London College of Fashion is Shaping Lives Through Fashion

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

Front cover image courtesy of Allies and Morrison

Fashion

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Means Business Makes Style Tells Stories Shapes Lives

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL

Welcome to London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London (UAL), where we have nurtured creative talent for over a century.

The subjects we teach at London College of Fashion, UAL are immensely broad – from film-making and jewellery design, to entrepreneurship, fashion illustration and cosmetic science – but across all of our courses, we teach students to collaborate and look beyond the traditional notions of fashion in order to question, challenge and innovate the industry from within.

There are four ‘pillars’ that make up London College of Fashion, UAL: Fashion Means Business Fashion Makes Style Fashion Tells Stories Fashion Shapes Lives We believe in using the subject of fashion, together with its industrial importance, to shape lives and drive socio-economic transformation at the local, national and global level. The College’s impending relocation to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2022 will enable us to further develop our connections with the local community in east London.

The move to east London and its environs present numerous opportunities: the surrounding boroughs of Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets are among the poorest in the capital and there is a 13% gap in GCSE attainment between disadvantaged school children in the area and those not facing disadvantage. Our Widening Participation and Insights teams work with local schools to not only help children gain a place at London College of Fashion, but to fully support them while they are studying with us.

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We are equipping students with the education necessary to tackle issues of environmental sustainability and worker exploitation, and I believe that with this knowledge and the selfconfidence to succeed, our graduates will have the power to revolutionise the fashion industry.

Integral to this belief is the means of ensuring that those students come from the most diverse backgrounds.

By bringing together all of our disciplines, over 5,500 students and 500 staff under one roof for the first time at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the College will uncover unparalleled opportunities and foster new collaborations, which will redefine fashion. Through partnerships with our soon-to-be neighbours, including the V&A, Sadler’s Wells, the BBC, Loughborough University and University College London (UCL), as well as the local boroughs, we have already spearheaded innovative research projects and community initiatives to benefit both our students and the wider public.

London College of Fashion’s new building will act as a catalyst for all we want to achieve: creating a new education and cultural destination in east London; reinvigorating the creative talent pipeline; contributing to the UK economy and working with local communities; and developing research and innovation to promote sustainability within the fashion industry. London is the creative capital of the world and so by joining forces with our future neighbours in east London, we ensure the future of this College as a world-class educator for the next century.

Frances Corner Head of London College of Fashion, Pro Vice-Chancellor, UAL

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

History

London College of Fashion, UAL

Founded in 1906, London College of Fashion (LCF) is a leader in fashion design, media and business education. Part of University of the Arts London (UAL), it has been nurturing creative talent for over a century, offering courses in all things fashion through its three schools: the School of Design and Technology, the Fashion Business School and the School of Media and Communication.

Since its inception in the east end of London, which has historically been a centre for innovation and creativity in the UK, LCF has had an eye to the future, rigorously identifying new ways of working and adapting its curriculum to meet the needs of an ever-changing fashion industry. This approach to design education, combined with its close ties to business, has enabled the College to serve as a pipeline for creative talent.

5,594 4,657 640 40% 11% 113

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Students Undergraduate Postgraduate International EU countries Countries

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Science lesson, LCF Archives

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

East Bank

London College of Fashion, UAL

“London’s centre of gravity is clearly moving east and it is right that culture and education should be at the heart of this new metropolitan area.”

To continue its mission of providing the best in fashion education, LCF plans to return to its roots in east London: in 2022, the College will move to a new campus located on Stratford Waterfront, which forms part of the Mayor of London’s vision for a new cultural and education district known as East Bank.

– Sadiq Khan, The Mayor of London

Set within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park between the fast-growing metropolitan centre of Stratford and the artistic hub of Hackney Wick, East Bank will include worldleading institutions and serve as a creative powerhouse for artistic excellence, learning, research, performance and exhibitions.

Partners in the development include the BBC, Sadler’s Wells, Smithsonian Institution, V&A and University College London (UCL) alongside a host of neighbouring organisations, such as the British Council, Here East and Studio Wayne McGregor. East Bank will facilitate pioneering collaborations across disciplines and enable LCF to expand its reach to a wider, more diverse audience than ever before.

