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Fashion Values: Cultures

Examine the culture of the global fashion industry and explore stories and solutions that drive sustainability and diversity with this online course from the London College of Fashion.

Duration

4 weeks

Weekly study

3 hours

100% online

How it works

Unlimited subscription

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Reimagine fashion as a powerful medium to explore and amplify cultures.

On this four-week course from London College of Fashion, you’ll learn how to find and tell stories of the ingenuity and creativity of fashion in its many cultural forms.

You’ll hear from a range of global experts and be introduced to an exploration of style-fashion-dress – a system of concepts in the study of fashion first coined by writer and curator Carol Tulloch. You will look at cultural practices that nurture a pluralistic perspective, where fashion has many roles and meanings in everyday lives. Style-fashion-dress will help you to think about fashion’s relationship with sustainability and the potential for storytelling to celebrate fashion’s diversity and think beyond dominant unsustainable, consumption-led fashion models.

You’ll also use elements of design thinking to craft world-relevant skills to understand the big challenges facing the fashion system in a cultural context.

By the end of the course you’ll be able to use storytelling to contribute to equitable, inclusive and diverse cultures in and through fashion. The course acts as a foundation for you to develop visions for the future of fashion that put planetary and human health and wellbeing first, reflecting the diversity of fashion cultures that can and do exist.

Respond to sustainability challenges with London College of Fashion

This course is led by fashion and sustainability experts from Centre for Sustainable Fashion and shares knowledge from world-leading fashion practitioners and researchers.

With over 90,000 learners on our FutureLearn courses to date, you’ll gain valuable insights from fellow fashion and sustainability changemakers worldwide.

Week 1
Style
- Introductions
  Welcome to the course! This set of steps will give you an idea of how the course works and what you will cover over the next four weeks.
- Love Fashion, Hate Fashion
  In this section we will get acquainted with the topics covered throughout the course.
- Introducing Style-Fashion-Dress
  In this section we are introduced to the style-fashion-dress concept, the distinction between each of these terms and their relationship to each other.
- Style
  In this section we will explore and celebrate how we express ourselves through style.
- Design Thinking
  In this section we will be introduced to the Design Thinking Challenge. We will use the framing of fashion and cultures to craft world-relevant skills to help us understand the big challenges facing the fashion system.
- Summing Up and Looking to Next Week
  Reflect on what you have learned so far in Fashion Values: Cultures.
Week 2
Dress
- Introductions
  This week we will explore the concept of dress in more detail.
- The Body and Dress
  In this section we will consider the clothes we use to adorn ourselves and the relationship between dress and our bodies.
- Materiality of Clothes
  In this section we will reflect on how our clothes are constructed, the materials they are made of and how we can care for these clothes.
- Design Thinking
  In this section we will look more closely at storytelling. This will include our intentions in relation to stories, as well as the psychology of story.
- Summing Up and Looking to Next Week
  Reflect on what you have learned so far in Fashion Values: Cultures.
Week 3
Fashion
- Introductions
  This week we will focus on the concept of fashion. The intention is not to attempt to define fashion, but to expand our thinking about what fashion is and can be.
- Fashion as Change
  In this section we will be thinking of fashion as change, to give us a framework to explore how and why certain clothes or styles become fashionable in different times and places.
- Power Relations and Fashion
  In this set of steps we will consider power relations that create ideas of fashion, acknowledge that style and dress all over the world change, and recognise that multiple influences transform fashion.
- Design Thinking
  In this section we will stimulate our thinking so that we can be creative in our response to the sustainability challenges presented by fashion, in and through storytelling.
- Summing Up and Looking to Next Week
  Reflect on what you have learned so far in Fashion Values: Cultures.
Week 4
Stories that contribute to equitable, inclusive and diverse cultures in and through fashion
- Introductions
  Welcome to week 4!
- Revisiting Style-Fashion-Dress
  We will begin by revisiting and reflecting on Carol Tulloch's style-fashion-dress conceptual idea. The use of this model allows us to consider the multiplicity of cultures and clothing.
- Design Thinking
  This week is about pulling together the stories and storytelling skills we have been developing through the course. These are important practices that we can develop to enable the change that we want to see in and through fashion.
- End of Course
  Congratulations! You have made it to the end of Fashion Values: Cultures.