Radical Pedagogies: Right Here, Right Now!

Fashion education is caught in a moment of intense transformation. While the fashion industry continues along a reckless path of social and environmental destruction, a new generation of students are activating our educational institutions, demanding real and radical change. Meanwhile, the theoretical field of Fashion Studies has rapidly taken a central position in imagining a new vision of fashion in a global context, re-writing problematic histories, challenging Eurocentric dominance and dismantling prevailing ideologies. This article, in the form of a manifesto for educators, calls for a return to the origins of fashion scholarship within the discipline of British Cultural Studies. It asks what we might learn from Cultural Studies’ intersection with Critical Pedagogy as a way to “do” fashion politics within our classrooms. By drawing on initiatives pioneered by the Cultural and Historical Studies Department at London College of Fashion, this manifesto explores how British Cultural Studies can be re-articulated for our current times, in order to forge new alliances between theory and practice, and enact radical action beyond the walls of our academic institutions.