact change. Using a research model developed by Eugenia Zuroski in 2018 entitled, Where Do You Know From? educators Carole Morrison and Teleica Kirkland initiated workshops to centre students’ identities and implicit knowledge, to determine what is required of both student and institution to develop a sense of belonging. This paper will discuss research development and the first phase delivery of its implementation.
Sara's research and teaching focusses on sensory theoretical and methodological approaches to critical issues in fashion and dress. She has embedded an approach to teaching (informed by her research), that enables students to draw on their diverse lived experience and knowledge{s} to explore their design practice. She is Sensory Design Reviews Editor for The Senses and Society Journal.
UNDOING FASHION
Fit But You Know it
FitButYouKnowIt is a practice-based research project which critiques a core concept and practice in clothing design: fit. Through collaborative workshops with fashion design educators and students, we encourage co-creation of knowledge that challenges orthodox teaching of fashion fit which ties fit to western norms. The standardisation and simplification of fit is critical to fashion's ability to sell, ship and scale products globally, and in so doing embeds hierarchies and epistemic injustice through the erasure of particular knowledges.
In this ‘taster’ workshop we will engage you in a hands-on activity, to facilitate a discussion around how, within the classroom, students can draw on their own situated, embodied, tacit and sensory knowledge to undo established ideas around fashion fit.
Ngan Yi Kitty Lam is currently a Lecturer at School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research areas include fashion and textile design process and the integration of generative artificial intelligence in design education.
DEFINING FASHION
Gen Z's approach to fashion: a blend of cultural appreciation & self expression
Generation Z, the first generation to grow up with the internet, is reshaping the fashion landscape through digital influences and constant changes. This study explores how Gen Z uses fashion as a tool for self-expression, incorporating elements from diverse cultures. The influence of culture is evident, reflecting the global reach of these phenomena. Gen Z's ability to narrate their stories through fashion, aided by artificial intelligence, is noteworthy. This study offers insights into how Gen Z is blurring cultural boundaries and challenging traditional beauty and style norms. The impact of this phenomenon on future teaching and its implications will be discussed.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Academic industry collaboration in sustainable fashion education: the roles, formats and impacts
This paper explores the roles, formats, and impacts of academic-industry collaboration in promoting sustainable fashion within top universities and fashion schools globally. Sustainability drives changes in the fashion industry's business model and operations, necessitating educators to introduce new pedagogies and sustainability-focused content. Academic-industry collaboration has long been an effective tool for improving innovation and job readiness for students, as well as promoting business growth. We selected and conducted a qualitative content analysis of academic-industry collaborative initiatives in 30 fashion programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We categorized the initiatives into 12 different formats. It is found that academic-industry collaboration can play various roles, including resource providers, innovation catalysts, curriculum co-creators, sustainability advocates, and talent mentors. Our study contributes to the understanding that academic-industry collaboration in fashion education is imperative for advancing the sustainable development of the industry.
With 15 years of diverse design experience in manufacturing, retailing, e-commerce, and online platform businesses, my main interests lie in design, new start-up brands, and supply chain management. With a solid background in fashion design and business, I am passionate about driving positive change in fashion industry through innovation.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Decoding fashion: defining fashion in response to the Chinese gen Z dialogue of identity in the digital era
Gen Z has come of age within a world of perpetual transformation. They are a diverse generation in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender, who are strongly influenced by principles of personhood, and intersectionality. Rejecting societal norms, they are unafraid to question and deconstruct the binary, all of which have ushered in a new era of dialogue surrounding identity. Characterized as being the first truly digital-native generation, they possess multiple identities and personas that traverse both the physical and digital. This study focusses on Chinese Gen Z, and how they utilize fashion as a form of self-expression within the physical and digital world. We learn that the very definition of fashion has evolved from its traditional understanding and reveals how they are using fashion as a medium (physical & digital) to communicate and interpret their identities and multiple selves, which in effect is beginning to democratize fashion within China.
