Activist Fashion

Introduction

In the world of fashion, “one day you’re in, and the next, you’re out!”* This applies not only to designers, but speaks to the very nature of fast fashion. Clothing flies through our wardrobes at an alarming rate, contributing significantly to the environmental problems facing our planet. According to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, the fashion industry is responsible for: 8-10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, 20% of industrial wastewater pollution worldwide, and $500 billion of lost value each year due to clothing underutilisation and lack of recycling.

The statistics are scary, but what we wear remains a key mode of self expression. Provocative, unexpected, and cutting edge, fashion also has the capacity to be mission driven and declarative in addition to being on trend and aesthetically focused. Mainstream brands are just beginning to scratch the surface of addressing sustainability through clothing.

In this Discovery Course, we will look to the louder, uninhibited, and controversial medium of Street Art as inspiration for wearables that speak to the issues of sustainability in fashion. Using research methods including sketching, collage, and mark making, you will create wearable concepts that express your own personal narrative on fashion and sustainability. To realise your ideas we will also look at basic sewing and fashion techniques which are easy to master and can be taken in your own creative direction. You will finish the course with a robust fashion sketchbook that shows a detailed journey of your creative process. Design, style and make it!

*thanks, Heidi Klum

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

Fashion