East Bank will: — Build on the east end’s centuries-long heritage in the fashion and garment manufacture industry — Support existing east London fashion enterprises — Create further economic growth and social engagement for the area

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Photography by Unai Mateo Lopez

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

The Building

London College of Fashion, UAL

Currently, LCF occupies six sites across London, so its relocation to Stratford Waterfront will bring students, staff and courses together under one roof for the first time in history. This will undoubtedly have a transformational impact on the way everyone works together and foster a greater sense of community.

Designed by London-based firm Allies and Morrison, the new building will reflect this aspiration: with transparent glass walls, high ceilings and an open plan structure spread over thirteen floors, the building’s design will serve to integrate students’ experience and promote creative exchanges that previously were not possible.

Accommodating up to 3,500 people at any one time, the building will feature publiclyaccessible spaces, including an expanded Fashion Space Gallery and a highly-visible area for students to showcase their work. In addition, there will be four lecture theatres, state of the art studios and workspaces, a new library and ample space for community engagement spread across 32,000m².

The inclusive design of the new campus will not only revolutionise the way LCF works, but will also serve to engage the public and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration with our neighbours across East Bank and the wider east London community.

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Image courtesy of Allies and Morrison

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL

4Fashion Project

Always forward-thinking, LCF has been inspired by the new building to re-examine its vision and launch a relocation project called 4Fashion, which identifies four priorities: - Deliver excellent fashion education for all who choose it - Encourage enterprise and incubation to support students, alumni and the wider fashion economy - Drive impactful research to effect change and innovation - Build Better Lives for a sustainable and socially conscious future Through these initiatives, LCF aims to optimise student experience, build strong links with the local community in east London and ultimately, redefine what fashion education can be by connecting a diverse range of academic disciplines for the first time under one roof.

Visit blogs.arts.ac.uk/4fashion to stay up to date with our relocation project.

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1. BA18, Photography

by Tony Patterson 2. BA18, Menswear

by Joseph Standish, Photography by Chris Daw 3. MA18, Photography

by Unai Mateo Lopez

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL

Widening Participation

Student Support

EAST-Education

UAL Insights

LCF is committed to nurturing the best creative talent and believes that widening participation in higher education is essential to this mission – regardless of financial background. Students are encouraged to apply for scholarships, awards and bursaries, but the rising cost of tuition, both for home/EU and international students, makes higher education increasingly difficult for many families to afford.

To expand the reach of UAL’s Insights programme, LCF, along with its fellow East Bank partners, is building a distinctive approach to raising aspiration and attainment in young people, predicated on creativity, inquiry and technology.

To support this aim of widening participation, UAL has an established outreach programme called Insights, which partners with 110 schools and FE colleges across Greater London. It targets children and young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, including those whose parents or guardians have not completed a university degree themselves, to stimulate interest in arts-based careers.

In anticipation of the move to Stratford, LCF plans to promote student support as one of its main initiatives with the aim of making financial aid available to a wider group of students than ever before. This ambition will be realised through the generosity of alumni, companies, philanthropists, and trusts and foundations, so that the College may retain the best creative talent regardless of economic barriers.

East London has one of the youngest populations in the country and is expected to grow over the next 10 years. EAST-Education will ensure that local school children have the skills, knowledge and confidence in arts, science and technology. Pilot activities will allow them to create, innovate and experiment by combining disciplines such as fashion, technology, science and the arts.

According to a recent NESTA report, 85% of job roles in 2030 do not even exist yet.

There is a 13 percentage point gap in GCSE attainment between Newham’s disadvantaged school children and those not facing disadvantage. With the exception of Redbridge, the proportion of 19 year olds without Level 3 qualifications across all east London boroughs is at least 30% and rising to beyond 40%.

Social Mobility Commission State of the Nation report of March 2017, Alan Milburn

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Photography by Natalia Quierolo

The Insights team has developed a progression model to support students aged 16 and over with their portfolios and applications. The progression structure includes a general Spring School, a more specialist Summer School, followed by sessions on portfolio development and interview preparation.

In 2017/18 LCF’s home full-time undergraduate student body included 36% from low SocioEconomic Classifications. Our profile in respect of students from black and minority ethnic groups was 31% – this is well above average when compared to other UK universities but we want to do better.

Students who complete the course are guaranteed interviews for places on our University courses. Success rates are high – currently 78% of those students applying through Insights gain a place at LCF.

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

Better Lives

London College of Fashion, UAL

Social impact has been embedded in LCF’s culture since its inception: as the product of a merger between the Shoreditch Technical Institute Girls School (est. 1906), the Barrett Street Trade School (est. 1915) and the Clapham Trade School (est. 1927), LCF has historically provided specialist technical training to those excluded from traditional further education routes.

