Introductory description

The global fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries on the planet, impacting communities and their environments at all stages of the production and use of clothing and associated products. This module aims to explore our relationship with fashion in its broadest sense, and to evaluate contemporary approaches to redressing the impact of the industry, labour and supply-chain and the behaviour and expectations of consumers. Students will explore, map and analyze the sustainability of contemporary projects and enterprises that are working in this field, using an evaluative framework that they will develop. This analysis will be supported by considering the scope of what we think of as fashion, the histories and current circumstances of the industry in a global context and its social and cultural functions.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1 Exploring the scope of fashion, terms and ideas.
Week 2 Considering the emergence of fashion.
Week 3 Global fashion, alternative models and ideas.
Week 4 The fast fashion industry and its systems.
Week 5 Material production (textiles, materials, dyes).
Week 6 Manufacture (the making of garments, products).
Week 7 Selling (transport and retail).
Week 8 Wearing (the use of garments).
Week 9 Discarding (garments as refuse).
Week 10 Mapping the prospective futures of sustainable fashion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate critical and creative thinking about the role of fashion in society.
• Effectively assess and analyse the interplay of fashion design within a multidisciplinary context.
• Develop research strategies and practices that enable and ensure informed analysis of the global fashion industry in its broadest sense.
• Enhance and hone skills in textual, visual and verbal communication.
• Demonstrate a participatory approach and positive attitude to peer-to-peer learning throughout the module.

Indicative reading list

Brooks, Andrew, et al. “Fashion, Sustainability, and the Anthropocene.” Utopian Studies, vol. 28, no. 3, 2017, pp. 482–504., https://doi.org/10.5325/utopianstudies.28.3.0482. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.
Campos Franco, Jacqueline, et al. “Luxury Fashion and Sustainability: Looking Good Together.” IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc, vol. 41, no. 4, 2020, pp. 55–61., https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-05-2019-0089. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.
Eicher, Joanne B., and Doran H. Ross. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion Volumes 1-10. Oxford: Berg, 2010.
Eicher, Joanne B., and Sandra Lee Evenson. The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society. New York: Fairchild books, 2014.
Fletcher, Kate, and Lynda Grose. Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change. Laurence King Publishing, 2012.
Fletcher, Kate, and Mathilda Tham. Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion. Routledge, 2015.
Gardetti, Miguel Ángel, and Ana Laura Torres. Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles: Values, Design, Production and Consumption. Greenleaf Publishing, 2013, https://go.exlibris.link/pxJSm3D9, Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.
Gardetti, Miguel Ángel, and Ana Laura Torres. Textiles, Fashion and Sustainability. Issue 45, Spring 2012, Greenleaf Publishing, 2012.
Grose, Lynda. “Lynda Grose Keynote - Fashion and Sustainability: Where We Are and Where We Need To Be.” Fashion Practice, vol. 11, no. 3, 2019, pp. 291–301., https://doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2019.1662988. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.
Henninger, Claudia E., et al. Sustainability in Fashion: a Cradle to Upcycle Approach. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Muthu, Subramanian Senthilkannan, and Miguel Ángel Gardetti. Sustainability in the Textile and Apparel Industries: Consumerism and Fashion Sustainability. Springer, 2020.
Muthu, Subramanian Senthilkannan. Textiles and Clothing Sustainability: Sustainable Fashion and Consumption. Springer, 2016.
Rienda, Laura, et al. Firms in the Fashion Industry: Sustainability, Luxury and Communication in an International Context. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Research will be required for all three assignments (written assignment, in class presentation and conference paper). This will definitely involve secondary academic and journalistic research and may also include primary research by way of archives or interviews/correspondence). In order to embrace the global contexts of fashion, students may be exploring under-researched materials and therefore feel the need to approach fashion practitioners/businesses for primary information (once ethical approval has been awarded).

Interdisciplinary

The fashion system is a massive industry that involves design, manufacture, chemistry, economics, ethics, philosophy, sociology, politics, environmental politics, industrial relations, ecology, business and more. As such materials about fashion come from a diverse set of disciplinary perspectives. The aim of the module is to address the impact of the fashion industry on the human, animal and physical environment and to offer practical analysis and assessment of current practice in order to generate proposals about future fashion and dress practice. Students will bring their own experiences as makers, wearers, consumers and will have an active role in choosing their particular focus. This might address all manner of aspects in the fashion system, from employee rights to animal husbandry and dye stuffs and will therefore represent a huge range of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary standpoints.

International

The fashion system is global not just through manufacture which is carried out globally, but because the production and consumption of apparel and associated products are universal activities and needs. The tensions between local and global ideas and methods of production, and the very nature of what fashion, dress, apparel, textile, and associated products are, is a potent area for reexamining the fast fashion system that is largely dominated by the Global North. This will be core to the module.

Subject specific skills

Analytical skills relating to global fashion systems of production, dissemination, consumption and disposal.

Transferable skills

Communication skills: textual, visual and verbal (written work, in class presentation and poster presentation)
Research skills (see below)
Appreciation of ethical processes (see below)
Analytical skills in working with primary and secondary research materials
Professional communication skills, correspondence and personal representation (correspondence with business, poster presentation and in class presentation)