Fashion Activism and Design for Social Change – The Making for Change: Waltham Forest Project

This chapter explores ways in which fashion activism, design and making can be used to catalyse positive social change and build long-term legacies within communities. To exemplify this, the author reflects on the Making for Change: Waltham Forest project which was developed in partnership between a Higher Education Institution and a local government department in London to address socio-economic issues, such as deprived youth, skills shortage, and high employment rates. Adopting a participatory action research methodology, the designer activated a series of research residencies with heritage fashion manufacturing businesses, which resulted in the creation of a number of artefacts or ‘provocations’ for social change. As an outcome, this fashion activism project contributed to raising people’s awareness of sustainability issues, developing making skills, opening up career pathways, fostering community engagement, and building cross-sector partnerships. Furthermore, while enabling change in others, the design researcher leading the project undertook a process of change in himself and in his own way of engaging with materials and making processes within a social context. In the conclusions of the chapter, the author discusses the challenges experienced throughout this fashion activism project, and outlines recommendations for future work.

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