The FashionSEEDS (Fashion Societal, Economic & Environmental Design-led Sustainability) project is a European collaborative network of fashion universities, using radical design-led approaches. FashionSEEDS will include course content, methodologies, learning environments, teaching materials, and sector engagement. FashionSEEDS envisages a fashion education system that nurtures graduates with the skills, capabilities, and knowledge of fashion design for sustainability.
FashionSEEDS
FashionSEEDS, explores what a transformed education system in Fashion Design for Sustainability could look like. The project aims to develop a holistic framework to embed sustainability into higher education fashion design.
Rationale
We live in unprecedented times where prosperity relies upon connecting societal economic and environmental agendas. Whilst fashion is a global industry providing livelihoods to 50+ million people and generating over €2.4 trillion each year, its practices are built on systems that are causing severe environmental and social damage.
The economic sustainability of the industry is also at risk, as fashion design practices do not take account of the diminishing resources upon which the industry relies. The fashion industry requires new models of education and environments for innovation, revised course contents, assessment methods and the means for tutors to develop new knowledge and practices.
The FashionSEEDS strategic partners share an imperative commitment to prove design-led fashion sustainability education leveraging on their world leadership in fashion education. The project aims to develop a holistic framework for a design-led approach for fashion sustainability education, and a construct of related graduate skills & capabilities. A learning resource repository and sustainability teaching materials will enable educators to adapt and apply the framework to a range of Higher Education Institutions (HEI).
Project Outputs
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A Research Benchmarking Report: consortium HEIs integrate innovative best practices to design-led sustainability education
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The Framework Document: increased quality of fashion BA/MA programmes at partner HEIs, better aligned with the sector skills needs and the employment prospects of the global fashion industry
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An online platform for fashion educators: new open educational resources and learning materials for fashion-sustainability education – visit the platform.
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Sustainability Teaching Materials: more student-centred, participatory and hands-on training approaches and pedagogies to better support the development of fashion-led sustainability education to empower teachers with the confidence to teach fashion sustainability
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Promoting internationalisation, recognition and mobility in line with Bologna principles
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Provide professional development opportunities and tools for increased capacity and professionalism of academics, trainers, tutors and mentors relating to fashion sustainability
Team and Partners
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EU funded Erasmus + Strategic Partnership €437,678 3-year project
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Coordinated by: Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UAL
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Partners: Politecnico di Milano (IT), Design School Kolding (DK), Estonian Academy of Arts (EE)
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UAL Project Team: Professor Dilys Williams, Nina Stevenson, Egle Juospaityte & Natasha Bonnelame
Project Objectives
In 2018, LCF welcomed the European FashionSEEDS partners, as the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) hosted the kick-off meeting of the EU funded FashionSEEDS project.
The meeting took place just after ‘What’s Going On?’ the Global Fashion Conference, organised by CSF, where a number of the partners presented at breakout sessions.
15 academics, tutors and industry representatives met to start the 3-year partnership and discussed reference points, key methodologies and started on the first output, a benchmarking report.
Outputs and Impacts
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Design for Sustainability Education and Research Benchmarking report
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Framework for design-led sustainability education
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Digital Learning Resource Repository
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Sustainability Teaching Toolkit
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Future Skills Foresight Report
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Policy Recommendations
Project Team
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Egle Juospaityte, Project Manager, UAL
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Dilys Williams, Director, Centre for Sustainable Fashion
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Nina Stevenson, Education for Sustainability Leader, Centre for Sustainable Fashion
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Natasha Bonnelame, Digital Learning Producer, London College of Fashion
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Julia Crew, Course Leader, MA Fashion Futures, London College of Fashion
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Zoe Norton, Centre Coordinator, Centre for Sustainable Fashion
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Naomi Bulliard, Head of Strategy, Centre for Sustainable Fashion