GD220-15 Fashion and Sustainable Development
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
To investigate the global phenomena of fashion in its broadest sense.
To analyse the impact of fashion on social and environmental worlds.
To assess potential solutions to the negative impacts of fashion on social and environmental worlds.
To propose policies and other solutions to the impact of fashion on social and environmental worlds.
To understand the relationship between creative practice, economy and sustainable development.
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)
Study time
| Type | Required | Optional |
|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) | |
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 2 hours (12%) | |
| Tutorials | 2 sessions of 15 minutes (0%) | 1 session of 15 minutes |
| Other activity | 7 hours (5%) | |
| Private study | 60 hours 30 minutes (40%) | |
| Assessment | 55 hours (37%) | |
| Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
This would result in 11 and a half hours per week for:
Reading/viewing preparatory material
Reading additional material according to own interests
Contributing to the group presentation research and preparation
Developing written work and conference/exhibition/publication paper
Other activity description
A poster conference/exhibition. The time allocated includes the construction of the exhibition and does not all have to happen at the same time depending on site. Time in which the actual conference presentation activity is carried out can only be estimated depending on student numbers.
Costs
| Category | Description | Funded by | Cost to student |
|---|---|---|---|
| Books and learning materials |
The students may incur costs to research although the University will endeavour to supply as much reading material as possible. |
Student | |
| Field trips, placements and study abroad |
There may be travel costs to a conference venue. |
Department | £0.00 |
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| Seminar Workshop | 25% | 10 hours | No |
|
This workshop will contribute to the class's understanding of the subject in question for that week. It would be done as a group and the group would be expected to provide virtual/actual learning materials for the class (in consultation with the tutor) and frame a particular problem or practice that they believe central to the subject. Support will be provided for students from the start of the module in engaging with this task. |
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Reassessment component |
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| Seminar Presentation | Yes (extension) | ||
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This presentation would provide an overview of the original allocated subject matter. |
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Assessment component |
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| Written Assessment | 50% | 30 hours | Yes (extension) |
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This is a critical analysis of one personally chosen aspect of the fashion industry that explores one product or business in terms of its sustainable credentials. This should be a detailed analysis mapping the impact of the product and should be different from the subject matter delivered in the presentation. |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Poster Presentation | 25% | 15 hours | Yes (extension) |
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This poster/exhibit and its presentation develops a succinct method of communicating the main points of the student's own Written Assessment. |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Feedback on assessment
The group seminar workshop will be discussed in class and the class members and staff will provide informal feedback during the teaching session. This will also be reflected on in later written feedback. The Written Assignment will be given formal feedback that is written and this will be supplemented by an optional feed-forward tutorial after the module, depending on timing and numbers. The Poster Presentation will have informal feedback during the event and also formal written feedback which will also be supplemented by the same optional feed-forward tutorial after the module.
Reassessment feedback will be provided verbally by staff members and in writing as a follow up.
There is currently no information about the courses for which this module is core or optional.