Fashion DIET

Sustainable Fashion Curriculum at Textile Universities in Europe - Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Teaching Module for Educators

Project Number: 2020-1-DE01-KA203-005657

Project Duration: 01.09.2020-31.08.2023

Partner Institutions:

• University of Education Freiburg, Germany (Coordinator)

• Reutlingen University, Germany

• Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi, Romania

• Trakia University of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

Objectives and Results

Fashion is a global business with global supply chains and the fashion industry an extremely energy-consuming, polluting and wasteful system. Fast fashion has accelerated the traditional business model in the fashion industry, encouraging people to buy more clothes by offering low prices and increasing the number of new seasons per year. As the fashion industry continues to grow, the strain it puts on the environment intensifies. Along with this growth in consumption comes a growth in ecological and social impact during the whole textile chain.

Globalisation is also placing strong competitive pressure on the European textile and fashion industry. Concerning the request to decrease its environmental impact, the European strategy for the textile and fashion sector emphasizes sustainable textiles and fashion with an increased benefit by innovation and ecological design. This multidisciplinary field requires extensive new knowledge, taking also into consideration that fashion and textile is one of the most dynamic consumer markets in terms of competitive development.

A strong demand for sustainability in the textile and fashion industry and its global market imposes a continuous implementation of the guiding principle Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in education and industry. The Fashion DIET project envisages the development of new tools for improving key competences of lecturers, trainers, teachers, students and young textile specialists with the following three Intellectual Outputs:

1. Further Education Module

2. Information & E-Learning Portal

3. Teaching and Learning Material

The objectives are prosperity, fair wages and production conditions that are compatible with health requirements and the environment in EU production countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, as well as a knowledge advantage through the transfer of ESD. The didactic content and methodology are developed by four partners in three countries: University of Education Freiburg and Reutlingen University in Germany, Trakia University of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, and Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi, Romania. The university partners will develop, test and evaluate training material, based on state-of-the-art research knowledge in textiles, fashion and sustainability and a long-lasting tradition and experience in textile education.

Official website: fashiondiet.eu