Ms. LIU Zeyu is a Research Assistant at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, focusing on sustainable fashion. Previously, she worked at universities in Mainland China for 4 years, winning the 2020 Global Super Model Contest China Academy Division Outstanding Instructor Award.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Academic industry collaboration in sustainable fashion education: the roles, formats and impacts
This paper explores the roles, formats, and impacts of academic-industry collaboration in promoting sustainable fashion within top universities and fashion schools globally. Sustainability drives changes in the fashion industry's business model and operations, necessitating educators to introduce new pedagogies and sustainability-focused content. Academic-industry collaboration has long been an effective tool for improving innovation and job readiness for students, as well as promoting business growth. We selected and conducted a qualitative content analysis of academic-industry collaborative initiatives in 30 fashion programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We categorized the initiatives into 12 different formats. It is found that academic-industry collaboration can play various roles, including resource providers, innovation catalysts, curriculum co-creators, sustainability advocates, and talent mentors. Our study contributes to the understanding that academic-industry collaboration in fashion education is imperative for advancing the sustainable development of the industry.
David joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2022. David leverages his interdisciplinary expertise across digital technology, entrepreneurship, and psychology to elucidate the behavioral micro-foundations driving strategic adaptation, transformative fashion pedagogies, and organizational innovation outcomes. Part of his work has been published in leading innovation and management outlets such as Technovation, Journal of Business Research, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, and Business Research Quarterly.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Leveraging the gig economy for inclusive education: insights from fashion education
This opinion paper cautions against an uncritical embrace of the gig economy in higher education, while acknowledging its potentially disruptive impact on creative disciplines like fashion. It argues that emerging technologies offer exciting possibilities, but may also inadvertently marginalize the next generation of fashion creatives who lack the technical expertise to leverage these innovations. However, the problem runs deeper than skills training alone. Rather, fashion education must adapt to equip students not just with technical competencies, but with the vision and leadership to ethically direct technology for creative ends. Curricular reform is needed, but should be guided by principles that uphold longstanding values of the discipline. Regarding specific skills, entrepreneurial abilities are vital to enable students to translate their aesthetic into sustainable ventures: empowering them as artists and designers. The paper thus calls for an approach that promotes equitable participation for students from all backgrounds, by incentivizing agile skill-building tailored to shifting industry landscapes and aligning assessments with collaborative benchmarks suited for gig work. This roadmap for curricular innovation aims to harness the possibilities of emerging technologies, while empowering and protecting the voices of marginalized fashion students.
Carole Morrison is Head of Social Purpose in the Curriculum at London College of Fashion, (UAL). She co-creates interventions with staff, students, and neighbourhood representatives to embed issues of citizenship, social conscience, and ethics inthe curriculum. She is interested in critical pedagogy and her research explores anti-colonial thinking and practice.
DEFINING FASHION
Leveraging the gig economy for inclusive education: insights from fashion education
On-going conversations between students and faculty at London College of Fashion, UAL, highlight adverse and distressing experiences within the learning environment. These qualitative experiences add context to quantitive data within the institution, which reveals a persistent awarding gap. Starkly racialised, this data reflects disproportionate outcomes in educational attainment and experience for students of colour.
This data, alongside student-centred conversations, becomes foundational to the development of ideas and actions to improve the learning environment, both in determining what is missing and identifying pedagogic principles to enact change. Using a research model developed by Eugenia Zuroski in 2018 entitled, Where Do You Know From? educators Carole Morrison and Teleica Kirkland initiated workshops to centre students’ identities and implicit knowledge to determine what is required of both student and institution to develop a sense of belonging. This paper will discuss research development and the first phase delivery of its implementation.
Dr Haze Ng is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His teaching and research areas include fashion design, sustainable fashion and textile design, design research methodology, and intangible cultural heritage preservation, particularly Hong Kong Cheongsam Making Technique.
DEFINING FASHION
Development of Holistic Sustainable Fashion Design Framework for Guiding Students’ Practice-based Design Projects
Sustainability is a complex concept in the context of fashion design. It involves multiple dimensions and levels of design considerations, including the macro concerns of environmental, social, economic, and cultural factors and the micro concerns of functional, aesthetic, and expressive fashion attributes.
As observed from a learning and teaching development project titled “Appreciation of Intangible Cultural Heritage Through Constructive Design Research – Chinese Natural Dyeing and Eco-printing” conducted by the School of Fashion and Textiles (SFT) between 2022 and 2023, the majority of the participating students were aware of the multiplex contexts in developing sustainability-themed fashion and textile creations. However, the design considerations and development threads appeared to be tangling, unorganized, and confusing to students throughout the practice-based project. A systematic framework would be beneficial for facilitating students’ creative process. This paper introduces the development of theoretical framework for guiding students’ practice-based design projects in the space of sustainable fashion.
