Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Fashion often looks towards marginalized communities for inspiration, using exotic historical tropes for financial gain. However, there is a concerted effort within the fashion industry to re-evaluate this position and make positive steps toward equality. black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) voices are being heard, with key industry members taking steps toward a more diverse workforce at executive level to educate and impact fashion content and production processes. So how can the fashion educator take action toward inclusivity and diversity to initiate progressive change?

Student cohorts noted that aspects of existing educational systems render students as other,
and voiceless. This paper takes a position of responding through pedagogic practice in working toward an inclusive curriculum with students operating as active participants. New strategies encouraged students to engage in and challenge curriculum design, resulting in positive outcomes. Student commentary noted insightful and bespoke teaching and learning methods to de-colonize the curriculum, and to specifically respond to concerns on issues of diversity. The actions taken, and qualitative research methods utilized, re-evaluate existing pedagogic and industry practice in response to Student Union requests and sector-wide policy in promoting equality. Academics and students provided meaningful examples to learn from, and greater collective awareness and knowledge is gained. By building capability through intercultural competencies an exciting paradigm shift is taking place.

This research project was conducted in the women’s jail 6, Tihar Complex, as a planned intervention for a need-based program for skill development. A fashion education program was identified and implemented over a period of six months with certain basic modules in Indian wear. India has 141 central prisons with capacity of 200,000 inmates. Major reasons for committing crime include illiteracy, lack of appropriate skills to earn a livelihood, deprived backgrounds, physical and sexual abuse, and alcohol and drug dependence. Therefore, an initiative was undertaken to establish a Fashion and Textiles Training Centre in women’s central Jail 6 in Tihar, Asia’s biggest prison complex, in February 2017. The program was
designed and implemented with several planned outcomes: economic and social empowerment, which would inculcate feelings of self-worth and self-esteem, rehabilitation in society, and reducing the chance of returning to a life of crime post-release.

The present paper focuses on (a) Setting up infrastructure, design of course curriculum and
assessment, mentoring and counseling of inmates undergoing training, industry projects, and presentations in the form of fashion shows; (b) Fashion education as a means of correctional behavior, and the challenges and issues faced during training in prisons; (c) Case studies highlighting the impact of training, including increased income, measurable skill enhancement, reduction in stress levels, revival of hope in inmates, a holistic life within and outside prison, and reduction in return cases; (d) Impact of fashion education on other beneficiaries.

More than 270,000 Indian cotton farmers have committed suicide since 1995, and India’s agricultural sector, which directly or indirectly employs more than 70 million Indians, faces severe crises in terms of air, water, and soil degradation, pervasive chemical-led farming, debts, and lack of a profitable and sustainable livelihood system. In addition, India is losing traditional knowledge of farming and other craftsmanship, which was more nature- and community-friendly. This has led to a loss of community identity, severe malnutrition, and loss of livelihood, leading to displacement of indigenous people. Despite governmental support, the situation has not changed significantly.

In this paper, we analyzed design and social interventions in the Indian farming sector via permaculture, which mimics relationships found in natural ecology. This design approach has a very successful history of solving the food crisis in different ecosystems across the world. Our study looks at Indian designers engaged in farming cotton and food crops in an attempt to contribute to design literature through the application of permaculture.

We measure successes in terms of three ethical parameters: care for the earth, care for the
people, and return of surplus to the ecosystem. Our observational variables are design and social interventions in three Odisha communities, through interviews with designers, experts, and farmers.

We applied conceptual and relational content analysis to understand commonalities among
the selected design processes and social interventions that led to better livelihoods and income for the farmers. The findings may help replicate, modify and build other thriving farming communities in India and other countries, and also invite further research in permaculture design to address social issues and influence design research and education.

As a creative practice and production process, fashion design follows a mainly traditional perspective of a binary gendered body. Likewise, the education sector catering to this industry takes a similar approach, establishing programs that offer specializations in womenswear and menswear.

This research advocates for a more diverse and accessible understanding of gender, sizing,
and prerequisite notions of dress codes in undergraduate education for fashion. This approach is addressing a shift of attention to a more heterogeneous perspective of the body in relation to new questions of body politics, ethics, social justice, and trans-species communications. Based on this premise, this paper proposes a new perspective on how curriculum could be structured for fashion design education.

This structure has been evaluated based on data gathered over a two-year period, with focus on the second and third level of study in a Bachelors in Fashion Design and Textiles Program in Singapore. Findings from this research aim to prove that this paradigm shift for fashion design education is applicable and allows an expanded area for experimentation and play for students while opening up new horizons for criticality and reflection about what gender represents for society and culture today and in the future.

Expanding critical scholarship on fashion, gender, and identity, this study aims to explore how dress and style can be used in a strategy of resistance through analyzing Chinese youths’ narratives about their appearance, personal style, gender, culture, and self. The study mainly draws on the philosophical ideas of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to engage with a research agenda, which disrupts the transcendent logic and challenges binarism and essentialism as the guiding approach to fashion studies. Inspired by Deleuze and Guatarri’s concepts of rhizomatic thought and becoming, this exploration works within the realm of post-qualitative research. The study develops its argument through tracing two lines of creative “becoming” or lines of flight emerging from the “molecular mapping,” pointing to the moments of rupture and deterritorialization: gender and style; the ethics of consumption and style. The findings demonstrate the subversive potential in dress which challenges normalcy and regularity as well as consumerism, highlighting the complexity, multiplicity, and heterogeneity of gender, fashion, and subjectivity. It advocates the creation of more inclusive spaces and potential socially just territories through fashion and clothing.