FASHION: CULTURE & INDUSTRY

ArtCenter College of Design and Chapman University

This course provides a review of fashion as a cultural industry, examining the production systems and commercial institutions that comprise the contemporary global fashion industry. Students will learn about fashion through scholarly writing, magazine articles, podcasts and documentaries. This course aims to introduce students to different perspectives on fashion, from a wide scope of media sources. Students will work on a research project analyzing a particular aspect of fashion, synthesizing primary sources and scholarly perspectives. The topic of the research project should be the choice of the student and should focus on examining an existing component of the fashion system - a person, form of fashion media, institution, company, or practice.  

SUSTAINABLE FASHION

ArtCenter College of Design and Chapman University

This course will study sustainable fashion through a holistic approach that considers the past, present, and future of clothing consumption. The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions and 20% of global wastewater. We will explore how designers, organizations, and movements are responding to issues of worker exploitation and environmental pollution. We will examine methods of sustainable production, the role of policy in the fight for change, and the discourse surrounding “sustainability” in the fashion industry. We will explore how the current fashion system was shaped by the radical transformation of clothing consumption in the twentieth century and how innovations in the twenty-first century are leading towards a sustainable future.

INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES

Chapman University

This introductory course outlines the core debates in 21st century related to culture, media and creative industries as they inform our ideas and relationships regarding identity and technology. Students are introduced to the foundational methods of media and cultural analysis and critical inquiry.

FASHION, FIBER, AND MATERIALS STUDIO: CRITICAL DESIGN

California State University, Los Angeles

Advanced studio with a critical theory approach to design; implementing design fiction and speculative design to challenge the assumptions and concepts of the role of wearable objects in everyday life.

BODY, APPEARANCE AND ADORNMENT (Online Course)

California State University, Los Angeles

Modern to contemporary exploration of humanities performative expression of body, dress, and adornment through the lens of race, gender expression, identity politics, and economics. 

This course explores the performance of identity through dress within a contemporary global context and in relation to gender, race, and class. How can practices of dress embody critical thought and ideas? The class examines the relationship of style and identity through the following units: Contextualizing Dress as Embodied Practice, Fashioning Identity, Style as Resistance, and Body, Appearance and Adornment in Critical Practice. Students will examine their own personal dress narratives and will analyze the work of a contemporary artist who incorporates identity as a key part of their work.

HISTORIC SURVEY OF FASHION, FIBER AND MATERIALS (Online Course)

California State University, Los Angeles

An ancient to modern historic survey course exploring fiber, textiles and dress in the context of art, design and craft movements.

  • Sustainable Fashion

    DTLA Garment District Tour, Field Trip: Garment Worker Center

    Students went on a guided tour of the Los Angeles Fashion District after watching a presentation at the Garment Worker Center.

  • Sustainable Fashion

    Community Clothing Swap

    Our class hosts a free clothing swap for the ArtCenter community in the Sewing Lab. Students practice how to organize a clothing swap and demonstrate a circular economy.

  • Fashion: Culture & Industry

    Visit from Aza Ziegler, Designer of Calle Del Mar

    Aza’s visit was a guest for “Material of Fashion,” a week that provides an overview of textiles, fabrics, fibers, and the fashion design process

  • Fashion: Culture & Industry

    Button-Up Shirt ReDesign Project by Hanna Borges

    Students demonstrate an understanding of fashion design by altering a pre-existing garment in both form and surface. 

  • Body, Appearance and Adornment

    “Raíces de Moda” by Vastie Castellanos, Family Threads Collage

    In this project, students explore the relationship between dress, context and identity by researching their own personal dress narratives. Each collage includes at least one family photo and an object that they feel is associated with their identity.

  • Performing Style and Identity

    Lecture by Dr. Minjee Kim, Reinterpreting Traditional Korean Dress

    Dr. Kim visited class to present about the evolution of hanbok style. This lecture was a part of Unit 2: Fashioning Identity.