UNDOING FASHION
Fit But You Know it
FitButYouKnowIt is a practice-based research project which critiques a core concept and practice in clothing design: fit. Through collaborative workshops with fashion design educators and students, we encourage co-creation of knowledge that challenges orthodox teaching of fashion fit which ties fit to western norms. The standardisation and simplification of fit is critical to fashion's ability to sell, ship and scale products globally, and in so doing embeds hierarchies and epistemic injustice through the erasure of particular knowledges.
In this ‘taster’ workshop we will engage you in a hands-on activity, to facilitate a discussion around how, within the classroom, students can draw on their own situated, embodied, tacit and sensory knowledge to undo established ideas around fashion fit.
Carolina completed an M.A. in Fashion and Sustainability at Aalto University in Finland. After years in the fashion industry, she transitioned to academia and is an Assistant Professor in the fashion school at Parsons School of Design. She's a stakeholder and developer in three biobased startups: Nanofreeze, Woocoa, and E.biodye.
Instagram: @carro.obregon
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Learning to Redesign Fashion: Transforming Fashion Education for Climate Justice and Sustainability
The rampant fossil fuel consumption has precipitated a surge in atmospheric CO2 levels, causing a climatic emergency with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, humans, and economies, especially in the Global South. The fashion industry is a significant contributor, predominantly reliant on non-renewable carbon sources for production. Addressing this urgent reality necessitates a paradigm shift in fashion pedagogy, aligning education with the imperative for transformative action. The real challenge stems from how to develop biotech solutions while moving from a consumer-centric demand for fashion. Our proposed approach emphasized student-led initiatives grounded in problem-solving methodologies emphasizing empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing to create innovative solutions. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to showcase projects that bridge design and science, yielding sustainable solutions for fashion's supply chain challenges. Projects like Woocoa, SauColors, Sauria, and Filling Green represent the potential of design students to effect meaningful change within the linear fashion paradigm.
Sariah Park is Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Social Justice at Parsons and an enrolled member of the Chiricahua Apache Nation. Sariah’s work has been featured in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Women’s Wear Daily, and Vogue, as well as private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Instagram: @sariahpark
DESIGN JUSTICE
Breaking with Western/Eurocentric epistemological practices, this presentation will open the discussion of the evolution of fashion curriculum to include the under-represented and marginalized voices of Indigenous perspectives within the fashion practice. Showing how the dissemination of diverse and unrecognized works within this sphere of fashion education can impact our student body and the ever changing role and responsibility of fashion educators and practitioners to be more inclusive and aware of the first designers and original creators of Turtle Island.
In this presentation, Indigenous ways of knowing and being, worldviews and notions of value will be explored. By centering Indigenous values and methodologies, we will examine how dress and identity are inextricably linked and interconnected with the land within Indigenous communities. Illuminating how identity, material culture, and memory is embedded into place based systems of adornment, dress and making as a practice for Indigenous artists and designers.
Fashion designer, magister in plastic and visual arts. Experience in cultural, artistic and social areas through fashion. Teacher at Colegiatura Colombiana in the fashion design program. My interests appear in the possibility of creating with others from investigative-creative searches.
UNDOING FASHION
Perfil Original y expansión consciente de la moda - Panel en español
(Original profile and conscious expansion of fashion)
At Colegiatura we are committed to the formation of a sensitive and rational construct that each human being forms autonomously from the selective choice and experience of knowledge experiences. This is a search that challenges the teaching and curricular exercise to promote an education in fashion design that allows the development of the unlimited potential of each student and promotes a graduation profile with clarity in professional searches.
This panel seeks to open the door to different actors who are related to the proposal of the Original Profile, allowing the perspectives of a student, a graduate, the head of the career, the director of the school of creative thinking of the institution and a potential employer in the industry, making it possible to present the way in which the Original Profile allows to expand the definitions of fashion.
