Can international alliances influence sustainable fashion practices: a UK/Bangladesh experience?

The presentation will outline current work that has been undertaken as part of a three-year British Council funded Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE) project that brings together international collaboration between London College of Fashion (LCF), the BGMEA Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT) in Dhaka and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). As retailers are increasingly under pressure to ensure that ethical and environmental standards run all the way through the supply chain, there is a need for research projects to explore best practice and ways forward to improve the competitiveness of the Bangladesh manufacturing sector to add value in this area.

The long-term goal of the partnership is to create joint industrial and academic research projects that will champion best practice in the drive for sustainability between the UK and Bangladesh. In addition, the complimentary knowledge gained through these activities will foster new businesses and curriculum models, and support the drive to better industrial practices and policies. These synergies will form and shape an entrepreneurial agenda to support a new generation of talent that will have sustainable values as core business philosophy.

The project will help solving some of the problems outlined above and provide new opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas and actions. Opportunities for this project include:

• To understand of the concepts of ecological, social and cultural issues in fashion to inform new curriculum development and pedagogy for fashion courses.

• To explore the current climate in the fashion industry for more sustainable brands in Bangladesh and UK and identify market synergies.

• To examine case studies of eco-fashion leaders and their knowledge, skills and values that support eco-design as central to the product development processes and practices.

• To develop international knowledge transfer sharing of eco-friendly local networks, agencies and companies that could be used to showcase new eco-friendly labels.