PLEASURES AND POLITICS OF FASHION EDUCATION
Fashion Research Unit Workshop - September 4th 2015
PLEASURES AND POLITICS OF FASHION EDUCATION Fashion Research Unit Workshop It is clear that we must cultivate new ways of thinking, doing and being fashion to shape a future in fashion that is innovative, inclusive and interdisciplinary. If we are to support creative
practitioners – designers, writers, thinkers and curators etc. – to actively challenge traditional boundaries we will need to move
beyond current fashion education models and explore the politics and complexity of fashion.
On the 4th September 2015 practitioners, lecturers and students from across London and beyond came to Goldsmiths for a day of participation, inspiration and discussion with the aim of building a community of practitioners and researchers fostering such inclusive cultures in and through fashion (education).
After provocations from recent Goldsmiths graduates Lili Golmohammadi (MA Design Education) and Cyrielle André (MA Fashion), Bridget Harvey and Johannes Reponen facilitated a set of workshops. These workshops inititated conversations around definitions, practices and approaches helping us to create spaces for critical and reflective fashion. Many thanks to all those who attended and participated with such energy and openness. To be continued...
INTRODUCTION THROUGH GARMENTS Each participant was asked to bring a
garment that reminds them of a positive fashion moment / experience
CORE QUESTIONS What could fashion education look like if we reconnected theories with practices, empathy with aesthetics and trends with their social and cultural contexts? How can we teach fashion as a collective process beyond the seasonal and the hierarchies and re-imagine fashion as a mode of togetherness?
FASHIONING CRITICAL APPROACHES JOHANNES REPONEN
In the face of global change, now, more than ever before, fashion needs more criticality as it occupies an even more prominent role in popular cultures, societies and use of resources. Fashion education plays a key part in creating an environment that allows future fashion professionals to acquire tools for critical fashion practice to address this change. But, what are these tools for thinking, creating and communication like and what does critical practice even mean in context of fashion and education?
FORMING FASHION: HAPTIC LEARNING BRIDGET HARVEY
Is it possible to make
garments which extend beyond their clothing
function, which allow us to walk through our lives and those of others, which
connect beyond trends
through their making and
materials? If so, how do we set about making such a
garment, and communicating the importance of that
making to those learning from us?
SHARING OUTCOMES
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
THE FASHION RESEARCH UNIT at Goldsmiths is a platform for
the exploration of fashion in context driven from perspectives on
Provocations: Lili Golmohammadi and Cyrielle
fashion, dress and textiles. Goldsmiths’ reputation for challenging
Workshops: Bridget Harvey and Johannes Reponen
Research Unit to take a unique and leading role in understanding
Documentation: Drawing/notes - Cyrielle André, Mirim Song
creative economies of fashion. This is vital for shaping a future of
Liboni Munnings, and all participants of the workshop with
serves as a space for cross pollination between researchers and
and questioning existing paradigms, positions the Fashion
and shaping emerging political, social, cultural, ethical and
and Ingrid Thompson. Photographs - Melissa Goodfellow,
fashion that is reflective, inclusive and interdisciplinary. The unit
disposable cameras.
practitioners from diverse departments across Goldsmiths,
Emma Hoette for her generous support on the day.
students and external guests through discussions, conferences,
BRIDGET HARVEY’s practice is tactile and desirable; visual and ornamental, inspired by costume, patina and narrative,
occupying a liminal space between design, craft and fine art. Within her practice she undertakes residencies, facilitates
workshops and other events, curates and writes. She is currently studying towards a practice based AHRC PhD exploring repair and hand(re)making.
JOHANNES REPONEN is the course leader for a new integrated masters degree in Fashion Media Practice and Criticism in London College of Fashion alongside researching fashion
criticism as part of his practice based PhD. He also edits and
publishes Address - journal for fashion criticism dedicated for
approaching fashion from a critical perspective and writes about fashion and design for a variety of international publications.
including a programme of events to present the work of the unit, workshops, exhibitions and publications.
RUBY HOETTE is Programme Lead for the MA Fashion and works as a designer/curator/researcher and facilitator exploring fashion in context through the intersection of theory and practice. Her
work proposes alternate modes of accessing and engaging with
fashion. It frames the garment as a unique artefact carrying traces of social and cultural interactions and transactions.
KATHERINE MAY works as a Lecturer on the MA Fashion and as a designer/researcher and facilitator tracing the threads that weave together textiles and society. Through research and
making she explores the origins of materials and the story of
techniques. Her projects often reflect specific social contexts and emphasise participation by dressing or inhabiting these spaces.
The work exposes the relational aspects of textiles and subverts processes of value production.