Reality, Reciprocity, Resilience: Scoping a Decolonised Process of Designing for Cultural Sustainability with Refugee Communities

With the mass displacement of people on the rise, it is clear that we need to rethink and address the diverse needs and aspirations of refugee communities and find ways to honour their diverse cultures. Until now, the textile heritage of minorities has often been the object of cultural appropriation practices undertaken by fashion brands or has been systematically undervalued as ‘non-fashion’ produced by ‘the other’. As things stand, designers are often ‘parachuted’ into marginalised communities with the assumption that they can bring their knowledge and expertise to solve their problems. However, there is growing recognition of the need to ‘decolonise’ such dominant approaches. With this in mind, the Reality, Reciprocity, Resilience project aimed to investigate and value the lived experiences of refugees in relation to the themes of cultural sustainability and community resilience, to inform the future development of a framework for decolonised fashion design practice. To meet this objective, participatory practice research was undertaken with London-based refugees and asylum seekers. Following ethnographic research, the project team facilitated storytelling sessions and co-creation workshops that led to understanding the lived reality of refugees, mapping out ways to build resilience within the local community and collectively framing a vision for a sustainable future. As a result, the project contributed to amplifying the refugees’ voice and agency, re-examining research methods and advancing a cultural sustainability agenda within a fashion and textile industry context.