14
sustaInaBlE FashIon : a handBooK For Educators
Designers have a key role in creating more opportunities
for sustainable consumption and production. This collection
of essays and teaching activities for design related courses,
including garment technology and product development,
will inspire you with ideas you can use in your own studio.
For further ideas for teaching sustainable design, we
recommend the Teaching Guide for the Designer’s Atlas of
Sustainability by Ann Thorpe (see Teaching Materials section
below).
Fashioning an Ethical Industry displays examples of students’
work relating to sustainability on its website at http://
fashioninganethicalindustry.org/studentwork/. Your own
students may find inspiration in these pages. We would also
be very happy to receive images and information about
students’ work in your own university, college or school for
consideration for the website.
about the contributions in the design chapter
In her essay, on Teaching Empathy, Sue Thomas from Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, introduces
the importance of empathy in design for sustainability and
gives ideas for encouraging students’ empathy in the design
process. Thomas writes, “If we are to engage our students
in preparing themselves to work ethically in our industry, they
need to be able to personally and professionally empathise.”
Dr. Kate Fletcher from the London College of Fashion,
UK, describes the emerging idea of slow fashion in her
essay Slow Fashion. In this essay students are challenged
to consider the implications of fast economic speed on
workers and to appreciate the existence of other types
of speed on fashion production and consumption. Dr.
Fletcher discusses how ‘slow is about a shift from quantity
to quality. In melding the “slow movement’s ideas with the
global clothing industry, we build a new vision for fashion in
the era of sustainability: where pleasure and fashion is linked
with awareness and responsibility.” The essay is provided as
background reading for students and educators, and links
directly with Dr. Fletcher’s second contribution, Designing
Slow Fashion.In the tasks suggested in Designing Slow Fashion, Dr. Kate
Fletcher encourages students to explore a range of themes
and rhythms present in fashion and through this to build
insight and understanding about the impact of today’s
predominant “fast” fashion speed. Using this understanding,
students can begin to develop design outcomes relating to
speeds other than just fast economic speeds.In her essay, The Elephant in the room: Contextualising
the Ethical within Fashion Excellence, Mo Tomaney,
Central St. Martins and UCA, UK, challenges us to explore
the relationship between teaching about the social and
environmental impact of the fashion industry and the
teaching of creative excellence in fashion design courses.Toni Hicks, from the University of Brighton in the UK,
describes the results of teaming up with members of the
World Fair Trade Organisation (IFAT) in Collaborating
with Fair Trade Producers: Design and Trends. Students
produced designs based on an understanding of producers
in the alpaca-producing regions of Latin America and
workshops held in the communities. Samples were
produced as a result of this mutual insight, and retailers
in the UK were involved. Students also participated in a
further project to produce a ‘trend newsletter’ featuring