Centre for Sustainable Fashion

The Beauty’s Inside

The Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) is a research centre dedicated to utilising ecological and social sustainability as a lens for design in fashion’s artistic and business practices. Through transformational design, the CSF seeks to fulfil the Better Lives agenda within ecological boundaries.

Today, LCF champions social impact through its Better Lives work, which focuses on developing and implementing methods by which fashion can effect positive change on modern society. Since the launch of Better Lives in 2008, the College has spearheaded several unique projects.

The CSF has partnered with Kering (recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as the most sustainable luxury goods company) to launch the world’s first open access digital course in luxury fashion and sustainability, which aims to strengthen sustainability education in the luxury and fashion realms in order to promote the wider adoption of more sustainable practices.

LCF’s School of Media and Communication embarked on a collaboration with HMP Send to produce a unique publication, entitled The Beauty’s Inside. Four issues have been published between 2012 and 2016, and the project was publicly recognised when it won the Times Higher Education Outreach Award in 2013.

Other projects include being contributing partners on the V&A’s 2018 exhibition Fashioned from Nature; an ongoing partnership with H&M and students from BA (Hons) Creative Direction to create window displays with recycled garments; a makers project with Nike to create a digital tool for innovation in design, and Professor Helen Storey’s Catalytic Clothing, which used nanotechnology in the laundry process so that our clothes have the potential to clean the air around us.

Thanks to the CSF, LCF’s curriculum has been revamped so that all students are educated to use/employ best sustainability practices in their work.

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HRH The Countess of Wessex visiting HMP Downview, Press Association

The project has engaged with over 60 women prisoners and 38 LCF students across 13 different courses.

“The ‘civvies’ from LCF have been brilliant.

I’ve always tried to make my letters to people interesting, but I never realised until this project that people actually think it’s good writing. And if you’ve got confidence in yourself, you can fly.”

– Participant

“I always find it hard to be a part of a group, but the people from the university have been so good to work with, and every week it’s getting a bit easier for me. I’m so glad I joined in. It just sparks me talking with people coming from outside with fresh ideas about fashion and art, and I’m now doing more paintings than ever… I really mean it, this has changed my life. I can actually see a way forward now for the first time in my life.”

– Participant

“Overall I think the project has been fantastic and easily the best thing I’ve done all year, in the sense that I have learnt a great deal…. I feel I have gained insight, maturity, understanding, patience, compassion and learned to not judge as quickly as I usually do! I feel the inmates have learned that the human race can be good (!), that people care, and that they are also important and interesting, and individuals in their own right.”

– LCF Student

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL

Design and Make The charity ART AGAINST KNIVES (AAK) works with young people living in areas of London affected by violent crime, supporting them to gain opportunities to access education, employment and training. DESIGN+MAKE, a collaborative project between LCF and AAK was launched in 2014. The project gives young adults the opportunity to take part in a two-week programme led by industry professionals and supported by LCF students.

Project participants engage with research, design and traditional leatherwork skills to make a handcrafted leather bag. A follow-on nine-month mentoring programme supports participants’ personal and professional development, and implements action plans for their futures. The mentor works closely with participants and is vital in enabling the young people to break down personal barriers and facilitate permanent positive change.

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“It opened doors to new places that I’ve never been and provided me with a big opportunity.”

– Participant

“I want to thank the team at LCF and Art Against Knives for helping me out. I’m going to use my bag – it’s part of the brand I want to create.

My plan is to start working on one off pieces and promote that through social media, and continue working on clothes and other products.”

– Participant

Photography by Hanna Puskarz

“The course was really rewarding.

I learnt a lot in the 2 weeks that I will take with me to better my career in the fashion industry.”

– Participant of Art Against Knives

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL

Making for Change Making for Change is a fashion training and manufacturing unit within HMP Downview women’s prison. Established by the Ministry of Justice and LCF in 2014, the project aims to increase well-being and reduce reoffending rates amongst participants by equipping them with professional skills and qualifications within a supportive environment.

Employment, when supported by appropriate education and training, is key to reducing reoffending in women, who make up 5% of the prison population in the UK. There is a critical shortage of technically skilled people for fashion manufacturing roles in London and the UK, so Making for Change aims to grow this workforce by delivering industry recognised qualifications to women at HMP Downview.