UNDOING FASHION
Self-awareness from fashion
The pedagogical proposal of Colegiatura applied from the fashion design career crosses dimensions of being to re-know, re-value, re-create and re-signify the corporeality, plurality, relationships with the world and the ways of communicating from the Human Being.
We find the potential of self-awareness of each Human Being for the construction of critical thinking from fashion. By recognizing the dimensions of being, the pedagogical process of fashion expands and allows greater connection with the bodies: physical, social and sensitive to enable the ReEvolution of ideas established in the fashion ecosystem.
Experienced Fashion Academic in Fashion Design and Program Director with experience in womenswear,, menswear, across undergraduates and postgraduate levels. Currently redefining fashion curation with an emphasis on indigenous, subaltern communities.
Born in Cali, Colombia, Liliana studied BA architecture in Bogota and Dublin before settling in England to study Fashion at London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins. In addition, Liliana holds an MA in CPD Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication, University of the Arts London 2016, and she is currently a PhD candidate (practice based) at the Glasgow School of Art.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Hands on Approach
My teaching and learning practice aims for students to make connections between what they do and do not know. As we explore the aesthetics of fashion, we often fail to acknowledge that the vocabulary used to describe this visual phenomenon relates to language learned via our sense of Touch.
Describing garments as soft or silky asks that we already understand how these feels. It relies entirely on knowledge that has been gained through Touch.
Over this last year I have been developing a Material’s Donation Room at Parsons to maximize its potential as a student resource. Besides the obvious benefits of combatting waste and forging links between students and industry, this has provided a fantastic opportunity for students to learn through Touch.
My proposal is a presentation, sharing my experience developing the resource, focusing specifically on its pedagogical benefits having become a space to learn about Touch.
Ryan Houlton studied womenswear at the Royal College of Art, and is an experienced designer and fashion academic. Currently he is the director of the MA Fashion & Textile Design programme for the School of Fashion & Textiles at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Decoding fashion: defining fashion in response to the Chinese gen Z dialogue of identity in the digital era
Gen Z has come of age within a world of perpetual transformation. They are a diverse generation in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender, who are strongly influenced by principles of personhood, and intersectionality. Rejecting societal norms, they are unafraid to question and deconstruct the binary, all of which have ushered in a new era of dialogue surrounding identity. Characterized as being the first truly digital-native generation, they possess multiple identities and personas that traverse both the physical and digital. This study focusses on Chinese Gen Z, and how they utilize fashion as a form of self-expression within the physical and digital world. We learn that the very definition of fashion has evolved from its traditional understanding and reveals how they are using fashion as a medium (physical & digital) to communicate and interpret their identities and multiple selves, which in effect is beginning to democratize fashion within China.
Luke is the co-founder of RANRA Studio. The studio engages in a range of projects from textile development and product design to knowledge production and systems-level interventions. These projects act as a space for poetic yet pragmatic experimentation that challenges existing industry practices and continually questions how and why something is made.
UNDOING FASHION
Fit But You Know it
FitButYouKnowIt is a practice-based research project which critiques a core concept and practice in clothing design: fit. Through collaborative workshops with fashion design educators and students, we encourage co-creation of knowledge that challenges orthodox teaching of fashion fit which ties fit to western norms. The standardisation and simplification of fit is critical to fashion's ability to sell, ship and scale products globally, and in so doing embeds hierarchies and epistemic injustice through the erasure of particular knowledges.
In this ‘taster’ workshop we will engage you in a hands-on activity, to facilitate a discussion around how, within the classroom, students can draw on their own situated, embodied, tacit and sensory knowledge to undo established ideas around fashion fit.
Caroline Stevenson is Programme Director of Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion, providing academic leadership for the Cultural and Historical Studies Department and the Fashion Studies Programme.
A curator and writer, she works across the fields of contemporary art and fashion. She has produced projects and events for major galleries and museums internationally, as well as many pop up spaces. Her curatorial practice has been recognised through grants from Arts Council England and the British Council. Her research focuses on curating as a transdisciplinary and collaborative practice, and on histories of feminist curating. She is currently co-curating an exhibition at London's East Bank, opening in Spring 2026.
Caroline is a member of the Centre for Fashion Curation at UAL and co-editor of Fashion Practice: The Journal for Design, Creative Process and the Fashion Industry.
