Decentring fashion – Participatory practices for shifting narratives and regenerating cultures

Against the backdrop of the 'Decolonising Fashion and Textiles' project, key themes have emerged from the research observations and public discussions corroborated through the‘Shifting Narratives’symposium we held at the London College of Fashion, UAL, in January 2024. These themes capture the multifarious meanings attributed to cultural sustainability and community resilience, which help frame the parameters of fashion in this context and to which the authors of the papers published in this Special Issue have responded. The themes presented here relate to cultural sustainability and community resilience and are defined more specifically in the context they resonate with. This Special Issue is organised by correlating papers to these themes.The discussion on decoloniality foregrounded in this Special Issue aims to invert power in how knowledge is presented. In discussing the themes below, we highlight the voices of the participants and MA students from the London College of Fashion, UAL, who were involved in a collaborative project brief aligned with our research. We have chosen to use direct quotes from the participants and others involved in the project to give voice to their concerns and the space they deserve, which they are often denied.

While findings from our research point towards the invaluable lived experience of refugees and what it truly means to be human, we hope that the papers included in this Special Issue will inspire you – the reader – with multiple ways in which design and fashion can be used to challenge perceptions and narratives around marginalised groups and to engage in participatory and decolonised processes aimed at fostering cultural sustainability and community resilience. We would like to invite you to join us on a collaborative journey to develop practices of resistance to the hostile environment in which we live, nurturing ethics of care and repair and contributing towards unlocking people’s freedom to express their shifting identities and their abilities to access resources, representation and power – in and through fashion.

• https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/deco...