Making for Change delivers Level 1 and 2 ABC awards in Fashion & Textiles alongside the production of commercial orders, which provides participants with real work experience as part of their training. LCF’s connections with manufacturers ensures that training reflects up-to-date production methods and techniques, as well as offering links to potential employers on release.

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“I got a part time job being a sewing machinist. I felt absolutely brilliant, it felt like a weight lifted as I had disclosed my offence and they still offered me the job.

I am feeling good right now and I am looking forward to my future.” – Participant* “I think this project, it changes people, it changes your mood, it changes yourself within you and then you see the future in it, the thing that you learnt.” – Participant* “The women see the new career opportunities from it.” – Staff* “There is a skills shortage of quality sewing machinists and cutters in London, with manufacturers consistently looking for machinists.” – Making for Change Industry Advisor* *An independent evaluation of Making for Change: Skills in a Fashion Training & Manufacturing Workshop

Suffragette 100 Years: Processions Rehearsal Photography by Lance Tabraham

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

Poplar Works

London College of Fashion, UAL

The move will be preceded by the next phase of LCF’s Making for Change programme. This will be a fashion manufacturing unit designed to train and employ local women, who are either former offenders or those excluded from typical routes into the workplace for other reasons, such as language or cultural barriers.

This Making for Change unit will be located as a part of Poplar Works, a new development led by Poplar Harca launching in 2019, which is seeing the transformation of a disused brown field site in Poplar, east London into a Fashion and Makery Hub. Embedded within the local community, it will combine design, enterprise, tech, making and manufacturing to provide jobs, training and creative workspaces – helping to ensure that talent remains and grows in the area.

Over 30% of London’s fashion SME’s are based in east London.

Tower Hamlets has the highest worklessness rate in London, at 7.7%, while Newham has the fourth highest rate of unemployment in London.

36% of working residents are classified as ‘low paid’ – the highest percentage in London.

Social Mobility Commission State of the Nation report of March 2017, Alan Milburn

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Visualisation of the new Poplar Works space, provided

by Adams Sutherland Ltd.

“The industry needs an initiative like this. There’s support for startups, but the problem is production.

There’s huge production potential, there’s a workforce, but rent increases are pricing it out.”

– Russell Shine, The Apparel Company

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

Fashion District

“We have an opportunity to drive change. In a decade the Fashion District will be creating more jobs for local people. Known throughout the industry as a place for teaching and learning skills across the sector – design, manufacturing, retail, marketing – and a great deal of business activity”

London College of Fashion, UAL

The Fashion District is a hub for fashion innovation in east London, which launched in September 2018. With a third of the capital’s fashion designers already based in the east, this collaborative strategy will help nurture fashion technology and manufacturing businesses, creating new opportunities and a lasting legacy.

– Dr Paul Brickell, London Legacy Development Corporation

In addition, Fashion District will provide workspace, a programme for business coaching, finance initiatives and innovation network, thereby reviving the area’s fashion heritage and strengthening London’s position as the global capital of fashion technology.

Fashion already supports more than 880,000 jobs across the UK. With the Fashion District that number will soar.

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LCF x Microsoft partnership Photography by Jason Purple

Shaping Lives Through Fashion

Heading East in 2022

London College of Fashion, UAL

Our forthcoming move to a single, purpose-built campus set within the Mayor’s new cultural and education district in east London will herald an exciting new future for LCF, prompting the College to consider everything it does, so that it may continue to thrive as a global leader in creative education, enterprise, research and social impact. In addition, the move to a single site will provide even more opportunity to collaborate and to continue working alongside local, national and international partners.

“Great cities are defined by their ambition as much as their achievements – East Bank is the most ambitious new project of its kind for decades.”

– Sadiq Khan, The Mayor of London

“What we do here is much more than designing clothes. Our work is based on over a century of development and we drive change across an ever evolving global industry. By bringing together our varied disciplines and facilities, this new site, quite literally, gives us space to explore the possibilities of what fashion will become over the next hundred years. As a world leading educator for such a specialist subject, that is what we need to do now.”

– Professor Frances Corner

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Image courtesy of Allies and Morrison

You can be part of our future vision and support the next generation of creative talent. Get in touch:

arts.ac.uk/fashion

Lee Rodwell

T +44 (0)20 7514 6445 E l.rodwell@arts.ac.uk

Instagram @lcflondon_ Facebook @LCFOfficial Twitter @LCFLondon

London College of Fashion, UAL