The Fashion + Sustainability Paradox: Is Education a Way Forward?

Glover, Catherine (2022) The Fashion + Sustainability Paradox: Is Education a Way Forward? In: Design Education in the Anthropocene. Design Research for Change . Routledge, London. (In Press)

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Abstract

This chapter presents how a University collaborative 'live' project can function to prompt students to question the paradox of fashion and sustainability. The project was undertaken by level 5 fashion communication students at Northumbria University between January–May 2019, run in partnership with Fashion Revolution, a non-profit social enterprise and global movement. The collaborative project challenged students to become 'pro-fashion protestors' and to design an issues-based strategic PR campaign to provoke Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers to question their understanding of the paradox of sustainability + fashion. This chapter shares my own intent, pedagogic approach and module content with the aim to show how students can be challenged through a 'call-to-action' project to examine their own consumer behaviour and mindset, and then to use this knowledge to influence others. I explore the possibility that strategically building a growth mindset (Dweck 2009) into the educational scaffolding is paramount when supporting students in becoming reflexive, theoretical and critical practitioners and that a dialogic, constructivist environment is critical to mindset change, particularly in response to a challenging paradox such as fashion + sustainability.

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