This presentation concerns the location and use of theory and academic writing within fashion design education. At LCF, students undertake theoretical modules alongside their design classes, which are led and taught separately by the Cultural and Historical Studies Department. This can often create a false spatial and disciplinary divide between practice and theory. Furthermore, it often means that the teaching of theory becomes associated with hierarchical ideas of worthiness and power, weighed down with a perceived ‘academic voice’ (Wilson, 2016). In my presentation, I will discuss a workshop that I have developed that aims to break down these hierarchies by, quite literally, cutting up theory into fragments and reconfiguring it into experimental, visual ‘essays’. The workshop engages students in a practice-based methodologies, using language as a material (Goldsmith, 2011) to construct visual and poetic outcomes, and theory as scraps of ideas to think with - rather than a distant and separate academic field.
Goldsmith, K. (2011) Uncreative Writing. New York: Columbia University Press
Wilson, S. (2016) (2016) Where Theory Belongs. Four Ways to Experience a Seminar in Contemporary Art. Tate Research Centre Working Papers.
Santiago Útima (1992) is a Colombian fashion designer and educator. He is currently a faculty member at the Universidad de Monterrey's Fashion Design Program since 2023, having previously taught at Colegiatura Colombiana (2018-2022). With a BA in Fashion Design and an MA in Fine Arts, he approaches creative practice research through introspection.
Instagram: @santiago.utima
UNDOING FASHION
Recontextualising the creative process of fashion design in Latin American education
This paper explores the recontextualization of Fashion Design by questioning the thematic and aesthetic influence of North America and Europe in Latin America, specifically during the creative processes addressed by students at Universidad de Monterrey Fashion Design Program. Recontextualization is achieved through an inquiry into the personal and collective memory of the nearby territory, enabling direct observation of subjects, objects, and situations as study elements to distance oneself from the unreal and overproduced influence of digital media. The research and the categorization of information for the concept development focuses on personal writing and visual discoveries to push creative possibilities. This approach underscores the creative process as a reflective, poetic, and even a political way to create Fashion that coherently responds to social and cultural local values in conversation with the global context.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Academic industry collaboration in sustainable fashion education: the roles, formats and impacts
This paper explores the roles, formats, and impacts of academic-industry collaboration in promoting sustainable fashion within top universities and fashion schools globally. Sustainability drives changes in the fashion industry's business model and operations, necessitating educators to introduce new pedagogies and sustainability-focused content. Academic-industry collaboration has long been an effective tool for improving innovation and job readiness for students, as well as promoting business growth. We selected and conducted a qualitative content analysis of academic-industry collaborative initiatives in 30 fashion programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We categorized the initiatives into 12 different formats. It is found that academic-industry collaboration can play various roles, including resource providers, innovation catalysts, curriculum co-creators, sustainability advocates, and talent mentors. Our study contributes to the understanding that academic-industry collaboration in fashion education is imperative for advancing the sustainable development of the industry.
Lilia Yip is a Singaporean fashion academic, designer, artist and musician threading the different strands into a creative practice that explores the boundaries between our cultures, identities, philosophies and bodies.
Designing with empathy and respect for material and people are key concepts. Collaboration and the principles of ethical/sustainable practice underpin her design process. Lilia works collaboratively across various art, science and analog/digital technology disciplines, exploring new ways of making, representing and experiencing fashion.
She is a Senior Lecturer and Research Mentor at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Instagram: @liliayiplilia
DESIGN JUSTICE
Can empathy be employed as a powerful tool for change?
As educators we are conscious of our own experiences as designers and students.
We teach, create and learn with and through empathy, embedding it within our pedagogical practices.
In this presentation, we will reflect on how we build empathy within fashion education:
o through the sharing of our positionalities
o being transparent about our experiences and vulnerabilities
o acknowledging the structures within the fashion industry
o embracing a world that is subject to change and challenge
Through empathic listening, we work to actively diffuse the power imbalances inherent within student and tutor relationships, building trust in a holistic manner.
Using student examples from BA Fashion Design and Development, we analyse and reflect on ways in which empathy-led teaching pedagogies create space for students to define fashion for themselves, leading to innovative, diverse and inclusive bodies of work that demonstrate student agency and visions of what fashion could be.